The myth of the everyday player
Under Zaidi and Kapler, don’t expect any Giants players to appear in all 162 games
When San Francisco Giants fans showed up to Oracle Park in 2013 and 2014, they could always count on one player being in the starting lineup: Hunter Pence.
Aside from his quirky personality, all-out hustle and willingness to go the extra mile to engage with fans, Pence was a star in the minds of Giants supporters for another underrated reason. He never missed a game.
Pence was the last Giants player to appear in all 162 games, doing so in 2013 when he finished 16th in National League MVP voting and again in 2014 when he climbed the list and ranked 11th among vote-getters. Pence’s superb durability likely cost him later on in his career as he consistently battled injuries toward the end of his tenure in San Francisco, but for a brief period in time, Pence was a true “everyday player.”
Under Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and field manager Gabe Kapler, the concept of an “everyday player” is essentially a myth.
Outfielder Mike Yastrzemski should be in the lineup at least 140 times this season, but the Giants saw what happened when they pushed him to the brink in 2020. Yastrzemski developed a calf strain during the final week of the regular season, needing time off during the most important part of a playoff push.
Shortstop Brandon Crawford doesn’t have a natural backup as Mauricio Dubón, the team’s starting center fielder, appears to slot in behind Crawford on the depth chart. Prior to last year’s 60-game season, Crawford appeared in at least 140 games in eight straight years, which is remarkable considering the physical demands of his position.
Third baseman Evan Longoria is another starter who could conceivably be called an “everyday” player, but the Giants are attempting to find more ways to get Longoria off of his feet this season. They’ll have Tommy La Stella available to start at third against some right-handed starters and will train Wilmer Flores at the position too.
Under Zaidi and Kapler, the Giants have preached about the importance of keeping players as fresh as possible. They don’t want an 80% version of Yastrzemski or a 75% version of Crawford. They need completely healthy, rejuvenated starters and they want the players in the lineup on any given day to have a favorable matchup against a starting pitcher.
Even as rosters drop from 28 to 26 players for the 2021 season, the Giants’ position player group is built to support one another thanks to the premium the front office has placed on defensive versatility. The everyday player, the 162-game warrior like Hunter Pence, is going out of style.
Expect more mixing and matching with lineups and days off for so-called “regulars” so that when the Giants do need to make a push, everyone has the energy to contribute.
DOWN ON THE FARM >> Since the beginning of spring training, I’ve used this space to detail some of my early impressions of the young group of Giants prospects who received invitations to big league camp.
With games set to start Sunday, there will be an excellent
SPRING TRAINING
When: Sunday, 12:05 p.m.
chance to see exciting players such as Heliot Ramos, Hunter Bishop and Sean Hjelle in action, but before I get that opportunity, I want to highlight two prospects you should know who aren’t yet in Scottsdale.
The Giants’ top pitching prospect who will open the year in minor league camp in April is left-hander Seth Corry, a 2017 third round draft pick who has reportedly been a mentor to the Giants’ 2020 third round draft choice, De La Salle left-hander Kyle Harrison.
Corry has appeared on a few top 100 prospect lists and has a bright future, but both Corry and the Giants know he’ll need to gain better command of his off-speed offerings, a curveball and a changeup, to make an impact at the big league level. Corry struck out 172 hitters in 122 2/3 innings with Low A Augusta in 2019, so it’s not out of the question that he could open the season with High-a Eugene this summer and work his way up to the Triple-a level.
Corry figures to be among the most prominent pitching prospects worth following in the minors this season while outfielder Luis Matos should be one of the top hitters turning heads. The Venezuela native just turned 19 and has plenty of room left to develop, but the Giants are eager for him to build off of a 2019 season in which he hit .362 with a .572 slugging percentage in the Dominican Summer League.
Those eye-popping numbers are rare for even the best prospects in that league and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Matos spend some time with Low-a San Jose this year, giving local Giants fans a chance to see a potential star-of-tomorrow in action.
THE EVOLUTION OF MAURICIO DUBÓN >> If all goes according to plan for the Giants this season, Mauricio Dubón will spend a considerable amount of time in center field and also take down reps behind Brandon Crawford at shortstop.
The club is counting on the twitchy, high instincts defender to be versatile enough to bounce back and forth from the infield to the outfield, which was an assignment he didn’t quite seem ready for last summer. The Giants knew there was some room left for Dubón to mature and refine his skill set in the majors and Kapler made the decision early in the season to let Dubón focus almost exclusively on the outfield, and it’s clear that the Honduras native benefitted in a variety of ways.
A deeper look at Dubón’s data shows he was among the best outfield defenders in baseball in 2020, as he ranked in the 87th percentile in outfield jumps, a measure of how quickly players react, and in the 96th percentile in Outs Above Average, a rangebased fielding metric that accounts for the difficulty of plays.
Those numbers suggest Dubón can play the outfield at a high level, and other Statcast data shows he’s improving as a hitter.
From 2019-2020, Dubón lowered his chase rate, the percentage of pitches he swung at outside the strike zone, from 42.6% to 32.8% while increasing his walk rate from 4.5% to 8.5%. Dubón’s average launch angle spiked from 9.5 degrees to 16.7 degrees, which coincided with his barrel percentage increasing from 2.3% to 4.0% and his average exit velocity jumping from 84.8 miles per hour to 86.2 miles per hour.
GIANTS VS. ANGELS