Giants right to let Pillar go
SF non-tendered outfielder last year
Since taking over as the Giants’ president of baseball operations in November 2018, Farhan Zaidi has shown a willingness to part with fan favorites and let go of popular players who aren’t producing.
One of Zaidi’s decisions that signaled a major turning point for the organization came on Dec. 2, 2019, when the Giants announced they were nontendering 2019 Willie Mac Award winner Kevin Pillar.
The Giants had acquired Pillar via a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays less than a week into the regular season and watched him become one of the team’s most reliable contributors. Pillar’s 21 home runs tied for the 2019 team lead, his 87 RBIs led all Giants and his diving catches in center field captured the attention of a fan base that had grown accustomed to dismal outfield play in recent seasons.
As the 2020 season winds down, Pillar is back at Oracle Park and playing center field for the Colorado Rockies. The 31-year-old singled and homered in a 7-2 Rockies win on Monday, causing many Giants fans to wonder why the team let go of Pillar in the first place.
As we look back at one of the most controversial decisions Zaidi has made with the Giants, it seems as if he made the right decision.
As an arbitration-eligible player, Pillar was due to earn north of $7 million and potentially upward of $8 million if he remained with the Giants during the 2020 season. A franchise with deep pockets could have easily afforded to keep him, but Zaidi and first-year manager Gabe Kapler were determined to learn more about the future of the Giants’ outfield this season.
When the Giants began their four-game set against the Rockies on Monday, all five of the outfielders on the roster with at least 90 plate appearances had a higher or an equivalent OPS+ to the mark of 101 that Pillar brought to Oracle Park. Pillar’s big night improved his OPS+ to 105 while a quiet game for Giants rookie Mauricio Dubón dropped his to 99, but defensive metrics consider Dubón a superior defender in center field which adds additional value to his play.
The fact Dubón’s salary is a fraction of what Pillar would be earning might save the Giants some money for the future, but what’s more important for the organization is that Dubón is under club control through 2025 while Pillar would have been a free agent this offseason.
The left field platoon of Alex Dickerson and Darin Ruf has been one of the most productive platoons in the league during the second half of the season as Dickerson’s .565 slugging percentage ranks second to Brandon Belt (.566) among the team’s regular starters while Ruf’s .924 OPS against lefties has made him an invaluable parttime player. In right field, the Giants have watched Mike Yastrzemski seize an opportunity to start every day and watched him develop into the team’s most valuable player.
The Giants’ plans for building a 2020 outfield without Pillar weren’t perfect, but as the year comes to a close, it’s unlikely Zaidi is second-guessing the decision to move on.