There’s no player in the American League with more walks than Rafael Devers. The Dominican slugger was one of just five players in all of Major League Baseball with at least 20 walks as of Wednesday.
Devers is showing a new side to his game—patience at the plate. In 2024, he drew a career-high 67 walks in 601 plate appearances. Now, he’s just 12 walks away from reaching half that mark—and April isn’t even over yet.
«We always want him to swing at pitches in the zone,» said manager Alex Cora to reporters on Wednesday afternoon before the game against the Seattle Mariners. «We get excited when he gets pitches up in the zone—he hits them out of the ballpark. But when he swings at strikes, good things are going to happen.»
A few weeks ago, Rafael Devers was in the spotlight after striking out 15 times in his first 19 at-bats of the season. That rough start came amid all the noise surrounding his move from third base to the designated hitter role.
Since then, he’s made some adjustments. In the 20 games leading up to Wednesday, he struck out 17 times—but also drew 16 walks. His on-base percentage in April, not including Wednesday’s game, was .389.
«It hasn’t reflected in his production, but he’s really locked in,» said Cora. «He’s giving Alex [Bregman] a lot of opportunities to drive in runs. There have been a lot of good at-bats. He went through that stretch of strikeouts early on, but now he’s swinging at strikes. We’re very happy with that.»
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Rafael Devers is in the middle of a seven games streak with at least on walk. Is the longest streak of his career so far. In June 2023, he walked in five straight games. On Thrusday he will have 21 walks after being walked up once on Wednesday night.
