Marlins infielder Jose Devers underwent surgery yesterday to repair a labrum tear in his right shoulder, tweets Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. He’d been on the injured list since mid-June and will now miss the remainder of the 2021 season.
Devers, 21, entered the season ranked tenth among Marlins farmhands at Baseball America and made his big league debut back on April 24. He appeared in 21 games but tallied just 46 plate appearances, batting .244/.304/.317 along the way. It was an aggressive jump for Devers, who played just 33 games at Class-A Advanced in 2019, didn’t have the benefit of a minor league season in 2020, and made his debut before the Triple-A campaign even kicked off in early May. Devers did play in a dozen Triple-A games in between a pair of big league stints, hitting .231/.250/.308 in 41 plate appearances at the top minor league level.
Acquired in the Giancarlo Stanton trade with the Yankees, Devers has never been viewed as a likely offensive force. He’s a fleet-footed, contact-oriented hitter with no real power of which to speak and strong defensive skills up the middle. Devers has hit just one professional home run, which came as a 17-year-old with the Yankees’ Gulf Coast League affiliate back in 2017, and has a .071 career ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average).
Between that lack of pop and the presence of Jazz Chisholm and Miguel Rojas in the middle infield, Devers’ role in 2022 (and likely moving forward) could be that of a utility infielder. The Marlins will probably want to get him some more minor league playing time next season, given his general lack of experience in the upper minors.
Leave a Reply