Rafael Devers, among other members of the Boston Red Sox, has had a slow start to the abbreviated 2020 Major League Baseball season.
Devers currently is slashing just .189/.241/.338 thus far following his breakout year in 2019. Furthermore, he’s already committed eight errors in the field.
But the third baseman’s mindset is that this slide shall pass.
Speaking to the media for the first time since Thursday, when Devers had three defensive errors in a 17-8 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, the 23-year-old opened up about how he intends to get through this slump at the plate and in the field.
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“It’s a part of the game,” Devers said on Sunday, via team translator Bryan Almonte, in his pregame video conference ahead of Boston’s game against the New York Yankees. “Obviously I made those errors at Fenway but it’s something that I know is just bound to happen because it’s a part of baseball. It’s something that I continue to work on just as much as I do hitting but I work extremely hard on my defense as well but that’s something that I’m going to continue to try and get better at and just take it day by day.”
As for his hitting, Devers says he hasn’t switched up much about his approach from previous years and claims he’s experienced struggles like this before while chasing balls out of the zone.
“As you all know, I’m just an aggressive hitter,” Devers said. “That’s something that even last year I was swinging at things outside the zone a lot and the only difference is I was getting hits, but that doesn’t change the approach I have now, I’m still doing the same exact things that I did last year and even the year before. Like I mentioned to you guys, this is something that I’ve struggled with from time to time in my career and in the minor leagues but i’m always able to get past that because I just have a positive mindset when I go into these things where I know I’m going to snap out of the funk.
“I feel great, just right now the balls not falling.”
