One of the most bizarre moments of the 2026 Major League Baseball season took place in Sunday’s game between the San Francisco Giants and Miami Marlins at LoanDepot Park.
Trailing 2-1 at the top of the ninth inning, San Francisco’s Rafael Devers drew a leadoff walk. Devers is a slow-moving baserunner who ranks in the 22nd percentile in sprint speed this season and has zero stolen bases. Giants manager Tony Vitello opted to go with a pinch-runner in the speedy Jonah Cox (89th percentile sprint speed; 29 stolen bases between MLB and Triple-A this season) to boost the team’s chances to tie the game.
However, Devers pulled a Roger Dorn and tried to resist being removed for the pinch-runner. Cox awkwardly stood near first base as Devers stayed on the base and shooed him away.
“Devers is trying to send Cox back to the dugout,” NBC Sports Bay Area play-by-play announcer Dave Flemming said. “He literally waved him away.”
After 10-plus seconds of this, a frustrated Devers reluctantly went back to the dugout.
Rafael Devers wants no part of being removed for a pinch-runner, as seen and heard on the NBC Sports Bay Area Giants broadcast. ⚾️🎙️ #MLB pic.twitter.com/ljujPbAWeR
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 21, 2026
The Giants still lost 2-1, and the NBC Sports Bay Area postgame show made sure to address the Devers situation.
“Richie, I can’t recall seeing something like that,” Giants Postgame Live host Bonta Hill said to analyst Rich Aurilia.
“I can’t recall in my years in the game seeing a situation like that, where a player on the basepaths is waving off the pinch-runner coming in,” Aurilia, a former Giants star shortstop, said. “Listen, that’s a bad look. Especially when your team is not going well. Especially, and I hate to say it, he doesn’t talk to the media. It’s just not a good look all around. I’m sure there will be some kind of conversations internally there on this long flight home for this team.”
ICYMI: Rich Aurilla with spot-on analysis on today’s eventful 9th inning. #SFGiants @NBCSGiants pic.twitter.com/w45BjsvBUF
— Bonta Hill (@BontaHill) June 22, 2026
“If you’re trying to win a ballgame here, in the ninth inning, that move makes sense,” Aurilia explained. “To put your fastest guy on the roster, pretty much, at first base to try to get speed on the basepaths. Because, Rafael Devers, you know, he’s been running better this year than he was last year, but by no means is he a threat to steal or a speedster on the basepaths.”
“The whole look in that situation probably leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, and especially at the tail end of a road trip where you literally had a chance to pretty much win every game,” Aurilia added. “Yeah, it’s just really disappointing right now.”
As Hill pointed out, it all comes across as Devers showing up rookie MLB manager Tony Vitello (former University of Tennessee head coach).
“What does he tell Devers? What is that talk like?” Hill asked. “Because obviously it shows up the manager who is trying to find his way as a rookie coming out of Tennessee, of course; never managed in the big leagues at all. He gets shown up by your big bopper in the lineup, Rafael Devers.”
“Yeah, it’s a tough situation for Tony Vitello, I think,” Aurilia said. “When you get to the professional level, especially at the major-league level, you’re dealing with a lot of egos, a lot of personalities. A lot of dollars being made by a lot of those people. Where, in college, you’ve got a bunch of kids and you can just kind of tell them what to go do. And hey, if you don’t do it, okay, you’re not playing then. Big leagues are a little different.
“So, I don’t know what that conversation is going to look like, but there has to be some kind of conversation, whether it’s with Tony, whether it’s with one of the staff, whether it’s front office, because that should not happen on a big-league field. Especially in the ninth inning of a game that you still have a chance to tie or win, down one run.”
The Boston Red Sox traded Devers last year in his age-28 season despite being his production as annually one of the best hitters in the league. And they did so primarily because of a fractured relationship that featured him being perceived as a clubhouse problem.
So, while Sunday’s incident was quite unusual, it’s not exactly a shock that Devers isn’t coming across as a great teammate. The warning signs were there before the Giants acquired him.
And San Francisco might be willing to accept such issues more if Devers were actually hitting the ball more like his Boston days. He currently has .238/.302/.433 slash line and has been valued at 0.3 wins above replacement per FanGraphs. This is while he’s in year three of a 10-year, $313.5 million contract.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.