SF Giants overreactions: Has the Devers trade actually hurt the team?

Rafael Devers was supposed to be the player who would take the SF Giants to the next level. He was supposed to be the answer to San Francisco's prayers. A slugging corner-infielder capable of hitting .280 while crushing 30 bombs.

Since trading for him, the Giants are 4-10 and have fallen entirely out of the National League playoff picture. Did the trade make the team worse?

SF Giants overreactions: Did Devers trade make the Giants worse?

Devers himself has struggled in a Giants uniform. In his first 13 games with the team, he slashed .200/.310/.360, for an OPS+ of 93. Not awful, but he has clearly not been setting the league on fire.

Has the trade actually hurt the team? It's too early to tell, but probably not. More likely, Devers and the Giants are in a bad slump that they will soon break out of.

Devers is an upgrade at designated hitter, and he's already made an impact with two home runs and five runs batted in. Instead, let's check on the rest of the lineup to see how they have performed in the past 13 games since the offense is clearly struggling as a whole.

Jung Hoo Lee stands out as the player in the worst slump. He's slashing a .075/.213/.125, with just four runs scored and not a single run batted in over the team's past 13 games. His win probability added during that stretch sits above -0.4.

Mike Yastrzemski has been solid, with a .227 average and .386 slugging. Still, his OPS has fallen from .748 to .724 over the past two weeks. Willy Adames has also been solid, with a .262 average and a .706 OPS. However, he still only had one home run and four runs batted in over the thirteen games, and his win probably added was -.132.

The problem for the Giants seems simple. Nobody is scoring, and nobody is driving in runs. Over the past 13 games, San Francisco is reaching base at a .310 clip, which is just slightly below their season OBP of .311. However, their slugging has gone drastically downhill. The team is slugging just .333 since June 17th. Their season slugging is .371. For reference to just how low .333 is, that's lower than the Chicago White Sox season slugging percentage of .343. Yes, you read that right. Since trading for Rafael Devers, the Giants have a worse slugging percentage than the 2025 White Sox. Yikes.

Yet, it still feels too early to call this a bad trade. San Francisco has been in a team-wide slump, but Devers has broken out of slumps before. He was hitting .176 and slugging .294 through the first nine games of the year, then hit .286 and slugged .534 over his next 64 games before the trade.

The Giants are also still without Matt Chapman, who was a cornerstone of the team's offense before his injury. Getting Chapman back could spark the lineup. On top of that, Devers has also been dealing with a groin injury. While Bob Melvin told reporters it was minor, according to MSN.com, it is still worth noting.

After the All-Star break, the Giants should get a fully healthy duo of Chapman and Devers. Together, they could spark the offense and reignite the team back into the NL playoff picture.

The final verdict is that, while yes, the early returns are not promising, it is far too early to call this trade a bad one. The Giants are in a slump, but they should break out of it soon enough.