The Giants' season-long frustrations boiled over Sunday, but Rafael Devers and Tony Vitello say the dust has settled.
There was hope for a strong campaign for the San Francisco Giants, but as they continue to fall out of favor in the National League, frustrations reached a boiling point between Giants first baseman Rafael Devers and manager Tony Vitello.
However, the star and his manager have smoothed things over and insist that the incident was overblown.
After Devers drew a leadoff walk in the ninth inning on Sunday against the Miami Marlins, he angrily waved off pinch runner Jonah Cox and proceeded to yell into his helmet when the substitution was made official by first-base umpire Nate Tomlinson. He headed straight to the clubhouse after the dugout.
The incident was finally addressed following the Marlins’ sweep on Tuesday when Devers spoke ahead of San Francisco’s eventual, much needed win against the Athletics at Oracle Park. He explained that he thought they were pulling him from the game entirely due to his persisting hamstring issue instead of just being replaced on bases.
He apologized postgame to Vitello and the two cleared it up on the flight home, with Vitello calling it a “nonissue” moving forward.
President of baseball operations Buster Posey addressed the situation as well, and to read more about that, here’s the full story from Giants Roundtable writer Anthony Arroyo.
Vitello was emphatic in defending Devers, pointing to his character and the strength of their relationship.
The heat of the moment was also understandable to Posey, who went a step further to address team-wide frustrations as the season has gone from bad to brutal with SF boasting the second-worst record in the NL sitting firmly below .500.
That may lead to a fire sale at the MLB trade deadline. Devers is slashing .238/.301/.430 with 11 homers and 37 RBI. He was traded in a blockbuster deal from the Boston Red Sox last year, and the puzzle piece hasn’t landed to get them out of a slump.
While things are cleared up and calm in the clubhouse, that doesn’t rule out a potential shopping of Devers at the deadline, making his future uncertain as the Giants try desperately to get things right.
