Devers enters final stretch with shot at playing rare 163-game season

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LOS ANGELES -- Playing in 162 games is the ultimate mark of durability for position players, but that benchmark has become increasingly rare in recent years. Only four big leaguers appeared in every regular season game last year, underscoring the difficulty of consistently staying on the field over a six-month span.

Among the Giants’ position players, only Rafael Devers still has a chance at logging a 162-game campaign this year. In fact, he actually has a shot at reaching an even more exclusive mark.

If Devers plays in the Giants’ final eight games of the season, he’ll end up appearing in 163 games in 2025, a fun byproduct of his midseason trade from Boston to San Francisco (hat tip to this astute Reddit user for recently pointing this out).

Should Devers reach the threshold, he’ll become the first player to play in more than 162 regular-season games since Justin Morneau in 2008, when the Twins and the White Sox were forced to play a Game 163 tiebreaker.

The last player to play in more than 162 games in a single season as a result of a trade was Todd Zeile in 1996. Zeile played 134 games with the Phillies and then 29 more after he was dealt to the Orioles, who played 163 games that season due to a suspended-game tie against the Rangers. (MLB rules at the time recognized stats from a suspended game but still required the matchup to be made up as a separate game on the schedule.)

Since the American League switched to a 162-game schedule in 1961 (the National League would follow suit in 1962), only 33 players have played 163 or more games in a season.

Devers -- who appeared in 73 games for the Red Sox before making his Giants debut in San Francisco’s 73rd game of the year -- now has a chance to add his name to the list.

“We might have to try to make that happen,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He just likes to play baseball. He really does. I think the DHing probably helps, too, to be able to play 162. But I didn’t know that. That’s pretty cool.”

That such a unique feat is within reach for Devers is even more remarkable considering the 28-year-old slugger wasn’t fully healthy when the Giants acquired him on June 15. Devers dealt with a nagging groin injury that initially limited him to DH duties, though he managed to overcome the issue and make his first career appearance at first base on July 22.

“When we first got him, he was a little banged up,” Melvin said. “It was hard to even get him to work at a position we wanted him to play because he was banged up. He still went out there and did as much as he could with it.”

The Giants nearly gave Devers a full day off on Aug. 24 at Milwaukee, but he ended up entering the game as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning, which kept the possibility of a 163-game season in play. He hasn’t been out of the starting lineup since, batting .233 with a .776 OPS and 16 home runs over 82 games for the Giants this year.

“What I found out about Rafael Devers is that what makes him smile is playing baseball,” Melvin said. “We’re lucky to have him. If you look at the numbers he’s put up across the board -- the walks, the runs, the RBIs, all the production -- it’s been fantastic. He’s going to be a Giant for a long time. We’re lucky to have him.”