Thursday, February 20, 2020
Spring Training Update: Who's Right for Right Field?
Right Field was Hunter Pence territory from 2012 through 2017 when he was healthy. Age and eroded his defensive skills and Pence is not pretty much limited to LF. Last year's Opening Day starter in RF was the unforgettable Michael Reed which did not last long. Kevin Pillar was put out there to keep Steven Duggar's superior D in CF, but Pillar was not comfortable with the position and eventually took over CF. That left Mike Yastrzemski to get most of the innings in right with a cameo from Jaylin Davis at the end of the season.
Right Field in Oracle Park is unique due to the short wall and endless grass in Triple Alley. Ideally you need a guy with enough speed and range to play CF in the position as the Giants have come to play Triples Alley like straightaway CF except for the RF to cover. Remember Gregor Blanco's catch to save Matt Cain's perfect game? How much that will change with the new field dimensions remains to be seen.
With that background, let's break down the RF candidates for 2020:
Mike Yastrzemski: We already talked about YtY in the Centerfield post, but he's probably be more likely to play RF in 2020 than CF. One problem is as the Giants add talent in the rebuild, YtY may find himself in a tweener state: Not enough bat for a corner OF and not enough D to play CF. It's just going to be hard for the Giants to not start him somewhere after what he did last season. How it plays out will be fascinating. If Jaylin Davis blows everybody away with a monster spring, does that force YtY to CF? But what if Billy Hamilton suddenly starts hitting line drives all over the field and drawing walks? Isn't he the superior defensive CF? Does YtY have enough juice in the bat to bump Dick to the bench in LF? And anyway, I'm writing YtY way too often here!
Jaylin Davis: Davis might be the closest the Giants have to a true 5-tool player in camp. Well, Mauricio Dubon might have something to say about that, but Davis is the guy you can dream on having a huge breakout while taking over RF in Oracle park.
Austin Slater: Slater is the forgotten man in The Churn. The talk right now is he is going to be getting innings at all 4 IF positions so he can be a super-utility player, but wait, I thought that was Mauricio Dubon's role! Or maybe Wilmer Flores! Slater still has to overcome a horrendous GB tendency and believe it or not, he still has an option, so it would take some combination of several injuries and faceplates by other players for him to make the team.
Putting It Together:
That's really it right there. I think it's going to be either Davis or YtY or a platoon of both starting in RF for the Giants in 2020. Davis is the guy I think FZ wants to grab the position with a great spring and not let it go. If he does that, Yastrzemski either moves over to CF or becomes 4'th OF moving among all 3 OF positions waiting for an opening. If Davis has a weak spring, he'll get optioned to Sacramento to keep working on his swing path with Yaz The Younger taking RF with an occasional day off against LHP's. Austin Slater is depth and will most likely start the season in Sacramento barring injuries or faceplants to other players ahead of him on the depth charts.
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The outfield is a mess unless 2 or more players achieve - or, perhaps more precisely, overachieve.
ReplyDeleteThe great thing about baseball is it could happen.
In the infield (including C), 2B is likely to be their best position unless there's some positive regression for the prematurely greybeards.
This shows why "rebuilding" is so difficult: the Giants, unlike say the Red Sox, have NO ONE to rebuild around until the savior appears from the system in 2021﹘2022﹘2023, pick one. Even then, other than Luciano who are the IFers?
This explains why FZ tried so hard to obtain a young and potential super star last year: Harper could be built around AND they had a place to put him (OF, not, say 3B).
Think how much less "fixing" the OF would need if Harper was there for the next zillion years. At least potentially.
Bart is probably not quite Posey, and, after Luciano, Whos on first to I Don't Know is the rest of the IF.
Rebuilding is hard - look for another hard charge on the almost as young Mookie Betts next offseason, then all the "overpaids" (except Longoria) graduate in one more year.
The worse they do this year, 90+ losses expected, the better the next draft choices but the harder to convince Betts to come to SF. The money will be there and wouldn't he look good in RF! He's already used to a huge RF in Boston.