Ron Wotus and Wilmer Flores. Kareem Elgazzar-Imagn Content Services, LLC
These were not supposed to be the Giants’ problems, but perhaps they can become the Giants’ solutions.
Their cumulative OPS for second basemen is .641, 23rd best in baseball for the position. They have struggled mightily in left field, where their combined negative-.4 WAR (via Baseball Reference) is 24th in MLB. Their right-field numbers are on the rise — a combined .778 OPS is now eighth in the majors — but Mike Yastrzemski had been batting .202 through his first 24 games.
Not anymore. The right fielder may have turned a corner, slashing .296/.367/.704 in seven games after an IL stint for an oblique strain. He has homered in back-to-back games, his Monday blast against Vanderbilt pal Sonny Gray an especially encouraging bomb.
He has started swinging better. Wilmer Flores provided a few swings that the club hopes mean he is following suit. Alex Dickerson has returned from the injured list at a time when he traditionally begins hitting better, and Donovan Solano should not be far behind him.
The Giants’ offense is distinctly average about a quarter of the way through the season, averaging 4.37 runs per game, which is good for 16th in a 30-team field. They have been buoyed by the play from their catchers and shortstops — which might not be as surprising as it sounds, upon second thought — and their pinch-hitters have helped plenty. But there is reason to believe that the facet of the club that projected as its strength will be more than middling the rest of the way.
“It’s been a slow start for a lot of us, but we’re not keeping our heads down,” Flores said Monday. “We know what we’re capable of.”
Flores has been the slowest starter. Among the most consistent bats in last year’s shortened season, he has been leaned upon heavily this year because of injuries to Solano and Tommy La Stella at second, which was expected to be a point of strength. It has not, and Flores has scuffled while facing all types of pitchers.
Last year the righty bat was used primarily against lefties, a luxury that has not been afforded this season. Pitchers have thrown him more breaking pitches, which he has not hit well. He is trying to follow the hitting philosophy of the team and wait for his right pitch, which has resulted in an uptick of walks, but he hasn’t found enough to crush.
“I think it’s just the way pitchers are approaching you right now,” Flores said. “They don’t want to give anything good to you to hit, and sometimes you got to be patient.”
He found a sinker that got too much of the plate and served it to right for a home run and turned on a four-seamer that would have been a double had he not popped up off second base Monday. It was an encouraging offensive game from a player whose struggles have not been luck-based. His expected batting average is .197.
“We knew that Flores was going to win a baseball game for us,” Gabe Kapler said after the 6-3 win, in which the day’s third baseman had three hits and two RBIs. “We knew it was just a matter of time, and I thought he had excellent at-bats today.”
If he has not turned a corner, perhaps he is approaching the intersection. The Giants would like Dickerson to do the same.
Dickerson was activated Sunday after a shoulder injury sidelined him 10 days, and he’s 1-for-6 in the brief time after not requiring a minor league rehab assignment. He started cool last year, too, and has said that it usually takes him about 100 plate appearances to feel comfortable with the bat. He’s now at 90, and he has shown no comfort with a .205/.267/.325 slashline. He is not getting on base enough, not hitting for much power (three homers) and not damaging righty pitchers, which he has done since he came aboard with the Giants in 2019.
There is time, and his history of needing time provides more hope.
For Yastrzemski, less a middle-of-the-order bat and more commonly found at the top, it seems his time is now.
The 2020 MVP candidate has awoken and is suddenly up to an .822 OPS. Pitchers will continue to try to get him out with breaking pitches, but he has begun hammering mistakes. The worry is his splits — he is doing the damage against righties — but the Giants have enough outfield complements to shore up the spot if he continues his struggles against southpaws.
So if Yastrzemski is back, and Flores plays more like he did last year, and Dickerson is the next to come alive, and Solano, who played seven rehab innings with Sacramento on Monday, returns soon — perhaps for the start of Friday’s home series against the Dodgers — there is reason to believe the Giants’ starting pitching does not have to carry the same weight it’s been lugging all season.