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Boston Red Sox designated hitter Rafael Devers is off to an historically poor start to the season. He went 0 for 4 with a walk and three strikeouts on Saturday against the Texas Rangers, extending his hitless streak to 12 at-bats and securing a place for himself in the record books. Indeed, Devers’ 10 strikeouts across his first three games establishes a new record for the most in Major League Baseball history, according to SportRadar. Five players had previously tallied nine K’s in their first three games.
Devers’ struggles notably coincide with his move to designated hitter — a messy transition that he first rejected before acquiescing to clear room for free-agent signing Alex Bregman. While there is documented history of batters struggling with full-time DH duty, Devers himself has thus far rejected the idea that his woes have anything to do with all the idle time he’s gained between at-bats, or with any residual emotions he has from having to walk back his public assertion that he wouldn’t DH.
“I think that’s in the past,” Devers told MLB.com after Friday’s game. “That was in spring training. Right now, we’re in the season. I’m a DH and I feel like you guys need to change the subject, because that is over and I’m the DH.”
Three games is far too small of a sample to glean anything predictive from the results. The best anyone can hope for is descriptive analysis. With that in mind, Devers has scuffled against a heavy diet of fastballs, which account for 75% of his pitches seen. He’s swung at 20 two- and four-seam fastballs, whiffing on 14 of those attempts (or 70%). Devers’ bat speed metrics are also down from last season:
Season/metricAvg bat speed75+ mph swing%2024
72.5 mph
27.9%
2025
69 mph
12.9%
Again, this is all a laughably small sample, so take it for what it’s worth: a description of what has occurred over three days, not a prediction of what will occur over the next 159 games.
Devers, 28, will enter Sunday’s series finale with a career batting line of .278/.344/.509 (126 OPS+). His contributions have been worth an estimated 22.5 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball Reference’s calculations. Furthermore, he’s a three-time All-Star honoree and a two-time Silver Slugger Award recipient. There’s ample reason, then, to believe he’ll get things straightened out.
The Red Sox, 1-2 to date, will send Richard Fitts to the mound on Sunday. The Rangers will counter with multi-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom.
