The myth of the everyday player; the evolution of Dubón
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 votegetters. 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 60game 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.
STATCAST STUDY
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 range-based 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.