It’s been a huge week for slugger Rafael Devers. It’s been a huge couple of weeks, for that matter. Over the last handful of weeks, the lefty has shown exactly why the San Francisco Giants were eager to take on the task of paying Devers hundreds of millions of dollars for the better part of the next decade.
He did such a good job showing that, in fact, that he was bestowed with an honor that is very rarely found around these parts: National League Player of the Week. Well, Co-Player of the Week, if
we’re being technical, as Devers split the honor with Philadelphia Phillies home run machine Kyle Schwarber.
It’s a very well-deserved distinction for Devers, who went 11-27 with three home runs, two doubles, four walks, and 10 runs batted in during that stretch, and led the Giants to a 5-1 record. Player of the Week honors are Monday through Sunday, which means yesterday’s game didn’t even count for Devers’ case. But after going 2-4 with a home run and a walk in the series opener against the Colorado Rockies, he’s already setting himself up for a repeat of the award!
Player of the Week isn’t an award that rolls through San Francisco often. Devers becomes the first Giant to win the award in 2025, after two players accomplished it in 2024: Blake Snell and Luis Matos. But the Giants didn’t have any winners in 2023. Or in 2022. Or in 2021. Or in 2020. Or in 2019. Prior to Matos winning the award last summer, you had to go all the way back to May of 2018 when Brandon Belt won the honors to find the orange and black represented.
Something tells me there won’t be another six-year drought this time. It’s already the fourth time that Devers has won Player of the Week in his storied career, and Willy Adames has won a handful of times as well. Perhaps the Giants sluggers are just getting started.
