The San Francisco Giants have had the worst outfield in the Major Leagues this year, and now it’s getting a shakeup. However, it’s not the performance that is causing that shakeup, but rather injuries.
On Wednesday, ahead of their game against the Cincinnati Reds, the Giants announced that starting center fielder Harrison Bader and fourth outfielder Jared Oliva had both been placed on the 10-Day IL. Bader, whose IL stint is retroactive to April 12, has a left hamstring strain, which appears to be a lingering
issue from a Spring Training injury. Oliva is headed to the IL with a left wrist hamate fracture, though it’s unclear when that injury was sustained (he did have what appeared to be a very minor collision with the wall in yesterday’s loss).
Taking their places on the roster are outfielders Drew Gilbert and Will Brennan, who have been recalled from AAA Sacramento.
It could be a blessing in disguise for the Giants. Their outfield has been miserable, but it seemed unlikely that they would bench Bader, Jung Hoo Lee, or Heliot Ramos anytime soon. You don’t ever wish for an injury, but it does open the door for some new players to get some playing time, and potentially run with it. Both Brennan and Gilbert have been playing well — not great, but well — in Sacramento this year. Brennan is hitting .392/.389/.549 with one home run and a 149 wRC+, while Gilbert is slashing .289/.389/.400, with one home run and a 122 wRC+. Both players have regularly been playing all three outfield spots in AAA.
As for the injured players, Bader’s first year with the Giants has been a disaster thus far, as he’s hit just .115/.145/.192 with one home run, a -7 wRC+, and a team-worst -0.6 fWAR. Oliva has hit 1-7 while playing almost exclusively as a pinch-runner prior to filling in for Bader. It’s a tough break for Oliva, who beat the odds to make the Opening Day roster, and will now likely be shelved for quite a while.
It will be interesting to see how Tony Vitello and the front office allocate playing time for the new outfield arrangement, especially since Gilbert and Brennan are both left-handed hitters replacing right-handed hitters (on a team woefully lacking in lefties). Gilbert is an exciting prospect who is wholly unproven at the MLB level, while Brennan is a known entity but has been a comfortably below-average hitter in 866 career plate appearances in the pros. We also don’t know how the Giants view the center field defensive situation with Bader sidelined: Gilbert has looked good there in limited action, Brennan has been serviceable with a fair amount of experience there, and Lee spent all of last year as the center fielder, and slid over to fill in for Bader on Sunday.
These are the first transactions that the Giants have made on the hitting front this year, despite being at or near the bottom in virtually every offensive category. That’s been doubly true for the team’s outfielders who, as a unit, rank 29th in batting average (.189), 30th in on-base percentage (.221), 29th in slugging percentage (.264), 30th in walk rate (4.2%), 30th in wRC+ (36), and 30th in fWAR (-1.6).
