Bringing down the historic sequence of Rafael Devers

There are slow departures, there are crises, and then there is all that Rafael Devers crosses.

The 28-year-old All-Star three times for Boston Red Sox has been one of the best baseball strikers since 2019, displaying three seasons of 30 counterparts, three seasons of 100 RBIs and a whole bunch of doubles.

His first five 2025 games were a nightmare. It is the equivalent at the start of the season to treat Babe Ruth at the New York Yankees. Johnny Pesky holding the ball. Bucky tooth. The balloon rolling through Bill Buckner’s legs. Aaron Boone. To name some Red Sox references. Here’s how these games took place for deserves:

Games 1: 0-for-4, three stick withdrawals
Game 2: 0-for-4, four stick withdrawals
Game 3: 0-for-4, three sticks to the stick, walk, rbi
Game 4: 0-for-4, two stick withdrawals, walking
Games 5: 0-for-3, three stick withdrawals, two walks

Along the way, Devers became the first player to get rid of 10 times in the first three games of a team season – and that’s not all.

He became the first player to get rid of 12 times in the first four games of a team. And, yes, with 15 withdrawals in the stick through five games, he broke the former 13 record, shared by Pat Burrell in 2001 and Byron Buxton in 2017. To return to the end of 2024, when Devers stretched 11 times in his last four games, he became the fourth player with several withdrawal withdrawals in nine consecutive games – and one of them was a launcher ( Rooke named Aaron in 2016 and Michael A. Taylor in 2021).

With delay in difficulty, the Red Sox also fell off the door, going 1-4 after a few high pre-season expectations, including a defeat of 8-5 against the Baltimore Orioles when opening at home on Monday. To be fair, that’s not all on a devers: Jarren Duran, Devers and Alex Bregman, the first three strikers of the alignment, are an 11 for 62 combined (.177) without circuits.

But there is a question that weighs the heaviest in the mind of Red Sox Nation at the moment: what is really going on with details?

It is easy to say that your head is just not in the right space. Devers made the headlines at the start of training in the spring after the Red Sox signed Bregman, saying that he did not want to move to DH and that “the third base is my position”. He stressed that when he signed his extension of $ 331 million in January 2023, the Office Front promised that he would be the third basic player in the team.

It was however when a different diet was in charge. Bregman, winner of Gold Glove in 2024, is the best defensive third goal player, so it makes sense to play it there and move devers – except that many players do not like DH. Some analysts are even built in a “DH penalty”, assuming that a player will strike worse than when he plays the field. While Devers finally gave in and said that he would do everything that would help the team, it was a difficult situation for a few weeks.

But maybe it’s something else. While Devers avoided surgery of this offseason, he spent him trying to rebuild the force in both shoulders after having treated pain and inflammation throughout 2024. He did not play the ground in training in the spring and had only 15 appearances on the plates. So maybe he’s still rusty – or the shoulders disturb him.

Indeed, the metrics of Statcast show that its average battle speed increased from 72.5 MPH in 2024 to 70.3 MPH so far in 2025 (and these are down 73.4 MPH in 2023). Its “rapid swing rate” increased from 34.2% in 2023 to 27.9% to 12.2%. Obviously, we are talking about an extremely small sample for this season, but it is clear that Devers does not generate the speed of the bat that we are used to seeing him.

This, however, does not explain the complete incapacity to contact. The manager of the Red Sox, Alex Cora, told journalists after the series in Texas that Devers had made changes with his placement on the foot – but had trouble catching up with the fast balls. After Monday’s match, Devers told journalists (via his interpreter): “Obviously, this is not a position that I have made in the past. So I need to get used to it. But I feel good, I feel good.”

What leads to this question: Does this bad historical start mean something? Since the start of the DH in 1973, three DHS have started the season with a longer success sequence than brand 0 for 19 of the Deves, so let’s go for how the rest of their seasons took place:

• Don Baylor with the 1982 Angels (0 for 20). Baylor ended up with a season typical enough for him: .263 / .329 / .424, 24 circuits.

• Evan Gattis des Astros 2015 (0 for 23). Gattis struck .246 with 27 circuits – not as well as he struck in 2014 or 2016, but in accordance with his career numbers.

• Curtis Terry with the Rangers in 2021 (0 for 20). Terry was a recruit that ended up playing only 13 games in the majors.

By widening beyond the DH position, I searched the baseball reference for the players of the Joker era (since 1995) which started a season without success in at least 20 appearances of plates in five games. This gave us a list of … only seven players, including Evan Carter (0 for 22) and Anthony Rendon (0 for 20) last season. The two ended up with seasons in the grip of injuries. The list also includes the temple of renown Craig Biggio, which was 0 for 24 for the Houston Astros in 1995. It was fine: it struck. 302 / .406 / .483 this season, did the stars team and finished 10th in the MVP vote. JD Drew started 0 for 25 to five games with Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005; He struck .286 / .412 / .520, although an injury limited him to 72 games.

But none of these strikers struck almost as often as it is.

So let’s focus on stick withdrawals and widen our research to most stick withdrawals during the first 15 games of a season. Given its already astronomical total, Devers is likely to rank high on such a list even if it begins to establish more contact. Seventeen players withdrew at least 25 times in 15 games, surmounted by Yoan Moncada and Miguel Sano with 29, both in 2018. Unsurprisingly, all these seasons have come since 2006 and 12 since 2018.

How did this group occur?

They were actually ok, with an average of 0.767 OPS and 20 circuits. The best in the group was Matt Olson in 2023, which withdrew 25 times in 15 games, but also struck well with a line .317 / .423 / .650. He then struck 53 circuits. The next best season belongs to Giancarlo Stanton in 2018, his first with the Yankees. He finished with 38 circuits and an Ops from .852 – but it was a great drop in his MVP season in 2017, when he crushed 59 circuits. Its withdrawal rate went from 23.6% in 2017 to 29.9% – and it has never been so good.

Indeed, it is the disturbing thing for Devers: of the 16 players who played the previous season (Trevor Story was a recruit in 2016 when he withdrew 25 times in 15 games, although with eight circuits), 13 had a higher ops the previous season, many significantly.

As Cora supported on Monday, it is a small sample size. “You know, this happens in July or August, we will not even talk about it,” he said.

It doesn’t really seem quite. A crisis, even a five -game crisis, with This Many stick withdrawals would absolutely be a subject of discussion. However, these are all the Red Sox and Devers must continue at the moment: these are just a few games, nothing of a big game will repair. They just hope that it will happen soon.