Has Rafael Devers' Back Injury Caused His Poor Giants Tenure?

The San Francisco Giants believed they were getting a difference maker this past offseason when they signed Willy Adames to a lucrative deal to become their shortstop of the future.

Things haven't exactly played out that way, though.

Adames has struggled mightily during his first year in the Bay Area, looking like a shell of himself on both sides of the ball that started to make people feel nervous about his large contract.

Thankfully, the slugger has gotten hot in the summer months and just reminded everyone of his ceiling as he played hero in Game 1 of their rivalry series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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However, while the Giants were waiting for Adames to turn things around, new president of baseball operations Buster Posey did not hesitate to make another splash, pulling off a shocking blockbuster trade that brought Rafael Devers to town.

With multiple star players now littered throughout San Francisco's lineup, the hope was their middling offense would kick into high gear.

Unfortunately, Devers has been a dud during his Giants tenure.

In 23 games, he is slashing .220/.350/.354 with just two homers and nine RBI, posting an OPS+ figure that's four points above the league average, but still a far cry from what he's done in the past.

Nobody is overly concerned about the elite hitter getting off to a slow start, and perhaps that's because he is dealing with an injury.

Manager Bob Melvin revealed that Devers underwent an MRI on his back, something that revealed he has a disk injury in his lower back.

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Thankfully, San Francisco doesn't believe he'll need to miss any time by going on the injured list, and they think he can be an effective hitter even with this issue.

This injury could explain why Devers has not gotten off to a great start with the Giants.

The All-Star break will give the slugger some time to heal and get treatment on his back, with further assessments mapping out a plan for how he can deal with this disk problem for the rest of the year.

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San Francisco needs him to be an elite hitter for them.

Hopefully this back injury doesn't prevent that from happening.

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