MLB insider says Barry Bonds could be playing better than Giants' Rafael Devers right now

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May 3, 2026 - 16:37

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San Francisco Giants first baseman Rafael Devers

MLB insider says Barry Bonds could be playing better than Giants' Rafael Devers right now originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The San Francisco Giants have been going through some major struggles this season. The new manager, Tony Vitello, hasn't performed well, and the individual players aren't great either.

The biggest disappointment by far this season has been Rafael Devers. Their big trade pickup last season hasn't been nearly good enough, and MLB insider for USA Today Bob Nightengale didn't hold back on his criticism of Devers.

He even went as far as making the ridiculous claim that Barry Bonds, now 61 years old, would be performing better than Devers right now.

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"Well, Bonds is 61 years old these days, hasn't played since 2007, and he'd be performing a whole lot better than Devers, who has become one of the worst everyday players in baseball," Nightengale writes.

This is a wild claim for Nightengale to make. Bonds hasn't played in nearly 20 years, and yet, he believes that the former Giants legend could play better than Devers right now.

Devers has struggled a ton this season. He has a .211 average across 33 games played and 136 plate appearances. His -0.9 bWAR is the result of 41 strikeouts to just seven walks, a .547 OPS, and a 57 OPS+.

He's never had a start to a season as bad as this, and Devers is easily the biggest disappointment across Major League Baseball this season.

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While the New York Mets as a team might be the biggest disappointment, no individual player has struggled like Devers has relative to expectations this year.

Nightengale's ridiculous claim that Bonds could be better than Devers right now is a step too far, but there is something to it in that Devers is such a net-negative based on bWAR, that someone who can put up 0.0 bWAR would be a significant improvement.

Bonds would almost certainly be worse than Devers if he actually tried playing right now, but this claim from Nightengale shows just how bad things are going for the Giants slugger this season.