Jonathan Papelbon has questions about Rafael Devers’ historic slump to start the season. Namely, the NESN analyst questions if maybe the Boston Red Sox DH is out of shape.
After Boston’s loss to the Texas Rangers on Sunday, Papelbon had some colorful thoughts on Devers’ struggles during NESN’s postgame coverage.
“Maybe he’s out of shape? … Maybe we got to trim a little bit of fat? You know what happens when you trim fat?” Papelbon asked fellow analyst Jim Rice. “Pigs squeal.”
Rice had a more grounded take on the matter, noting that Devers was clearly not in hitting shape — because he wasn’t hitting.
Meanwhile, host Tom Caron wanted to know where Papelbon was going with this line of thought.
“I’m just saying. You trim fat, pigs squeal, Papelbon said. ”I mean, that’s what you’re looking for, for your pigs to squeal and hit home runs.
The World Series champ didn’t outright call Devers overweight. But it won’t escape notice that he decided to mention “pigs” and “fat with his metaphor.
Devers has had an abysmal start to the season at the plate. He’s 0-for-16 with two walks in his first four games with a whopping 12 strikeouts.
That included Devers becoming the first player in MLB history to strike out 10 times in his first three games to start a season.
It’s worth noting that Devers missed most of spring training while dealing with shoulder soreness as he recovered from injury issues suffered last season. As a result, he had a particularly late start this spring.
Now, Papelbon is questioning whether it’s a shoulder issue or a fitness issue. He says he doesn’t know. But he certainly has a way of asking the question.
“But is it the shoulders? Is he in shape? We don’t know these things. But to me, it looks like the swing is just a little bit behind.”
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