Giants fans did NOT want to hear this...

This is not ideal for the San Francisco Giants. In the midst of one of the best offensive seasons we've seen in San Francisco in a very long time, a major injury takes place. We're going to break that down here on SF Giants Digest. Welcome to the channel. If you're new here, I'm your host, Michael Monreal. And if you've been here before, welcome back to SF Giants Digest. We're so glad you found your way to the channel. Now, before we get into today's video, let me know down in the comment section your thoughts on the Giants getting swept by the San Diego Padres over the weekend. It wasn't the best brand of baseball, but there were some exciting moments. I want to hear your thoughts down in the comment section below. Also, if you haven't yet, go down below, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. It's the easiest way to support the channel and really does help us continue to bring the best Giants content and analysis on YouTube. Also, only about 75% of I set a goal yesterday. I'd love to hit 5,000 subs by the end of the season. We have a few weeks left, but that'd be much appreciated by myself and everyone here at SF Giants Digest. Now, getting right into today's video, I'm sure a lot of you already saw this news, but I wanted to make a video just breaking down how unfortunate this really is, this taking place at this part of the season. But earlier today, we got word that the Giants have placed Raphael Devers on the 60-day IL with a core muscle injury. And that first word from Justice De La Sanchez's tweet announcing it is exactly how I felt, is exactly how a lot of Giants fans felt. Just wow. It's completely unexpected. I don't think anybody saw it coming. The Giants say he's managed this issue for much of the season and chose to keep playing through it. He will visit Dr. William Myers in Philadelphia on Monday for further evaluation. Now, before we get deeper into this conversation, I also want to bring up what Susan Slusser of the SF Chronicle had to say on the matter. I'm actually going to start with the tweet on the bottom here because this was the earlier one. Said Giants manager Tony Vitellis that Devers has been dealing with the issue going back years and the training staff had worked hard to determine precisely what was happening. Core injuries can be difficult to diagnose. She followed that up by saying on the top, The timing seems strange given Devers' recent tear, but the Giants wanted to ensure he has enough time to be fully ready for next season and also in order to begin rehab with team doctors and training staff. When there's a lot labor stock stoppage, excuse me, which there's going to be a lockout this offseason, players cannot do so. So it does seem like the Giants gave Devers his best shot at potentially getting tough 40 home runs, two 100 RBIs, a hint, that's kind of what we're going to talk about in a few seconds, but it seems like this was the latest they could wait to put him on the IL and to let him go to Philadelphia, meet with the doctor. And it does seem like from what we're hearing that he actually might have surgery on one of his core muscles or whatever it is. It seems pretty similar to what ended Matt Chapman season, but not exactly the same, which is pretty interesting. Uh, but it does seem like this is something that has been bothering Devers for a very long time. And the medical staff was doing their best at giving him some relief throughout the entirety of the 2026 campaign. Now let's get into what Rafael Devers did this You can see on the bottom row there, exactly what he has done in the 2026 campaign. And it was 3.4 F4. It was a two 58, three 45, 25 slash line, 37 home runs in 98 RBIs. If you would've told me on may 1st, if I woke up on may 1st, and you would've told me that those were Rafael Devers numbers on September 13th, I would not have believed you for a second. That's how bad he was in may. May was the third worst month of his entire career by WRC plus by OPS by a few numbers. It was literally one of the worst months of his entire career. And Devers has been around since 2017, almost 10 years. So this is a guy who's been around for a long time and doesn't struggle that much in a month very often, but since may 1st, he has been absolutely special. He's dropped the strikeout rate from 31% to 25.4% on the season. And to get a little bit more specific for just how good he's been since the start of may, this is what Devers has done since may 1st in 504 plate appearances, a two 72, three 63, five 90 slash lane, a one 57 WRC plus striking out just 24% of the time, which is really impressive. We're not used to seeing that with Devers as a giant. Yes. And some of his Red Sox season, he was not striking up a ton, but in his giants tenure, you know, leading up to may 1st, he had struck out a good amount at 12.3% walk and the biggest two numbers, 35 home runs and 87 RBIs since may 1st. So that's without an entire month of the season, 35 home runs and 87 RBIs. It is really, really unfortunate that he was not able to