Rafael Devers will indeed undergo left-side core surgery on Tuesday, the Giants told reporters (including Zach Sweet of MLB.com). The team will have a recovery timetable after the operation is complete.

The Giants surprisingly shut Devers down for the season yesterday. He’d started every game of the season until September 9 after leading MLB with 163 games played last year — getting the extra game as a scheduling quirk after being traded midseason. Devers has apparently played through core discomfort for the bulk of this season.

That certainly wasn’t evident in his performance. The three-time All-Star overcame another slow start to finish the year with a .258/.340/.525 slash line across 633 plate appearances. Devers has kept pace with Pete Crow-Armstrong as the best hitters in the sport since the beginning of July. Crow-Armstrong is the only player with more home runs than Devers’ 22 over that stretch. They’re the only two hitters with 150+ plate appearances and an OPS north of 1.000 in the last two and a half months.

Crow-Armstrong is deservedly on his way to an MVP. Devers doesn’t have nearly the same defensive value, of course, but it’s remarkable that he’s managed to hit at this level while playing through an injury that required surgery. His 37 homers are the most by a Giants hitter since Barry Bonds connected on 45 back in 2004.

Devers and Bryce Eldridge are among the best first base/designated hitter pairings in the sport. They were the two biggest bright spots in an otherwise ugly season for the Giants. They’ve shut down most of their lineup to close one of the worst years in franchise history. San Francisco has nine hitters among an astounding 21 players on the MLB injured list. Matt Chapman and Casey Schmitt are other regulars who underwent season-ending surgeries.