Top prospects — and former top prospects — are moving all over the system! In just the last few hours, the Giants’ PD staff has broken news on three separate promotions — Hayden Birdsong, Grant McCray, and Seth Corry — and there are likely more to come. While Birdsong’s and Corry’s moves certainly make plenty of sense, the McCray move is more along the lines of things we saw last year pushing Marco Luciano, Luis Matos, and Wade Meckler at a rapid pace — with decidedly mixed results.
I closed up the post office before these moves were announced, so nobody asked but I’ll give you my opinion anyway: I think it’s hard to make the case that this promotion was developmentally “earned.” McCray has certainly been a lot better over the last month, but the fastballs above the belt and breaking balls down and away are still areas of development need for him. He’s a tremendous athlete, great defender, and very positive force of energy and intelligence on a team, but he’s hardly “dominated” his level the way Farhan Zaidi ….. well…used to say the team wants to see before they promote a player.
Anyway, let’s get to your questions.
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I want to begin by revisiting a question from last week’s bag, because I wasn’t totally satisfied with my answer.
The real answer that I think I wanted to give is that there is no “one weird trick,” nor one big move that is going to make the team sustainably competitive for a decade. There’s no silver bullet or golden ticket. Once in a great while, you see a team that develops an honest to goodness home grown core of 3-5 star position players within a couple years of each other — the Orioles now, the Braves about five years ago — but those teams are extremely rare. And, good news I suppose, they aren’t the only clubs who have managed to return over and again to post-season contention. The Dodgers, Yankees, Brewers, and Cardinals could all be said to have taken other paths in recent years, while teams that have successfully home-grown stars, like the Pirates and Royals, can still be going nowhere fast.
The real answer is competitiveness has to be built, as Farhan Zaidi often says, one good baseball move at a time. And, until you’ve accreted enough of those good baseball moves to have some year-to-year momentum on your side — which I believe mostly has to do with the players on hand creating a culture of winning — it has to be rebuilt continually. The Giants need more good players, and then they need to create a culture of winning and accountability that can be sustained. Perhaps we’re seeing part of that first process going on this year with players like Wade, Bailey, Lee, and Ramos all taking important development steps.
Nick Yatsko
Hi Roger - just want your perspective on the following - How do the Giants find a quality shortstop (grade 50 or 55) for the next year or two...Let’s assume Marco Luciano is not the answer at shortstop. It seems like Brett Wisely, Casey Schmitt, and Tyler Fitzgerald are not the answer. Looking at your rankings, it would appear that the best future SS's are at San Jose or below. Is this a correct assessment? So it seems the Giants will have to look outside the org if they want to have a SS at the level. (Ha-Seong Kim in free agency perhaps?) Hope this isn't a dumb question - lol Thanks much!
Quite recently, I was chatting with a senior scout who works for a verifiable Very Smart Club™ with a farm system you (yes, you!) almost certainly envy, and this extremely knowledgeable baseball person opined that his Very Smart Club™ didn’t have a “true shortstop” anywhere above Low-A, and maybe not there. It was a shocking statement to me at first, but the more I thought about it, the more right it seemed. As this scout said, every year there are a couple of those guys on the IFA market that get scooped up early for $3-4 million, and maybe a small handful that go high in the draft (mostly high schoolers), and then teams wait to see if they can hit. But if you’re not playing at that multi-million dollar level, it’s awfully hard to land the real deal, or even potentially the real deal.
Every year this process repeats. And the result? There probably aren’t really fifteen 50-55 grade shortstops in the majors most of the time — and a lot of the ones who fit that category might not be “true shortstops,” but rather guys who hit enough that it doesn’t matter. In other words, I’d say that in any given year, at least half of the league is searching for a way to answer this very question. Much of the time, teams are just muddling through trying to make it work — using guys they later admit need to be kept at 2b (say a Gleyber Torres or a Nico ho*rner), hoping like heck that a guy will hit just enough to keep them in the lineup (Nick Ahmed), or that a big bopper will outslug his defensive missteps (hello, Oneil Cruz, or, let’s be honest, Mookie Betts). Just trying to “make do,” essentially. That very much includes the Giants now — possibly a karmic balancing of the scales for a team that just got 13 seasons, 30 WAR, and a top ten(?) San Francisco Giants’ career out of Brandon Crawford.
