SAN FRANCISCO–On Monday evening at AT&T Park, the San Francisco Giants will field a nine-man lineup featuring eight left-handed hitters.
The only righty manager Bruce Bochy will send up to the plate against Cubs’ starter Jake Arrieta is All-Star catcher Buster Posey, whose .387 on-base percentage against right-handed pitchers this season will keep him in the lineup regardless of who the Giants face.
The decision to sit a veteran like Hunter Pence, a hot-hand like Nick Hundley, and one of the team’s most productive hitters in the past few months, outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, is a product of not only who the Giants are right now, but what they’ll look like moving forward for the remainder of the regular season.
Despite a 44-69 record that slots the Giants 7.5 games behind the San Diego Padres for the fourth-place spot in the National League West, Bochy has indicated that the Giants owe it to the players on their roster and the fans that still fill the seats at AT&T Park to attempt to win as many games as possible down the stretch.
While teams like Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox have already folded their hand, pulled back their money and elected to push their chips into a future tournament, the Giants have yet to demonstrate any indication that they’re playing for next season. Though passing the Padres feels like the only achievable milestone within the Giants’ reach this season, Monday’s lineup is a strong sign that the Giants are keeping their cards, and calling the dealer, even if betting against the house isn’t the right move.
Though it’s just August 7, San Francisco could have hired a bus to drive prospects Tyler Beede, Chris Shaw, Christian Arroyo, Andrew Suarez and Ryder Jones from Sacramento to the Bay Area at the beginning of July. Instead, only Jones was shuttled to China Basin, as Arroyo dealt with a hand injury while Beede, Shaw and Suarez received the consistent opportunities Giants’ management wanted them to take advantage of at AAA.
In his first stint with San Francisco, Jones received 21 at-bats, and recorded a base hit in just one of them. The 23-year-old corner infielder (and corner outfielder, for that matter) began his career 0-for-17 before finally recording a single, and a few plate appearances later, he took a pitch to the hand that derailed any progress he was making.
After a brief stint with the Sacramento River Cats, Jones hit his way back to the big league level, and in the coming weeks, Bochy said Jones will receive regular at-bats. Despite an 0-for-13 spell at the plate, Jones is in the Giants’ lineup and hitting seventh against Arrieta and the Cubs.
“I’m going to let him (Jones) go,” Bochy said. “He was up here earlier and he’s going to get playing time here and he knows that. That was a fairly tough matchup for him yesterday but you know what, you’re going to have a lot of tough matchups in this game. This is a growing process that these guys have to go through. He’ll figure it out. He did a good job in the PCL and you look at the numbers with the way he was swinging the bat and getting on base. He’ll get some consistent at-bats here and maybe the occasional pitcher we’ll give him a break on.”
With Eduardo Nunez now a member of the Boston Red Sox and Jae-gyun Hwang and Conor Gillaspie both carrying averages below .200 entering the month of August, the Giants were also out of reliable options at third base, leaving them in an ideal situation to give Jones an extended look at third base when they decided to call him up.
But immediately after Jones was re-called from Sacramento, Giants’ first baseman Brandon Belt was hit in the helmet and placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list, which left San Francisco short on corner infielders. That opened a void on the roster, and instead of giving Shaw his first Major League opportunity, the Giants purchased the contract of 30-year-old infielder Pablo Sandoval.
Even with Sandoval on the roster, Jones figures to seize a significant amount of playing time in the coming weeks, but when Belt does return to the lineup, it’s unclear how Bochy will set the Giants’ lineup on a day-to-day basis.
This much is certain, though: Expect a constant rotation of players, and for Bochy to play the hottest hands as frequently as possible, much as he would in the heat of a pennant race.
After Bochy insisted Jones would play regularly on Monday afternoon, I asked the Giants’ skipper if that meant it was important for Jones to see left-handed pitching more often, as he only registered 34 at-bats against southpaws with the River Cats this season. Though Jones slammed 10 hits in 34 at-bats against lefties at AAA, he’s 0-for-his-first-11 against them in the Major Leagues, and in many of his at-bats, he’s appeared off balance on breaking pitches.
“I think it is going to be important that he does see lefties but at the same time, we’re still going to try to finish strong here and finish ballgames,” Bochy said. And you know, just like whether it’s Pence or Brandon Crawford, and when I do, I like to pick a pitcher that I’m going to give them a break to.”
What Bochy is attempting to convey is that Jones will clearly be a fixture in the Giants’ lineup, especially with Belt on the disabled list, but ultimately, when the Giants are up against left-handed pitchers, the Giants’ manager will likely use a few opportunities to put right-handed bats in the lineup and give Jones a breather.
On the surface, this plan of action may make the most sense for the Giants, especially in their current state. Jones is largely unfamiliar with Major League left-handers, so what’s the point of putting him in position to fail?
During the first half of the season, San Francisco used the same logic with other prospects, namely Arroyo, Beede, Suarez and Shaw. The Giants thought Arroyo was ready, and when they realized he needed more seasoning, they sent him back to AAA. Though giving Beede, Suarez and or Shaw a crack at the show in a lost season is the type of move the Padres, A’s and White Sox are willing to make, it’s not the thought process currently employed by the Giants.
The Giants are careful to avoid rushing a prospect to the big league level, and rightfully so. Doing so can damage a player’s confidence, take a player out of rhythm or rob a player of consistent plate appearances or innings that would be more valuable at the Minor League level. But with 49 games remaining, the Giants might be missing out on a rare chance to develop younger talent that could become vital contributors to a 2018 team that San Francisco’s management hopes will compete near the top of the division.
By sitting Jones against left-handers over the next two months, the Giants are keeping a prospect who clearly needs more opportunities in those situations off the field, with the goal of fielding a more competitive lineup. And while the objective of a baseball team is to win, the Giants may be sacrificing the chance to develop players who can win in the future for meaningless victories in the present.
Whether their current strategy is sound won’t be determined until after the fact, but in the moment, the Giants are still going to play matchups and play the hot hand, in hopes that they’ll discover enough hands to keep the oven warmer longer in 2018.