The Giants’ youth movement has been a boon to the team, which has won eight of its last 10 games and, following Monday’s win over the Phillies, sits in a Wild Card spot in the National League.
The park is near-full, the vibes are high, and a bunch of guys are poised to come off the injured list in the coming days.
Good times, right?
Let’s pump the brakes for a moment.
Because Michael Conforto, Austin Slater, and Nick Ahmed need a place to play.
And while in baseball, these kind of roster crunches often take care of themselves — LaMonte Wade’s hamstring injury on Monday has cleared at least one spot — the Giants find themselves with too many position players and not enough spots.
A good problem to have — if you can solve it right.
Pair that problem with the Giants’ lack of starting pitchers and the youth of some of the team’s top performers as of late, and there’s an undercurrent of precariousness to the entire San Francisco operation at the moment.
And I say we lean into the strangeness of it all.
There’s never been a better time for bold, brash moves.
Here are three suggestions I have. I’d love to hear yours — dkurtenbach@bayareanewsgroup.com
Hot: Move Sean Hjelle to the rotation and Keaton Winn to the bullpen
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» I see what the Giants have done with Hjelle — a former starter. They’ve turned him into a two-pitch, quality bullpen arm built to induce ground balls. It’s really good stuff.
But with the state of the Giants rotation, I think San Francisco should stretch the big man out once again.
The state of starting pitching in 2024 doesn’t make that transition all that difficult to imagine. Can Hjelle, who is ostensively the team’s long reliever, get the Giants halfway through a game — 4.2 innings?
I think he can. There aren’t many pitchers in baseball that can survive on two pitches — in Hjelle’s case a 95-mile-per-hour sinker and knuckle curve — but that combo could do it. Last year, Hjelle’s sinker was rated as 39 percent better than average per Fangraphs’ Stuff+ model. He’s taken a bit off it for the sake of control, but it’s still a plus pitch, in my estimation. His curveball is 18 percent better this season.
I say give the big man a change.
Meanwhile, take Keaton Winn’s heavy stuff, which included a sinker and slider that were being pounded when he was a starter, and turn him into a two-pitch reliever who has a 96-mile-per-hour fastball and a near-90-mile-per-hour split. That could be nasty in a one-inning scenario.
Winn in the bullpen is the likely long-term play, but with his arm injury, it’s the smart play in the short-term, as well.
As for Hjelle, he’s a placeholder, but he deserves the shot to prove he can be more. You can get away with a four- (or three-) man rotation late in a season, but it’s not yet June — the Giants need another starter and Winn isn’t the guy. Hjelle might be.
Hotter: Move Marco Luciano to first base
» Do you now see why I have been so publicly skeptical about Luciano at short?
It wasn’t just the game-changing errors, it was the laissez-faire attitude at the position — one that appears to have translated onto the basepaths, too.
There’s a lot to complain about with the 22-year-old Luciano, to be sure. Kids these days, am I right?
But my goodness can this kid hit.
And with Ahmed coming back into the fold in the not-so-distant future and Brett Wisely playing far too well to demote, the Giants appear to be on the precipice of sending Luciano — a player with an OPS over 1,000 — back to Sacramento.
Why not just send him to first?
I’ve long advocated to move Luciano to a corner outfield spot, but the corner of the infield will do in a pinch.
And make no mistake, the Giants are in a pinch at first.
Wade’s hamstring is going to keep him sidelined for a couple of weeks, meaning that it’s Wilmer Flores at first base until further notice.
Meanwhile, I’m noticing that Flores has lost some bat speed from last year, and he didn’t have much to lose.
Bless Flores, he doesn’t strike out and puts the ball in play, but so far this season, that hasn’t led to good things. He has an expected batting average of .207 and slugging percentage of .290. His actual numbers are .214 and .290 — meaning with all the data we have at our disposal, the machines believe the Flores we’ve seen is the Flores we’ll continue to receive.
That’s not good.
The culprit is an average swing that’s 65.7 miles per hour.
You have to hit the ball perfectly to do any damage with a bat that slow.
We don’t have Flores’ bat speed data from last season (I’d be the Giants have it, though), but well before MLB showcased their new Statcast toy a few weeks ago, there was plenty of chatter that Flores’ swing had lost a few ticks.
Until the man hits one more than 105 miles per hour, I’ll have to bet on him not returning to last year’s form. (A nearly inexplicable .368 wOBA.)
And while I’m constantly compared to fellow Mizzou Tiger Brad Pitt (for obvious reasons), I won’t pretend playing first base is easy.
But the Giants thought Luciano could play short — if he’s that athletic, surely he can figure out first base.
It’d keep his bat (and his hard-hit percentage of 55) in the lineup and end this shortstop charade.
Scalding: Trade for a shortstop — Bo Bichette
» Do I think this is going to happen?
No.
But that’s not to say it shouldn’t happen.
The vibes in Toronto are quite bad these days, and the rumor mill was working overtime on Memorial Day weekend.
Bless our friends to the north, they don’t freak out the way we do down here, but even SportsNet — SportsNet! — was asking “Has end of Guerrero Jr., Bichette era arrived earlier than expected for Blue Jays?”
If the Jays are going to sell, everyone’s first move will be to land Vlad Jr. I’d say he’d look good in black and orange, but he’d look good in anyone’s uniform — he’s an awesome player.
And, frankly, I don’t think the Giants can afford him.
But Bichette? He might be gettable.
And he’d sure up the shortstop position for at least the next two seasons and perhaps a long while yet.
A two-time All-Star and receiver of MVP votes in his first three full seasons, Bichette is off to a slow start, hitting just .247 with a .663 OPS.
I think it’s bad batted-ball luck and that he’ll be coming around soon enough.
But if the Jays want to put him on the block to shake things up, now is the time to buy. He might even be affordable for the Giants.
Bichette won’t be cheap — he’s in the penultimate year of his rookie contract – but his contract might keep prospect costs down.
I won’t pretend to know what the Blue Jays value, but the Giants have arms and solid depth in the minor-league system (even with recent promotions).
Again, I’m not saying it will happen — I’m saying it could.