THE DODGERS HAVE TROUBLE WITH DEVERS AND ICE RAIDS WHILE OHTANI WARMS UP

A mammoth trade for slugger Rafael Devers gives San Francisco a chance against the reigning champions, whose executives won’t comment about Los Angeles protests — as Ohtani pitches tonight at home

The team that isn’t supposed to lose — bolstered by a $500 million payroll, with luxury taxes — already has lost 29 times. Only 4 1/2 games separate the Los Angeles Dodgers from a non-playoff scenario in the National League, which would be a historic dose of futility. Tonight, Shohei Ohtani starts on the mound for the first time because an injury-battered staff needs him.

And in a town where a legendary baseball franchise has refused to comment about smothering protests concerning ICE raids — though the Dodgers once evicted Mexican-American families to build Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine — a singer known as Nezza sang the U.S. national anthem in Spanish Saturday night. She ignored instructions from a Dodgers employee.

“We are going to do the song in English today. I’m not sure if that wasn’t relayed,” she was told in a video posted on TikTok.

“I didn’t think I’d be met with any sort of no. Especially because we’re in L.A., and with everything happening,” Nezza said after her performance on the edge of a curfew-enforced downtown. “I’ve sang the national anthem many times in my life, but today, out of all days, I could not. I just felt like I needed to do it. Para mi gente.”

The only remark from the front office came from manager Dave Roberts, generally aware of all global matters. “Honestly, I don’t know enough, to be quite honest,” he said. “I know that when you’re having to bring people in and deport people, all the unrest, it’s certainly unsettling for everyone. But I haven’t dug enough and can’t speak intelligently on it.”

Among players, Kike Hernandez is all alone in speaking. “I may not be Born & Raised, but this city adopted me as one of their own. I am saddened and infuriated by what’s happening in our country and our city,” he posted on Instagram. “Los Angeles and Dodger fans have welcomed me, supported me and shown me nothing but kindness and love. This is my second home. And I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and human rights. #CityOfImmigrants.”

So why wouldn’t the traditional rivals up the road, the San Francisco Giants, make a run for divisional supremacy and acquire a colossal hitter in Rafael Devers? They are on deck for the final 8 1/2 seasons of a $313.5 million deal and are only two games behind the Dodgers in the NL West. This year, Devers clashed with Boston Red Sox ownership, which deemed him selfish when he refused to play first base and remained a designated hitter after a season-ending knee injury to Triston Casas. If nothing else, say this for stingy owner John Henry and West Coast baseball: He allowed the Dodgers to begin a championship run by dealing Mookie Betts ($365 million) in a salary dump … he watched Xander Bogaerts sign a $280 million deal in San Diego … and he traded Devers and his power bat to the Giants.

That’s not far from $1 billion in a haughty city that can’t stand cheap people in charge. Not long ago, the Red Sox won four World Series in 14 years. Now, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow must spend the leftover Devers money to keep up with the Yankees. But who cares about the American League, anyway? The NL has the league-leading Chicago Cubs, the Dodgers, the Giants, the Padres, the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. At this point, any of those six teams could win the pennant.

Credit general manager Buster Posey, who sees more than a .900 OPS and 15 homers in Devers. He sees it as a way of capitalizing on the Dodgers’ various woes. He led the Giants to three World Series titles in the last decade and has built a batting order that includes Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman, all in their prime. To land Devers, Posey gave up starting pitcher Kyle Harrison in a package. So be it.

“We’re all obviously very excited about adding one of the best hitters in all of Major League Baseball to our lineup,” Posey said. “We all felt as a group that it was extremely impactful for the San Francisco Giants. It’s a group of guys who are proven and have been there. They have a track record. My hope is that these guys feed off one another. They make each other better. I believe adding a guy like Rafael Devers to the lineup not only gives you a boost from his own personal production, but just the ability for guys to talk to that elite type of hitter, watch that elite type of hitter.”

“This fits us perfectly,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s a power left-handed bat, a guy who can go the other way and hit for power in our ballpark. It’s tailor-made for us. So kudos to the front office to swing this. To get it done right now for a team lacking a left-handed bat and lacking power, this should be a huge boost for us.”

Will Devers be a DH entirely? “I think that's a conversation that we're going to have to have with him," Posey said. “As much as anything, I want to do my best to be upfront and transparent with these guys and make sure we're on the same page.”

His new teammates are thrilled. “Everybody is so excited,” Adames said. “I’m, like, thrilled to have him. He’s one of the best hitters in the game, and to have him on the team, we’re going to do whatever it takes to win the division. From what I know, he wants people to communicate with him and be honest. I feel like with Buster, that’s all we get. Buster is a super honest guy. He’s going to be straight up and (Devers is) going to be comfortable here, I know. I’m so happy, I don’t know how to describe it. I didn’t even stretch today. I was so excited, I was like, ‘Let’s go.’ ’’

Consider the Giants a serious team again. They should be perennial mainstays, like the Cubs, who are riding high with Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong. Teams can’t let the Dodgers win without providing challenges.

“It makes them better right now, for sure,” Clayton Kershaw said. “Buster Posey is really doing it. Good for Buster over there. He’s going for it. I’d consider (Devers) one of the top 10 hitters in the game, at worst. He’s definitely a game-changer. It will be interesting to see what position he plays over there.”

Betts says it’s “crazy” that he has been joined in post-Boston careers by Devers and Bogaerts. “I mean, they care, they want to win,” he said of the Giants. “Those guys over there are doing a great job of putting a team together and obviously, they want to win.”

“They’re going for it,” Roberts said. “They put themselves in a position to make a run, and they got better.”

Next comes Ohtani, who will pitch an inning or two against the Padres. This is why he makes $700 million. This is why he’s the greatest of all ballplayers, ever. See if he wins another MVP award with 10 more victories, assuming all is well after Tommy John surgery. In Anaheim, he was 38-19 with a 3.01 earned run average. In 2022, he was 15-9 with a 2.33 ERA. Wait until the throws his first pitch at home.

“It’s very exciting,” Roberts said. “I think that for me, I’m still a baseball fan first. I really am. The anticipation here for the game is, man, it’s going to be bananas. There’s been a lot of anticipation. I think we’ve done it the right way as far as our process. He’s getting very eager, very excited. I think there’s a point where, in hearing from Shohei, that the effort that it takes to throw lives and, then, let’s use those bullets in a game.”

Baseball has taken a backseat, in America, just a season and a half before the bleak expiration of a critical collective bargaining agreement. The Devers deal awakened the sport. We might not watch the entirety of the NBA Finals, Game 5. We will watch Ohtani, while wondering if Devers will blister him.

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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.