Another surprising stat about SF Giants slugger Rafael Devers

By his standards, Rafael Devers is having a down year at the plate. Is Oracle Park to blame for the SF Giants slugger’s modest decline?

Devers is slashing .246/.324/.486 (122 wRC+) with 29 home runs, 76 RBI, and 74 runs in 564 plate appearances. This includes a 10.5 percent walk rate, 25.7 percent strikeout rate, and .240 ISO. Those are career-year numbers for most hitters, but not for Devers, who has established himself as one of the best hitters over the past decade.

The most notable decline has been in his batting average. He has a .246 batting average, compared to a career .273 mark. This has led to a decrease in his on-base percentage, which he has augmented with a healthy walk rate.

Devers got off to a brutal start, posting a .537 OPS in 129 plate appearances through the first month of the year. Since then, he has been one of the best hitters in baseball, recording an .896 OPS in 435 plate appearances.

Oracle Park has not weighed down the offensive production for SF Giants slugger

That brutal start has hampered Devers’ numbers more than anything else, but has Oracle Park played a factor? The answer is not necessarily. His numbers are down, but it would be hard to point to the Giants’ home ballpark as a factor.

Since the trade in 2025, the left-handed hitter has put up an .833 in 476 plate appearances at home, compared to a .785 OPS in 483 plate appearances on the road. He has been a much better hitter at home.

On Wednesday, Devers showed yet again that Oracle Park is not an obstacle to his offense. He lined a two-run homer into McCovey Cove with ease to give the Giants a 4-2 advantage over the Cincinnati Reds. It looked like he was just playing pepper with the cove.

For some reason, the game was canceled after that swing of the bat, and the game was awarded to the Reds. A bit of a bizarre outcome, but I am sure it was for the best.

Devers has been every bit of the impact bat they had hoped for when they swung the trade with the Boston Red Sox. There is still a month left to go and he should surpass 30 home runs with ease. There is only one Giants hitter in Oracle Park’s history who has hit with the type of power Devers has displayed.

There is still one month to go for Devers to also get his overall offensive production up to his career norms, and he has been trending in that direction for several months now.

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