SAN FRANCISCO — On Tuesday night, while talking about how much Christian Koss has played in recent weeks, Giants manager Tony Vitello brought up Rafael Devers and lamented the fact that he seemingly had “missed the boat” on finding a chance to get the superstar off his feet for a day. A few hours later, Vitello was able to board it. Devers was out of the Giants’ lineup for Wednesday’s series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals, ending a streak of 177 consecutive starts going back to last August. This was just his second time out of the lineup since getting traded to the Giants last June.
Devers has been dealing with leg discomfort at various points throughout the 2026 MLB season, leading to some stretches where he has been the DH while Bryce Eldridge handles first base every day. Vitello said he thought it would be beneficial to mix in an off day now ahead of Thursday’s off day for the whole team, noting that Devers has had to run the bases quite often over the past couple of weeks.
The reigning NL Player of the Week has a .493 on-base percentage in his last 16 games with five doubles. Vitello also considers Devers...