The Giants went into 2008 with a 41-year old Omar Vizquel firmly entrenched as their starting shortstop, and we’re going to skip right past the recent revelations about his personal life because we’re not actually interested in Omar Vizquel right now, thank you very much.
“What could go wrong?” asked the Giants, in regard to relying on a 41-year old shortstop who had had a 61 OPS+ the previous year. “We don’t see any possible way for this to backfire!”
And then, alas and alack, it backfired. Vizquel got hurt before the season started and the team turned to Brian Bocock, who had had a .656 OPS between low-A and high-A the previous year. Bocock was quite bad, Vizquel eventually came back, he was also quite bad, the team tried stopgaps like Emmanuel Burriss and Ivan Ochoa, and then eventually October rolled around and the team didn’t have to field a shortstop anymore. Problem solved!
In 2008, the point is, the Giants had an iffy plan at shortstop with no real backup, and it bit them hard.
In 2024, right now, the Giants have an iffy plan at shortstop with no real backup, and folks, I don’t think that’s a good thing!
On the plus side, at least it’s an iffy plan for the exact opposite reason as it was 16 years ago.
Wait, 2008 was 16 years ago? That can’t be right. Must be a math error. It was really 6 years ago. I just added an extra 10 years because I’m rusty on doing math in my head. Seems like the most plausible answer. Just to be sure, I won’t use a calculator.
In 2008, Vizquel was old and creaky and his body just wasn’t going to stand up to the rigors of a 162-game season. By contrast, 2024 Luciano is entering his age 22 season, and while he’s had some health problems in his career so far, it’s reasonable to expect him to be healthy this season. Vizquel’s bat had slipped while his defense was still good; Luciano is known as a bat-first player who may well have to move off of shortstop within the next few years. They’re very different.
But it’s just as silly to not have a real backup option for Luciano as it was for Vizquel. For all his downsides, Omar Vizquel was an established big-leaguer and fringe Hall of Famer who had performed at a major league level for the Giants for three years (even if 2007 was a down year offensively, his defense was still good enough that he was a big leaguer). And for all his potential upside, Luciano is completely unproven in the majors.
Heck, Luciano is still pretty unproven in the upper minors. Last year in Richmond — the place where he performed the best — he hit just .228 and struck out 30% of the time. It wasn’t a bad year — he drew a lot of walks and hit for good power — but it wasn’t one that screams “Major league ready!” at you. He then moved up to Sacramento, where he hit .209 and struck out 36% of the time, and with the big league team he hit .231 and struck out 38% of the time.
Again, there were plenty of things that Marco Luciano was doing well (his exit velocity was spectacular, for example). I am not saying that we should give up on him in any way. But everything about his offensive numbers last year suggests that big league pitchers will be able to get him out. I am sure that he will grow and learn and develop this season, but even still, it’s hard to see him taking the quantum leap that he needs to take in order to be a productive hitter at the highest level.
Just to go through a few more things he needs to work on: Luciano doesn’t make enough contact — his 58.9% contact rate is abysmal. He absolutely beats the ball into the ground, with half of his balls in play at both the major league and AAA levels ending up as grounders. Even that .231 major league average is an illusion — it came with a .409 BABIP. That major league sample was a measly 45 plate appearances, but they weren’t good ones, and neither were his 78 PAs in AAA.
So now what? Well, here’s where we come to the real meat of the problem, because the Giants don’t currently have much of a Plan B. The only other guy listed at shortstop on the online depth chart is Tyler Fitzgerald, who certainly performed better than Luciano at every level last year, but doesn’t have nearly the physical tools, and is equally unproven in the bigs. Thairo Estrada is also able to play shortstop, but there isn’t really a compelling alternative at second base, so unless you’re sold on Brett Wisely for some reason, that doesn’t really help. Casey Schmitt is also a human baseball player who I should acknowledge here, so I’m doing that, but again, we can’t really expect major league success out of him, as we saw in 2023.
So, currently in the organization we have a bunch of guys, all of whom whom are wearing Matthew Lesko-style question mark suits. Any of them could be perfectly fine players but not one of them can be expected to end up there. What’s the answer to that? Go out and sign a minor league free agent, like a Donovan Solano-type, if you’re lucky. Of course, odds are that you won’t end up with Donnie Barrels; you’ll likely end up with Donnie Walton. Do you remember the Yangervis Solarte era? Daniel Robertson? Ruben Tejada? That’s how most of these signings end up, which is not a great sign.
What’s the answer then? What do they do? I don’t know, but Trade For Another Thairo Estrada plan seems to be a strong contender, as long as they can find one. Or they could stick with Luciano, hope for the best, and then should the plan fall apart, deflect blame by saying, “Hey, we tried to play the kids.” People do love playing the kids. Maybe it would work!
But it would be a major upset if it worked on a baseball field. The Giants have to do something, and yes I will accept a Pulitzer in sports journalism for that idea. They probably should have already figured something out. Maybe they tried and it didn’t work. I wouldn’t know, and anyway it seems implausible that the San Francisco Giants front office would strike out on a player they are trying to acquire.
Right now, though, Matt Chapman or not, the Giants have to be worried about shortstop. It would be a boon and a delight if Marco Luciano could simply and smoothly take over from Brandon Crawford, but you can’t rely on that. The team has to have a Plan B somewhere. It just isn’t in view at the moment.
Farhan plan- We will wait for some overthe hill player to be released and then sign him as the back-up and then cut him 1 month later because there was a reason that player was cut. . Sign Crawford or I'm ok with Schmitt or Fitzgerald. No more other teams cast-offs as the solution.
Gracias! 4 ruining my coffee with your Pithy comments, Maestro.
Now I see thru the tissue of lies and the web of deceit that the F.O (and most of the Beat Writers!) have foisted off on us.
"Silk out of a pig's ear," I say!