As we head into the Hot Stove League, the Giants have a clear #1 on their shortstop depth chart, Tyler Fitzgerald. The question is whether he will still be #1 when spring training starts. We'll look at who is backing him up and who the Giants might bring in during Hot Stove action.
MLB:
Tyler Fitzgerald: .280/.334/.497, 15 HR, 17 SB, 341 PA.
Brett Wisely: .238/.278/.345, 4 HR, 272 PA.
Donovan Walton: .136/.240/.273, 25 PA.
Casey Schmitt: .252/.283/.477, 6 HR, 113 PA.
Fitz' numbers took a nosedive over the final month of the season. Was he out of gas or did the league's pitchers get a book on him? He wasn't great on defense but was he that bad? IMO, the best metric for defense is Fangraphs UZR/150. Fitz was at -2.0 which ranked #22 out of SS's who played at least 500 innings. For reference, Anthony Volpe of the Yankees was at 0.0, Trea Turner was at -1.1, Masyn Winn was at -3.8, Elly De La Cruz -9.5 and Carlos Correa -9.7. If Fitz can maintain or improve his offensive production and overcome some rookie mistakes, he's a viable starting SS, IMO. That's not to say if the Giants have a chance to sign Willy Adames they shouldn't do it.
AAA:
Christian Koss(3 teams): .299/.376/.496, 9 HR, 13 SB.
Dariel Lopez: DNP
Will Wilson(2 teams): .216/.299/.296.
Koss is an interesting depth option. Lopez spend the entire season on the IL and has not played since 2022. We've discussed Will Wilson several times. Hard to see him not being released by the new management regime.
AA:
Diego Velasquez(2 teams): .288/.368/.384, 4 3B, 4 HR, 21 SB, 488 PA.
Velasquez is a serious prospect who was an international bonus baby in 2021, is still just 21 yo and has another year of development before he has to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft. He more than held his own after a promotion to AA which is where many positional prospects hit the wall. Prospects who can play at AA are generally considered almost ready to play MLB. He might actually be #2 on the depth chart behind Fitzgerald.
A+:
Aeverson Arteaga(2 teams): .209/.308/.319, HR, 3 SB, 104 PA.
Cole Foster(2 teams): .213/.293/.318, 11 HR, 9 SB, 335 PA.
I've been bullish on Arteaga but he lost most the the season to an injury. 2025 will be critical to see if he can fully recover. He's a guy who still needed a lot of development before the injury. Foster has been a disappointment at the plate since he was a 3'rd round draft pick in 2023.
A:
Zander Darby: .234/.351/.489, 4 HR, 57 PA.
Walker Martin(2 levels): .218/.391/.362, 8 HR, 6 SB, 128 K, 312 PA.
Maui Ahuna(2 levels): .268/.369/.394, 4 HR, 8 SB, 149 PA.
Ramon Peralta(2 levels): .239/.352/.374, 194 PA.
An interesting collection of prospects here. Darby is the new draftee out of college who could be a fast riser. Martin is a bit of an enigma so far. Shows great size and tools but the K rate is through the roof even for a HS draftee in his first full season. Will need to figure out how to cut those down. Ahuna is a plus defensive SS when healthy. Can he stay healthy and will he hit enough? Peralta has been slow riser. Signed in the same internations cycle as Diego Velasquez.
ACL:
None.
Martin, Ahuna and Peralta took most of the innings at SS here before moving up late.
DSL:
Jhonny Level: .275/.393/.517, 10 HR, 18 SB, 215 PA.
Yosneiker Rivas: .245/.408/.345, 181 PA.
Keiberg Camacaro: .225/.398/.314, 4 SB, 133 PA.
Jhonny Level is one of the more exciting young prospects in the Giants system. I am pretty sure I will rank him in at least the top 10 of my Top 50 Giants prospect list. I was hoping to see more of a progression from Camacaro after he got a full DSL season at age 16 and showed some pop and speed.
2024-2025 Free Agent Shortstops:
Willy Adames
Ha Seong Kim($8 M mutual option with $2 M buyout):
Nick Ahmed
Tim Anderson
Brandon Crawford
I only put Ahmed, Anderson and Crawford on the list to show how shallow it is. Adames and Kim are really the only upgrades available and Kim comes with significant injury concerns.
Summary: I would say the Giants should go after Kim except he just had surgery to repair the labrum on his shoulder and throwing is kind of important for a SS. He is also not expected to be ready to start the season although may be fairly early. I just think we saw enough of signing players coming off injuries in the FZ Era. Willy Adames is definite substantial upgrade, but the only one on the market and there will be a whole lot of teams pursuing him. If it's not Adames, I would say stick with Fitzgerald with Diego Velasquez coming up fast as depth. Beyond Velasquez the organization has multiple interesting prospects in the pipeline and could get a big addition if they sign the #1 international prospect in January as expected.
Will David Villar be written off?
ReplyDeleteHis MLB efforts haven't been stellar, although 2024 wasn't all bad: in just 37 PAs his OPS+ was a positive 105, while slashing .257/.270/.457/.727, but he struck out 13 times with only 1 walk.
This demonstrates the problem of getting called up when the team is trying to put its best team on the field, although, in the 11 games he played, the Giants were 6-5 (equates to 88 wins in a season) and one of the losses was an extra inning game with LA when his 10th inning pinch hit drove in the tying run but Hjelle gave up 7 runs in the top of the 11th.
Had Villar come up as a 2B rather than a 3B (or 1B which he did some of for SF), his numbers would look a lot better.
I am pretty sure David Villar is out of options and I have a hard time seeing a pathway for him to make the Opening Day roster. Most likely a trade or DFA in his future. I long predicted an Adam Duvall type career for him including most likely with some other team(s).
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