When you think about it that way, it’s easy to understand why the Giants have been so stubborn/insistent about trying to develop Marco Luciano as a shortstop. If they can make it work, it’s a free “go to the front of the queue” card.
And if they can’t make it work? Then, yes, start the bidding for Ha-Seong Kim or (in trade) Bo Bichette, and hope like heck you’re not paying for pure downside. Or, continue to patch things together for the foreseeable future with various stopgaps while kicking the can down the road. It’s not appealing, but there’s a reason why “shortstops who can hit” are one of the most valued resources in the game.
KL
I've definitely noticed Christian Koss's batting hot streak (hoping it continues!), and was quite surprised to see you call him "the best defensive shortstop in the entire organization right now" in your Minor Lines a couple days ago. I know we're working with a small sample size -- but assuming his defense is the real deal, and knowing the tenuous situation that is the Giants' current shortstop depth chart, do you see Koss carving out a role in the major leagues in 2025 or later? How would you grade him on the 20-80 scale (if that's something you're willing to do)?
The funny thing about Koss is that, when Colorado drafted him out of UC-Irvine, he was considered a bat-first middle infielder, but by the time he arrived in the upper minors with Boston, he was considered a glove-only middle infielder. To misquote Dorothy once again: reputations come and go so quickly here!
When I was writing that admittedly provocative line, I did consider carving out a little wiggle room for myself by omitting players on the IL like Aeverson Arteaga and Maui Ahuna (who has since returned and started a rehab stint). But I ultimately decided against that because slick fielding in the upper minors is more impressive than in college or A-ball. Batters hit the ball harder in the upper minors, and they run faster. The speed of the game is quicker and demands quicker reactions and decision making. So I decided not to equivocate (unusual for me, I know!). I’m watching a very slick fielder in Koss — and it’s pretty noticeable to me that he’s a level above perfectly competent players I’ve seen in the past few years like Fitzgerald, Schmitt, or Will Wilson.
That’s an important first step. But even at the critical defensive positions, you have to be able to hit to stick in the majors (or, you know, play for a really poor team that has too many other things to worry about, such as the 2015-16 D’backs teams that were collectively 28 games below .500 while Ahmed was establishing his beach hold in the league). And that will be the acid test for Koss. The Giants believed they saw something in his data that could be enhanced. So far, his performance has been encouraging — though a long injury suffered in the first week of the season has limited him to just eight games so far. But if he can regain some of the offensive allure he had earlier in his career, then yes, there’s a big league talent here. If he continues to struggle offensively in the upper minors, as he did in the Red Sox system (where he had OBP in the .280s in both Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester), then his chances will dim.
Andy
Are there any ex-Giants prospects who have been traded/released/rule 5 having a good minor league season? All my exes live in Texas (Bruce Bochy)
We’re going to talk some in today’s mailbag about the Giants’ evaluation of Heliot Ramos, and why the organization may have had a blindspot there. The pitching version of that would I guess be Gregory Santos, who the club never really gave a legitimate chance to before DFA’ing him and sending him to the White Sox for a player (Kade McClure) who left as a minor league free agent at the end of the year.
In my opinion, the shortest possible abbreviation for Farhan Zaidi’s value system is: BB/K. Players who thrive by that metric are likely to be valued, acquired, and promoted (hello, Trenton Brooks!). Players who struggle by that metric are likely to overlooked and/or given short shrift in their opportunities. Such it was with Santos, who went on to have something of a monster year with the White Sox in 2023 (66 innings, 1.6 fWAR out of the pen). That led the Mariners to acquire him for another old friend, Prelander Berroa (who fits that same BB/K mold). Sadly, Santos has yet to pitch in 2024, as he’s been on the IL recovering from a lat strain.
There are a few other former Giants’ players who are having nice years, though I’m not sure anybody is exactly thriving. Alex Canario, who I believe is on his final option year, is performing well for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs (.270/.360/.546 with 9 HR), and has even gotten in some major league time this year as up and down depth. He has a homer and an .815 OPS in 13 games with the Cubs, although there’s a 44% strikeout rate attached to those numbers.
