2024 Cleveland Guardians Prospect Scouting Report: #46 SS Jose Devers

Devers is a plus defender at short, has some room to fill out his frame, and showed some surprising power late last summer.

Jose Devers Bio

• Age (2024 season): 21

• Acquired: International FA (2019)

• 2023 Level: Low-A

• Height: 6’0

• Weight: 140

• Bats: Right

• Throws: Right

Jose Devers 2023 Stats

• PA: 458

• AVG/OBP/SLG: .252/.345/.398

• 2B: 15

• HR: 11

• SB: 34/45

• K%/BB%: 20.1%/10.5%

• wRC+: 113

Jose Devers 2023 Scouting Grades

• Hit: 40

• Power: 30 

• Speed: 55

• Defense: 55

• Arm: 60

• Overall: 35 

• Risk: High

• ETA: 2027

Build & Background

Devers is a member of the Guardians 2019 international signing class out of the Dominican Republic and is the cousin of Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers. He does have an athletic build and moderate frame that gives him some room to fill out a bit.

What Devers Does Well

Defense is Devers’ calling card at shortstop, showing enough range in 2023 to stick at the position, flashing the occasional highlight reel type play and more than enough arm to handle the left side of the infield. He should profile defensively at any of the three non-first base infield positions. He’s also a near plus runner on the bases as well. Offensively, Devers really excelled last summer, first showing his contact ability, and then later tapping into some power later in the year. He’s a contact-first hitter that will hit the ball on the ground too often, but does manage to hit the ball to all fields He does show the ability to stay within the zone for now. He hit eight of his 11 homers in July and August. 

Where Devers Needs to Improve

As a player who doesn’t have the physical tools offensively, Devers doesn’t have a ton of punch to his game though he did have a bit of a power surge late in 2023 that is worth keeping an eye on in 2024. He does tend to take some big swings and can be beat in the zone and up with a quality fastball. Some of this could be due to needing to add some strength, which would help in terms of bat speed and ability to catch up, but his swing will get big sometimes that could be an issue. It’s a glove over bat type profile for now and he’ll need to avoid his high volume of grounders in order to make some growth offensively, and hopefully he fills out his frame with a little more strength. 

Key Stats

.260/.345/.407 slash line against oder pitchers, showing that his better offensive performances were against older competition in 2023 even though the pitching in Low-A is suspect at best, often times. 

Intangibles

If you believe in bloodlines, being related to Rafael Devers certainly isn’t a bad thing, even if he lacks Devers’ physicality and growth into more power.

Future

Dever was available in the Rule 5 draft this past winter and went unpicked, not a shock for a glove-first infielder who hasn’t played above Low-A at this point. But that’s sort of what he looks headed for if he doesn’t add enough strength and impact the baseball a little more. But there’s plenty of glove and speed to profile well as a utility infielder. However, we’ll see if he can tap into that hot offensive stretch he had in the summer of last year as he will move around the infield at High-A Lake County in 2024. 

Role

35 - Utility infielder