Giants offseason preview: Should team just go young in outfield? originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — On his first Opening Day, Buster Posey’s left fielder was Pat Burrell, now his hitting coach. On his last Opening Day, it was Austin Slater, who recently signed with the Chicago White Sox, his fourth team over the last calendar year.
In between, Posey watched a different player take the field in left every single season. The Giants extended their streak of different Opening Day left fielders to 18 last year when Michael Conforto got the nod, and it’ll keep going next season. Heliot Ramos is likely to become the 19th different left fielder in 19 years, which would tie the MLB record.
It’s a position of change. Overall, though, the outfield might be as set as any group on the roster.
By signing Mike Yastrzemski to a one-year contract last Friday, the Giants brought back a valuable insurance option and gave themselves the makings of an everyday outfield. Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee and Yastrzemski might not be the most star-studded trio in the NL, but given the roster holes elsewhere — most notably shortstop and the rotation — the Giants look poised to spend most of their energy worrying about other spots.
After chasing Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and other superstars, they have stayed out of the mix on Juan Soto, who reportedly has five offers. They still could — and likely will — add to their outfield group, but at the moment it appears to be a position where going young might be the best option. Here’s a breakdown …
On the 40-man
Jerar Encarnación, Jung Hoo Lee, Marco Luciano, Luis Matos, Grant McCray, Wade Meckler, Heliot Ramos and Mike Yastrzemski are the current Giants outfielders, although there’s some flexibility there. Luciano is making a change after coming up as a shortstop and Meckler spent his final weeks at Triple-A taking grounders at second base, so he might end up as more of a utility guy.
What Went Right
On March 11, the Giants made their first significant round of spring cuts, sending 11 players to their minor league facility. The group included Ramos, who was optioned so early in part because teams have become increasingly wary of keeping 40-man players in camp too long since they go on the big league 60-day IL if they get hurt in camp. There was much more to it than that, though.
The Giants didn’t believe Ramos was one of their best outfielders. It’s as simple as that. They had five others set for their Opening Day roster and Matos stuck around all spring, putting a pretty big group in front of Ramos’ hopes of breaking through as a starter.
By the end of the season, he led Giants outfielders in Wins Above Replacement and looked like a building block.
The former first-rounder became the first homegrown Giants outfielder since Chili Davis in 1986 to reach the MLB All-Star Game and the first 24-or-under Giant to hit at least 20 homers since Pablo Sandoval in 2011. Ramos slowed in the second half, but still finished with 22 homers, 72 RBI and a .792 OPS despite not debuting until May 8. His memorable season included a homer at Rickwood Field and the first right-handed shot into McCovey Cove.
There were other big moments for the outfielders — from Matos’ Player of the Week fireworks to McCray’s late-season power display — but the biggest story of the year for the outfield was pretty easily Ramos’ breakthrough, a sigh of relief for an organization that had seemingly given up on him being an everyday player during the 2023 MLB season.
What Went Wrong
Jorge Soler was such a disappointment at DH that the Giants shipped him away at the deadline to get out from under the final two years of his contract, and a slumping Slater was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in July. Conforto was better than in 2023, but a lot of his production came after the team’s MLB playoff hopes had been dashed.
The biggest problem in the outfield, though, was the fence at Oracle Park. Lee crashed into it on May 12 and dislocated his left shoulder, leading to surgery to repair a torn labrum and stabilize his shoulder capsule. It was the second shoulder dislocation for an outfielder who signed one of the biggest contracts in franchise history and was meant to be the everyday leadoff hitter and center fielder.
Lee played just 37 games, and there’s not much to be gleaned from the numbers since there always was going to be an adjustment period as he came over from the KBO. He showed flashes of being a very good defensive center fielder and averaged 94.2 mph on his throws, which ranked sixth in baseball through the day he got hurt. He swung and missed at just 4.2 percent of the pitches he saw and had the third-lowest strikeout rate in MLB, so it certainly appears that his trademark bat control will work at the big league level.
Mostly, the injury was just a bummer. Lee quickly was becoming a fan favorite, and the Giants were hopeful he would bring real excitement to Oracle Park. They ended up having to wait a year.
Prospect to Watch
From Farhan Zaidi to Posey, nobody has made it officially official, but Luciano’s days as an infielder certainly appear to be over. Opposing scouts have long wondered why the Giants didn’t just stick him in a corner outfield spot, and after struggles at shortstop and second base, they had him start taking fly balls late in the year. That’ll be the offseason focus for a former top prospect who still is just 23 years old.
New GM Zack Minasian scouted Luciano when he was a 14-year-old in the Dominican Republic and said he remembers how the power stood out.
“He had a little bit bigger leg kick at the time and reminded me of Alfonso Soriano,” Minasian said on last week’s “Giants Talk.” “Sori was a guy who was an infielder and ended up going to left field and [was] athletic [with] big power, and Luci has that type of ability.”
If you take Luciano out of the mix, this is still an area of depth in a farm system that’s viewed as not being very strong at the moment. Three of the organization’s top five prospects are outfielders, per MLB Pipeline, with 2024 first-rounder James Tibbs III ranking second in the system behind first baseman Bryce Eldridge. The 22-year-old Tibbs should start next season with High-A Eugene.
The Giants went well over slot to sign fourth-rounder Dakota Jordan, a superb athlete with plus power and speed. In Jordan and 18-year-old Rayner Arias, they have a couple of very high-upside prospects, but both are pretty far away from the big leagues.
Potential Free-Agent Targets
Well, in theory, there’s Soto …
The next tier includes Teoscar Hernandez, Anthony Santander and Jurickson Profar, although the Giants probably need to secure a shortstop before dipping into those outfield waters. The best of the rest include Max Kepler, Tyler O’Neill and Alex Verdugo, with O’Neil standing out because he had a 1.180 OPS against lefties, which would make him an ideal fit alongside Yastrzemski.
There are plenty of old friends available, too: Conforto, Mark Canha, Joc Pederson, Adam Duvall, Kevin Pillar, Connor Joe and Mike Tauchman.
The Big Offseason Question
At just about every position, Posey and Minasian need to decide how much rope they want to give to younger players, but it’s particularly intriguing in the outfield.
Matos had a rough year overall, but he’s a 22-year-old who had two homers, three doubles and 16 RBI during a memorable week and he’s hitting .299 in winter ball. You could make a strong argument that the Giants should just commit to giving him 400 at-bats next year, which wouldn’t be hard to do given their current outfield and the fact that they don’t have an everyday DH.
Putting McCray with Lee in the outfield would be tremendous defensively, and he would bring some speed and power if the staff could stomach the strikeouts. Luciano has the highest upside of them all, and the hope is that moving him to the outfield unleashes his power.
The question for the Giants is simple: How many roadblocks do they want to put ahead of those three prospects?
They already have Encarnación and certainly could add another experienced outfielder or two, but at some point they also need to see what they have in their internal options, particularly Matos, who is the closest of the three to being an everyday big leaguer. Asked about Matos and Luciano earlier this month, Minasian pointed out that the most important stats for young position players are plate appearance and innings.
“For those two [it’s] just continuing to develop. Their ceilings are huge, and we’re trying to put them in a position where we can help them,” he said. “Buster has been public about trying to get Luci more outfield play and get him comfortable there and he certainly has the offensive tools, we’ve seen that. Matos won the National League Player of the Week at one point last year, so there’s a lot of ability there. But just continuing to get them consistent at-bats and games, I think, is the most important thing for their development path right now.”
That would seem to indicate they’ll start the year in Triple-A, but as the Giants saw with Ramos last year, there’s a lot of upside to letting a talented young outfielder take his reps at the big league level.
