The Giants are moving Rafael Devers to the 60-day injured list, a sign that a core muscle injury has become serious enough to shut him down for the rest of the stretch. In his place, the club selected outfielder Scott Bandura’s contract from Triple-A, and Bandura will take Devers’ spot on both the 28-man and 40-man rosters.
According to the team, Devers “has managed this issue for much of the season and chose to keep playing through it,” but he is now set to see Dr. William Meyers on Monday. A surgery could happen as soon as Tuesday, depending on what the doctor recommends.
The timing is notable because Devers hasn’t exactly looked compromised at the plate. He has been the designated hitter in four of the Giants’ last five games, but there was no public sign that injury was behind the recent alignment. Even while the Giants have struggled, Devers has been tearing the cover off the ball for weeks, posting a .291/.398/.674 line with 15 homers since August 1 and leading all qualified hitters in that span with a 187 wRC+.
His year started slowly enough that some of those numbers flew under the radar, but from the beginning of May on, Devers has looked much more like the hitter people expect. He’ll close out his 2026 season with a .258/.340/.525 slash line, a 135 wRC+, and 37 home runs in 633 plate appearances, just one shy of his career best. With production like that, it’s difficult to picture the Giants treating his contract like a burden, even after earlier speculation about a possible trade deadline or offseason move.
Bandura is getting his first shot in the majors after John Shea of the San Francisco Standard reported yesterday that he would be added to the active roster. The 25-year-old was a seventh-round pick out of Princeton in the 2023 draft, and he’s coming off a strong year across Double-A and Triple-A, where he hit .320/.407/.488 in 604 combined plate appearances.
He also swiped 34 bags in 38 tries this season, which helped push his minor league career stolen base mark to a ridiculous 102-for-114. Despite that breakout, Bandura didn’t crack the top-30 prospect lists from either Baseball America or MLB Pipeline. Still, the Giants will gladly take a live look at a player whose speed, on-base skills, added pop and ability to handle all three outfield spots make him a useful name to track as the club sorts through its outfield picture heading into 2027.
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