It's hard to keep up with The Churn but FZ and crew made a move that could be worth remembering when they traded for Daniel Robertson SS after he was DFA'd by the Rays. Robertson has some prospect pedigree. He was the 34'th overall draft pick by the A's in 2012 out of Upland(CA) HS. He was assigned to Rookie camp in Arizona and slashed .297/.405/.554 in 127 PA. A midseason promotion to short season ball did not go so well as he struggled to a .181 BA.
A low A ball assignment for 2013 produced a respectable slash of .277/.353/.401 with 9 HR. He had somewhat of a breakout in 2014 with A+ Stockton, .310/.402/.471 with 15 HR. That, combined with a K/BB of 14.6/11.2 got him noticed by prospect rankers and he started showing up on top 100 prospect lists. He was thought to be one of the reasons why the A's were willing to include Addison Russell in the trade for Jeff Samardzija, but in January 2015, the A's traded Robertson along with John Jaso and Boog Powell to the Rays for Yunel Escobar and Ben Zobrist. He continued to have terrific walk rates and OBP's in the Rays system, but the power dried up. He's shuttled between MLB and AAA over the last 3 seasons settling into a fringe/utility role. His 2018 MLB line actually looked promising: .262/.382/.415 with 9 HR in 340 PA. But he regressed to a .213 BA in 2019 and did not appear in any MLB games for the Ray in 2020. His D is rated as average to slightly above average by UZR metrics.
The Giants coaches liked the way he swung the bat in remote camp after the trade so called him up when Joey Rickard hit the 60 day IL. So far he is 3 for 5 in 2 games for the Giants.
I feel like Robertson has a bit of a post-hype sleeper vibe. He's just 26 years old so young enough for his breakout to be ahead of him and the peripheral numbers are already there. If the Giants coaching staff can help him re-unlock the power, I could see him turning into an FZ special along the lines of YtY.
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