Lower down the chain, Ivan Armstrong, who was one of two minor league pitchers traded to the Angels for Tony Watson back in the heady days of 2021, is having a really outstanding year for the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas (I wasn’t going to miss a chance to call out the Pandas!). The ginormous reliever has a sterling 2.12 ERA, a very nice 21% K-BB rate, and is producing ground balls 53% of the time. This is Armstrong’s third attempt at the Double-A level, but he’s still just 23, so there’s plenty of time for him to ascend the next two levels. Willian Suarez, by contrast, is having a decent year for Tri-City in the NWL — or at least he’s striking a lot of batters out (the 4.29 ERA isn’t that impressive, but the 36% K rate is). But he’s also 26 years old and back down in High-A after some appearances in Double-A last year.
And maybe one last player to mention is Jacob Lopez. He was moved in a very early Zaidi deal, who wanted to scoop up Tampa Bay’s DFA’d Joe McCarthy (shiny BB/K!). Lopez had barely started pro ball at the time, though he was doing nice things with the since-eliminated short-season Salem-Keizer club. The Rays have developed Lopez quite nicely as a left-handed reliever, and he even appeared in the back-end of their Top 30 in this year’s Prospect Handbook. His 2024 has been pretty rough at both the Triple-A and MLB levels (where he has an 8.44 ERA), however. Joe McCarthy, by the way, has not played in affiliated baseball since leaving the Giants as a free agent at the end of 2021 (though he has signed two different minor league FA deals with Texas in that time). He got some run with Orix in the Japanese Pacific League in 2022, but has not appeared to play ball anywhere since. The Giants often see his brother, Jake, however.
The bottom line here, by the way, is that the Giants have come out way ahead transactionally over the last five years, receiving tons of value from players like Wade, Yaz, Thairo Estrada, and Erik Miller, while players like Shaun Anderson, Tyler Herb, Sam Coonrod, Yunior Marte, and the mysterious “cash considerations” have mostly piled up waiver wire transactions.
(Hey, by the way, that clip of Canario was shot the same day, and really just minutes after, I really saw Logan Webb looking like that dude for the first time, prior to the 2018 season. I remember it so well!).
Andy
Not a prospect question, but would be interested in your thoughts or insights. Some stadiums in the past have been gigantic (the Polo Grounds were 483’ to center!). Do you know why this ever changed? Chicks may dig the long ball, but triples are the most exciting play in sports! If MLB wants to highlight athletic play, is this an option? Maybe the Giants need to lean into their recent lack of homegrown power hitters, and instead make opposing 420’ drives into routine fly balls at Oracle. And I’d take a Ramos-Lee-Matos outfield combo patrolling the grass for the next 7 years over most other teams. Would that improve the game, or give the Giants a competitive advantage, at the cost of losing some of the left and center field bleachers? And that would certainly lessen the influence of constantly tracking launch angles and exit velocity— which is another perk, at least in my eyes. That’s my commissioner for a day proposal. What do you think?
I think the answer to your first question (why did it change) is that as populations spread away from city centers post-World War II, new stadiums were less constrained by the need to shoehorn into the footprint of dense urban blocks. Larger land development projects allowed for more harmonic and symmetrical stadiums shapes, and the trend towards multi-use stadiums basically demanded it.
As for your second question (would it be an advantage?), I’d point out that a fair-sized host of 21st century stadiums were originally built with large outfield dimensions (San Francisco, San Diego, Detroit, Seattle, NY Mets, Texas) and, without exception, all have made changes to bring the fences in over the years — some more than once. As Giants fans, we’re keenly aware that Oracle Park’s homer-unfriendly nature has been a competitive disadvantage for the team’s attempts to bring in impact hitters for years (other than Barry, who had personal reasons for choosing them, and, of course, pre-dated the park). Players know that they get paid for dingers — plus they’re fun and sexy and improve players’ Q ratings. Being homer-deficient has regularly suppressed the Giants’ offense and made it difficult for them to compete.
And the Giants are hardly alone in this challenge — the Mariners have spent decades trying to solve the puzzle of how to score runs in Safeco, but the park always prevails. Some of you may recall that Seattle, under GM Jack Zduriencik, did attempt exactly what Andy proposes here. They leaned in to the park and put what was considered at the time to be one of the greatest defensive clubs in memory on the field, including a Death to Flying Things outfield that included Gold Glovers Franklin Gutierrez and Ichiro Suzuki. Unfortunately, while that club could really run ‘em down, they sank under the weight of historic offensive futility, losing 101 games. Only 23 clubs in MLB since 1961 have managed a worse team OPS+ than the 2010 Mariners’ 79. So it would seem that this strategy has already been put to the test and come up lacking in a lot of eyes.
