The Giants signed Austin Jackson, but they’re betting big on Steven Duggar.
Though the soon-to-be 31-year-old Jackson inked a two-year deal with San Francisco on Monday evening, vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean and general manager Bobby Evans were cautious with the way they spoke about Jackson during a Tuesday phone call with Giants beat reporters.
After hitting .318 with an on-base percentage of .387 for the Cleveland Indians in a role as the team’s fourth outfielder last season, Jackson signed with a club desperate for immediate help in center field following a trade of Denard Span to the Tampa Bay Rays.
At the outset of the offseason, Sabean and Evans determined the franchise couldn’t move forward with Span –a terrible defensive player– as the team’s starting center fielder. Though the Giants had multiple voids to address following a 64-98 season, the franchise’s top decision-makers perceived center field defense as its greatest weakness, even after San Francisco finished dead last in the Major Leagues with just 128 home runs last year. So by jettisoning Span to Tampa Bay in a cash-neutral swap for Evan Longoria, the Giants accomplished two significant goals: 1) Stabilize third base and 2) Open a roster spot for a new center fielder.
Though it took more than a month following the Longoria trade to acquire a player the Giants view as capable of handling center field at AT&T Park, San Francisco finally found its man on Monday night with the addition of Jackson. “Its man,” though, isn’t exactly the best way to describe how the Giants view the eight-year Major League veteran. While all signs point to Jackson starting in center field on Opening Day at Dodger Stadium this year, Sabean admitted Tuesday that Jackson is “probably not” going to serve as a mainstay at that position this season.
Instead, the Giants hand-selected Jackson from a deep pool of average free agent outfielders that includes Jarrod Dyson, Jon Jay and Cameron Maybin to ensure the franchise would enjoy maximum flexibility with its outfield depth moving forward.
“He’s (Jackson) a very strong complementary player that’s going to be valuable not only to deepen our roster in the outfield but seeing how things play out in Spring Training, for playing time in center field,” Sabean said Tuesday. “He had a really nice season with Cleveland last year.”
The word “complementary” is critical to understanding how the Giants see Jackson’s piece to their puzzle, because San Francisco doesn’t anticipate Jackson sticking at one position or becoming the team’s top-of-the-lineup cure. Two of the primary reasons Jackson fits the Giants’ short-term and long-term visions is because he’s a cheap signing whose salary keeps San Francisco under the $197 million luxury tax threshold and whose presence also clears a path for Duggar to contribute at the Major League level in 2018.
“We don’t know exactly what’s going to transpire between now and Spring Training, how Duggar may or may not rear his head,” Sabean said. “He’s (Jackson’s) certainly a viable option. Did we get him to be our everyday center fielder? Probably not. I don’t know that in his recent history he’s been able to go out there in that fashion.”
Though Sabean and Evans didn’t rule out the possibility of trading for a true starting center fielder, the Giants’ options are extremely limited based on the type of contracts the franchise is willing to assume. The Giants aren’t interested in signing a free agent to a multi-year deal, so Lorenzo Cain is off the board. They also can’t add an arbitration-eligible player like Boston’s Jackie Bradley, Jr. or Cincinnati’s Billy Hamilton without surpassing the luxury tax threshold, so the Giants aren’t planning on pursuing those types of deals. What San Francisco could do is add a pre-arbitration-eligible player like Milwaukee’s Keon Broxton or Washington’s Michael Taylor, but doing so would likely cost the team a significant amount of prospect capital that it’s hoping to hold onto.
While the Giants are unwilling to rule out any possibilities that might upgrade their roster, in reality, the team doesn’t have many avenues left to take. Following the Jackson signing, it now appears as if the franchise will let Duggar compete for a platoon job with Jackson in center field during Spring Training, with the hope the Giants can field an Opening Day roster that includes a right-handed hitting veteran and a young, rangy left-handed prospect who can ease into the role of becoming an everyday starter.
“It does afford us an opportunity to…get younger, if you leave a door open to protect a younger player like a Steven Duggar and complement him with a right-handed hitter in the event that Duggar is ready and does make the club,” Evans said, when asked about adding a right-handed center field option like Jackson. “It does afford Boch some flexibility and options on a day-to-day basis to protect him.”
Regardless of whether Duggar makes the team or not, the Giants are in a much better situation than they were at the outset of the offseason. Manager Bruce Bochy conveyed that message Tuesday, detailing how excited he was for the season and how the flexibility with his options in the outfield has encouraged him to begin drawing up possible lineup combinations.
In an ideal world for the Giants, Duggar would perform at a high enough level in Scottsdale, Arizona this spring that the team could justify keeping him on their 25-man roster. Doing so would allow San Francisco to field a starting outfield featuring Hunter Pence in left field, Andrew McCutchen in right field and a platoon of Jackson and Duggar in center. Because they’re out of Minor League options, Jarrett Parker and Gorkys Hernandez would likely battle for the fifth outfielder job, but with Duggar already providing a plus-glove in the outfield, Parker should have an edge.
“We’ll see this Spring,” Evans said about the possibility of Duggar starting the season with the Major League club. “It’s possible and we’re open-minded and we don’t need to make that decision right now but from talking to Steven Duggar this winter as well as in the Fall League, that’s his goal and his hope but the spring and his performance will really dictate that. The performance in the spring can’t be over-evaluated and over-read but you also want to take it into account. We do need to see him healthy and strong as well as how everybody else looks in spring as well.”
If Duggar isn’t prepared to hit against Major League-caliber right-handers at the start of the season, the Giants will encounter a serious predicament. Early spring struggles from Duggar might force Evans to reconsider trade options, which could be harder to come by until the end of spring once other teams settle on their starting outfielders.
In the event the Giants cannot swing a trade to add a more polished outfielder, San Francisco could start the season with Pence in left, Jackson in center and McCutchen in right, with Parker and Hernandez providing relief when needed. Hernandez’s glove becomes a more valuable asset if Duggar is forced to the Minor Leagues, while Parker’s left-handedness and lack of options should afford him an opportunity to beat out Austin Slater, who still has options, for a Major League roster spot.
Slater should be rooting for Duggar to make the team, because if Duggar outperforms his peers and Slater proves more valuable than Parker, San Francisco could consider cutting ties with the 29-year-old.
The other two outfielders who will have a chance to make noise this spring are Mac Williamson and Chris Shaw. Jackson’s signing should complicate matters for Williamson, but Shaw has a realistic shot to contribute in the Major Leagues by the end of the year. If the Giants determine they need to a player to platoon with Pence in left, more Minor League seasoning could help Shaw surpass Parker on the organizational depth chart at some point in 2018.
Ultimately, the Giants’ outfield depth chart is a very fluid one, but the signing of Jackson made a few key points quite clear. Evans and Sabean are still determined to stay under the luxury tax threshold this year, and there’s no player they’ll be rooting for harder this spring than Duggar.