One reason to be optimistic about every hitter
Every hitter who's likely to be around in April, at least. No Casey Schmitt...yet.
Here we are, in part 2 of our Forced Preseason Optimism feature. Last time, we looked at the pitchers who were likely to be on the Giants in the early parts of the year. This time, we’ll look at the hitters.
Remember, we’re not looking at prospects here, so Marco Luciano and Casey Schmitt and Heliot Ramos (still technically a prospect) will have to wait their turns. We just want to look at the guys who we’re pretty sure will get playing time and ask, why will they be good?
Because they’ll be good. They’ll all be good. It’ll be a beautiful miracle and nothing will go wrong every again. And it will start with every hitter on the San Francisco Giants being good. For example, Joey Bart!
Joey Bart — Did Joey Bart look awful for long stretches of last year? He sure did. But he also had stretches where he hit the ball pretty well. And overall, he wasn’t that bad. He had a wRC+ of 90, which is no great shakes, but was 29th out of the 70 catchers who had at least 100 plate appearances. When you raise it to 250 PAs, he’s still 17th out of 37. And after a full year in the big leagues, he should be more prepared and more able to attack major league pitchers.
Roberto Perez — He doesn’t even have to hit to be useful! Sure, it would be great if he could throw up a 100-ish OPS+ season like he did last year (pre-injury), and in 2019, and in 2015, but even absent that kind of offensive production, his glove is good enough to justify his roster spot. Do we want him to hit? Sure. But we really want him to catch, and that’s basically all he has to do.
Blake Sabol — He crushed the ball in Spring Training. Don’t listen to the haters. He could be a real good player, acquired for almost nothing.
LaMonte Wade Jr — Health! When Wade was healthy in 2021, he had a great year. When his body wasn’t right in 2022, he didn’t. From all reports, he felt good at the end of Spring Training this year, so that should lead to another solid year.
Wilmer Flores — Aw, Wilmer! Who doesn’t like Wilmer Flores? Nobody. Nobody doesn’t like Wilmer Flores. No matter where he goes, he has…friends. Also, last year he set a career high for homers, so he can just keep that going and be just fine.
JD Davis — He hits the ball hard against everyone. Not only was Davis among the league leaders in hard hit rate last year, but he did it entirely without platoon splits, hitting .245/.344/415 against lefties, and .252/.335/.421 against righties. Plus, he got much better when he came to San Francisco, with a 142 wRC+, compared to 102 with the Mets. He’s primed for a real good year.
Thairo Estrada — All Estrada has done since coming to San Francisco is be a good player. In his 132 PAs in 2021 he was solid, and last year he fell off that pace a bit, but was still an above average hitter playing middle infield. Best of all, he maintained his production all year, with a 106 wRC+ in the first half and a 107 wRC+ in the second half. He had some early struggles in 2022, got through them, and has been solid ever since.
Isan Diaz — Isan Diaz is a perfect angel and I can’t believe anyone would be pessimistic about him.
Brandon Crawford — Brandon Crawford has something to prove. The Giants tried to go out and spend more than $300 million on a different guy to play shortstop, which didn’t work out, and left Crawford a little bit in the lurch. Now he has to go out there and prove that they never needed what’s-his-name, and that Crawford is still good enough. Besides, now that he’s out of you-know-who’s shadow, he can really shine.
David Villar — Villar is coming into the season as the presumed starter at third base, and having both that confidence and a real opportunity are important things for a young hitters. After some growing pains last year, he started to look a lot better at the plate in September and October, and if he can carry that success into 2023, he’ll be a threat at the plate.
Michael Conforto — Michael Conforto had a healthy spring. I know I already used that one for LaMonte Wade Jr, but Conforto was an established big league hitter who had trouble with his health for several years, and the mere fact of his being able to play baseball at full strength is a huge, huge deal. He was an offensive star for several years with the Mets, and he could be one again this year.
Joc Pederson — Joc Pederson was a legitimately phenomenal hitter last year, and there’s no reason to think he’ll slow down in 2023.
Mike Yastrzemski — Yaz, like every other player in baseball, is not going to face the overshift this year. That means fewer hits taken away from him, more balls getting through that otherwise wouldn’t, and fewer ways for opposing managers to scheme against him. His numbers should get better without having to face that infernal shift.
Austin Slater — Slater’s gonna be a little late getting started this year, with a hamstring injury knocking him out for at least 2-3 weeks. But once he works his way back, he’ll hopefully be able to improve on his 2022, which was by fWAR his best year (he hit better in the shortened 2020 season, though it’s anyone’s guess whether that would have held up over 162 games). If he can add his improved 2021 power to his typically good walk rate, he’ll have a career year.
Mitch Haniger — Haniger did not have a good season last year. But if he’d had a good season, then the Giants would probably have been outbid for him. Because he had a down year, they were able to acquire a good player, put him in the hands of their development staff and medical people, and (when his oblique heals) reap the benefits.
Bryce Johnson — He’s so fast. I mean, my God, he’s so fast. If he started all year, he’d steal 50 bases even if he had a .290 OBP. Hopefully, he’ll be better than that, but anytime he gets on base, watching him run the bases will be an absolute delight.
Brett Wisely — Brett Wisely is a human Swiss Army Knife. Last year, he played first base, second base, third base, shortstop, and left field in the minors, and the team gets a huge amount of value from him being a neo-Zobrist. It’s entirely possible he has some work to do in AAA, but don’t be too surprised to see Wisely in San Francisco this summer, both playing and smacking the ball all over the yard.