2025 MLB stats: 26 PA, 22 G, .091/ .160/ .182, 7.7 BB%, 42.3 K% AAA: 510 PA, .250/ .329/ .512, .167 ISO, 10.8 BB%, 27.1 K%, 27 SB
Grant McCray’s entire 2025 season, in terms of significance, spanned roughly
five minutes on September 12th.
In the bottom of the 9th inning of a tied game against the Dodgers, McCray pinch ran for Luis Matos at third. We know that none of what happened then matters now. LA would go on to win the World Series… again; the Giants wouldn’t make the playoffs…again — but on that day in that moment of that game in mid-September, the jell-o hadn’t set yet. The future was all malleable, in flux. Hope lived, and however improbable and far off it was, the Giants were still playing for something.
So, ninety feet from scoring the winning run, Grant McCray revved his engines with purpose as a shallow fly floated out to center…
Rally killed. Inning over. Momentum lost. McCray must’ve been as hot as a kettle running out to right field. It was just his 14th appearance of the year. It had been roughly a month since he recorded a put-out in the field or logged a plate appearance. On August 2nd, in his first start, he lined an RBI single and a 9th inning triple in a blowout loss against the Mets and hadn’t reached base since. Pinch running in bottom of the 9th was his one chance to play hero and all fate would afford him was a shallow fly to one of the better centerfield arms in the league.
Frustration still steamed from his ears as the 10th got underway, and on the second pitch of the inning, fate doled out another routine fly for McCray…
Every ounce of accrued bitterness was transferred into the baseball as McCray stepped into his throw, those pent-up emotions acting as jet-fuel for his 101 MPH laser that skipped off the infield glass and propelled forward, bouncing two more times before arriving at its target.
Out by a mile. Rally killed. Momentum regained. It was an electric moment. One of the season’s best and most clutch defensive plays in one of the season’s best games precipitating one of the season’s best endings.
The expression says it all. All angry, and smokey eyed. The throw wasn’t just a reminder to the fans, but a reminder to himself: this is what I’m capable of. There’s whip in his lithe frame. Power in his gorgeous left-handed swing. McCray does not run, he glides around the bases.
This raw athleticism is what makes McCray so hard to dismiss. The Giants desperately needs his speed — they just really don’t need another bottomless pit of offense. A 40% whiff rate and a 40% strikeout rate isn’t going to cut it, and the fact that he hasn’t been able to translate his improved K-numbers (27% in Triple A last year) at the Major League level has been a bummer for all parties involved.
That being said, he remains on the 40-Man roster. Luciano, Meckler, Weimer were DFA’d; McCray wasn’t. He survived the outfield roster purge for a reason. While most of his performance across his 156 plate appearances and 59 Major League games has been forgettable, there have been moments that have left an impression. The outfield assist against LA was one of them. His seven-pitch battle with hard-thrower Juan Morillo in the 11th that ended in a sacrifice fly is another flash of positivity. Probably nothing…but what if it was something?
As I wrote in my recent Luis Matos review, perceived potential and athleticism should carry more weight than results given McCray’s sporadic and brief playing time in a Giants uniform. He’s young and got more options which gives him roster flexibility thus more value to the front office. Expect to see more of him in 2026, especially if he starts to exhibit noticeable growth in regards to his contact rates, his ability to work walks, as well as steal bases. While Matos is the front-runner for the right-field opening (if it were to be filled in-house), I think one of the more interesting Spring Training battles will be between McCray and Drew Gilbert to fill the outfield depth role.
