Mike Yastrzemski was a great San Francisco Giant in his six seasons with the team. Now he’s moved on to the place where so many former Giants end up: the Atlanta Braves.
Yaz signed a two-year, $23M contract
with the Braves, essentially to provide a reliable veteran corner outfielder with excellent defense and adequate hitting for an Atlanta team that badly needed it last season after injuries forced them to give nearly 500 plate appearances to Eli White and Alex Verdugo, a man who is allergic to his own tattoos. But also provides the Braves with one of their favorite type of players, which is ones who used to be on the San Francisco Giants.
The Giantification of the Braves started in November, when the Braves traded Nick Allen for Mauricio Dubon, the utility player who won two Gold Gloves and a World Series ring with the Houston Astros after the Giants traded him for…catcher Michael Papierski, who went 0-for-9 with a walk in five games before being released. Nice move, Farhan!
Last year’s Braves played Luke Williams for 39 games and got cameo appearances from Forever Giants Brett Wisely and Chadwick Tromp. They also gave 51 at-bats to Stuart Fairchild, who allegedly played five games for the 2022 Giants, though I have no memory of that happening.
In 2024, Atlanta re-acquired former players Jorge Soler and Luke Jackson after half a season in orange and black made them irresistible, joining Williams, Tromp, and Adam Duvall, along with one-time Giants pitcher Pierce Johnson. The Braves even made a late-season trade for infielder Cavan Biggio, who played 12 games for the Sacramento RiverCats.
These players haven’t necessarily been good for the Braves. Often they’re not! Kevin Pillar hit .228 for the 2023 Braves. Williams hit .151 from 2023-25. Alex “Cheese Steak Shop” Dickerson hit .121 with a single home run in 13 games for the 2022 Braves, who also had one-game Giant Mike Ford. The Braves got the last two years of Pablo Sandoval’s career, all but the last eight games of Ehire Adrianza’s, and loved Charlie Culberson so much that they kept him on the big league roster for a month in 2023 to bat one single time, and let him try to convert to pitching at age 35.
Perhaps dramatically misreading how successful the Giants’ bullpen was in the second half of the 2010’s, the Braves built their bullpen around Mark Melancon and Will Smith in 2020.
Periodically it goes the other way, with Soler and Joc Pederson coming over from the Braves and both Tommy La Stella and Alex Wood joining the Giants after starting their career with the Braves. Kevin Gausman had a brief stint with the Braves in 2018-19, though he rebuilt his career with the Cincinnati Reds.
Why are former Giants so fascinating to the Braves? It may stem from the Giants’ upset win in the 2010 Division Series, after which the Braves won only two playoff games in the next eight years while the Giants collected three titles.
Perhaps losing to a rookie Buster Posey inspired the Braves to begin hoarding catchers. They still have Sean Murphy alongside Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin behind the plate, after two seasons with Murphy splitting time with Travis D’Arnaud. Before that, they had D’Arnaud and future All-Star William Contreras. None of that adds up to a Posey, but seeing a player who grew up 175 miles from Atlanta go on to star elsewhere could have had a lasting effect.
The Giants haven’t particularly exploited this orange and black obsession save through salary dumps. They got out of multiple years of Melancon and Soler’s contracts, though Tristan Beck was a nice bonus from the Melancon deal. However, if the Giants are struggling again come July, they’ve got one obvious place to (tomahawk) chop payroll.