get to 40 home runs and 100 RBIs. Cause it seemed like he was easily going to get there with two weeks left in the season. And he was definitely, definitely trying to look at what his season is going to be over, but in the 46 plate appearances he's had since September 1st, seven home runs, 19 RBIs, a three 42, four 57, 1000 slash line in just 46 plate appearances. Again, that is absurd. A two 74 WRC plus. It does seem like he was really, really trying to get to those marks before he, I'm sure he knew that this was inevitably going to happen. He was going to hit the IL. He was gonna have to go check, get checked out in Philadelphia. So he was really on a tear before getting hurt. And it's really impressive to think about what Devers has done since may 1st while being injured, obviously Tony Vitello had hinted at Devers being injured, having some lingering issues with his body over the last few months. And the fact that Devers put those numbers up since may was doing this at September while being injured is actually a pretty encouraging fact to think that if he comes into the 2027 campaign, whenever that season starts, if he comes in healthy, fully healthy, which it seems like we haven't seen a fully healthy Devers in San Francisco, we could be in for a very special season. Now, yes, he's been a relatively slow starter with the giants, but who knows, maybe he comes into 2027 comes into spring training healthy. And we see this version of Raphael Devers over the course of 162 games. Now I did put out this tweet. I just wanted to throw out there before we get out of today's video. I put out as someone who was too young to see Barry bonds. I think I can now say this is the best offensive run I've seen from a giant. And I actually think that's pretty easy to say. Now, obviously Buster Posey had some tears. Other guys in recent years have been on absolute tears. Tyler Fitzgerald is even one that comes to mind, but what Raphael Devers has done since September started. And especially since may 1st, it's been extrapolated over months at this point. And he has been literally a top two to three hitter in baseball in the last four months, which is just really insane to think about with how bad his April was. You look at what his season numbers look like, and that should tell you enough how his season has gone since the calendar flipped to me. That's going to do it for our talk on Raphael Devers. Obviously it's really unfortunate. He was quite literally in the midst of one of the best offensive seasons we've seen since the giants moved to San Francisco. A lot of the categories, you know, doubles home run seasons with that many doubles, that many home runs a seven week or excuse me, a seven game stretch with six plus home runs and six plus walks. All of these stats that have come out, the names on those lists are Barry Bonds, Willie Mays. There's some of the best hitters in the history of major league baseball on those lists. And Raphael Devers has joined several of those. So hopefully he's healthy to start the 2027 campaign. That is the biggest thing. Obviously getting to 40 and a hundred would have been really cool. No one's had a hundred RBI since Buster Posey in 2012. But the biggest issue is him being healthy for the 2027 campaign and the giants just getting a fresh start because 2026 has been extremely underwhelming. Obviously. Now I do want to turn the page really quickly to just preview what this week is going to look like for the San Francisco giants. Now they are going to go on the road for both series this week, starting out in St. Louis. We'll see Landon Roop, Blade Tidwell and Anthony Molina. Most likely, obviously there's been a few changes to the rotation every week, but it does seem like most of the rotation spots are set for now. And then Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we see the Los Angeles Dodgers in LA. I feel like we haven't seen the Dodgers in months, which it really has felt like a really long time, but we'll see Perdomo get a real test against the Dodgers. And then we'll see Logan Webb and Landon Roop. So should be some exciting baseball with the Dodgers. And of course the giants and the Cardinals have their own history as well. So an exciting week of baseball. Hopefully the giants can surprise some people and get some wins against the Cardinals and the Dodgers would be good to get some momentum heading in to the off season. That's going to do it for today's video. If you enjoyed leave a comment in the comment section, your thoughts on Raphael Devers, the 2026 season he has put together and how unfortunate it is that he is going down with injury to end this campaign. Also, let me know how you expect the giants to do against the Cardinals. The Dodgers this week should be some fun baseball. As always, if you enjoyed it, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. Those are the two easiest ways to support the channel and really help us continue to be the best giants content and analysis on YouTube. As always, thank you so much for watching and we will see you next time.