Rafael Devers

There's a rare collection of elite, young bats in the game today. Fans know the names: Tatis, Guerrero, and Acuna. They're among the five batters age 24 or younger with OPS+ marks of 145 or better this season. OPS+, a metric that adjusts for a season s ballpark and run-scoring environments, allows us to better compare eras. Right now, 2021 features the second-largest group of batters with a 145 OPS+ in a single season since baseball integrated.Even if this year's class loses a member when the injured Ronald Acuna Jr. falls off the list of hitters with enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title, this campaign could still tie for third-best in a collection of seasons that includes 1955, which featured 24-and-under talents Al Kaline, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Eddie Mathews.But there's one member of the 2021 group who isn't receiving the same attention as the others: 24-year-old Boston third baseman Rafael Devers. Devers is eighth in the majors in on-base plus slugging, and he s eighth in FanGraphs version of wins above replacement (4.0). He owns a career-best 148 OPS+ mark through play Monday.To quantify the lack of attention, we can use Google Trends to see that Devers' name isn't being searched as often as Tatis Jr., Guerrero Jr., Acuna Jr., and Juan Soto. And it s not as if he plays in a small market.!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var a in e.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r

Rafael Devers ropes a line drive down the right-field line for a solo home run, giving the Red Sox a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 3rd

A visibly frustrated Gerrit Cole struggled to find the right words to describe his performance on Friday night in Boston. He felt he made good pitches throughout and that the Rafael Devers home run he surrendered in the 5th inning came off a tough pitch to hit. Cole: 'Devers is a special player...I'm not surprised he was able to hit it out'. The Yankees offense did Cole no favors, managing just six hits and going 1-9 with runners in scoring position.

Rafael Devers provided all the offense the Red Sox needed to beat the rival Yankees at Fenway Park on Friday night.

A visibly frustrated Gerrit Cole struggled to find the right words to describe his performance on Friday night in Boston. He felt he made good pitches throughout and that the Rafael Devers home run he surrendered in the 5th inning came off a tough pitch to hit. Cole: 'Devers is a special player...I'm not surprised he was able to hit it out'. The Yankees offense did Cole no favors, managing just six hits and going 1-9 with runners in scoring position.