The Promotion.
Devers wasted no time making his mark. His first 20 games were among the best 20 games to start a career ever. He cooled after that but the 58 games he played by the end of the season still rank as one of the best debuts for a 20-year-old in MLB history. It wasn’t just what he was doing on the field that caught people’s attention. It was how he was doing it.
Devers displayed the ability to hit to all fields, and not only hit but hit for power. Dave Cameron (formerly) of Fangraphs took notice:
"“So far, Devers has put 25 balls in play, and he’s pulled exactly five of them. 20 of the 25 balls he’s put in play have gone to center or left field, despite the fact that Devers is a left-handed hitter. In his first week in the big leagues, Devers has basically just pounded the ball up the middle or to left field.”"
He followed up with this:
"“What’s particularly interesting about Devers performance thus far is that, despite going up the middle and the other way all the time, he’s hit the ball very hard. His 25 batted balls have an average exit velocity of 92.5 mph, which ranks 5th highest — behind only Aaron Judge, Miguel Sano, Joey Gallo, and Nelson Cruz — in baseball among hitters with 20+ balls in play. There’s not much overlap between the exit velocity leaderboards the guys who pull the ball the least often.”"
The ability to spray the ball to all fields with authority at the tender age of 20 is incredibly rare. But how much room is there for improvement?