On a separate but related issue, I’ve heard a few scouts, particularly AL East scouts, grumble about the fairness involved in the Orioles taking out an entire section of their left field bleachers, making that side of the field a home run wasteland, after having loaded up on young left-handed power hitters who still find the right field wall an inviting target.
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Andy
Good to see a bunch of players come back from injury lately .. who are you most exited to see develop this summer?
I’ve been thumping the Spencer Miles drum for a couple of years now, so he’s certainly pretty high on my list. And I’m also very excited to see if Liam Simon can pick up where he left off in his impressive spring of 2023. I also have a distinctly vivid memory of watching Will Bednar struggle in the AFL just last fall, and feeling so bad for this kid who was obviously trying to pitch through pain and discomfort and just discouraged and frustrated. So seeing him suddenly throwing free and easy and looking so good has brought a real joy for me. The same is true of Hunter Bishop. Basically, my feeling is that the game is incredibly hard and most of these young men simply aren’t going to be able to develop themselves into competitive major leaguers, because that’s the nature of the beast. But to feel robbed of the opportunity to even try feels especially cruel. So just being able to get out there and compete is a very real victory in its own way.
And, from that perspective, I guess my true answer to the question is Carson Ragsdale, who is another player who has had to fight back from several different health hurdles — and if you listened to his appearance on my podcast, you have an idea of how extremely scary some of those hurdles have been in real life! I have another distinct memory, going to an ACL game back in 2022, when Ragsdale made his first appearance after undergoing thoracic outlet surgery. For the most part, the only people at those games are players, scouts, and a few family members. At this particular game, there was one lone woman sitting off to the side, and from her specific attentions to the game, I could tell she was there for Ragsdale (his then girlfriend, and now wife and mother of his child). I chatted for a bit with her, and remember her nearly crying with joy talking about how much he had been through to get back to that moment.
What neither of us (nor Carson himself) knew at the time was that there was still much more for him to encounter on his journey. Because I saw him that day, and again the next spring (when he looked great), and several times this summer, I have an extra level of connection to his development path. So, it’s been very exciting for me to watch him grow this year — to the point where he might have an argument for being a top 10-15 prospect in the system at this point. That’s very exciting!
A.G.
Hey Rog, was wondering what with the importance of advancing 'Casper The Friendly Runner' from 2nd to 3rd in the10th in extra innings, are the minors developing the lost art of bunting?
Hi A.G.
You know, every team I watch practices bunting — it’s a staple of BP and now and again I’ll see teams run an entire practice around bunting. But, for the most part, it’s seldom seen in games — even in the extra innings scenarios. McCray has twice dropped bunts for base hits this year in games I’ve attended — once for a two-out RBI! So there’s one guy you can plant your bunt-loving flag with. But, by and large, bunting has gone the way of hit and runs and pitch outs.
Tom
Hi Roger, Vaun Brown has nearly doubled his K rate this year. Have you noticed anything that may be causing this, whether it’s physical, hitting instruction changes, or maybe even eyesight problems, although I would assume that would have been checked. He did have 200 AB’s at Richmond last year, so this seems really odd. Get those hitting instructors there that that helped Eldridge.
Ken Gregory
Hi Roger,
What is happening with Vaun Brown this season. His numbers are almost unbelievably bad. Is he still viewed as a prospect?
Yes, Brown is off to just about as rough a start as can be imagined (though I must take exception with Tom, as Brown’s 38% K rate last year was already extremely high, and hasn’t been doubled, fortunately). He’s striking out just a whisker under half of the time this year (49%), and the underlying numbers behind that aren’t any more encouraging (including a ghastly 53% contact rate inside the strike zone). It’s honestly hard to watch sometimes, and he certainly doesn’t appear to be comfortable or confident in the batter’s box. How could he be, really?
I will say that you’d never know he was going through such struggles if you saw him interacting with his teammates or coaches — or outsiders like me, for whom he always has a friendly smile and hello. He works very hard, but right now that work isn’t getting him to a comfortable place. With the promotion of McCray, it stands to reason that Brown should become the everyday CF, though he didn’t play in any of the weekend games after taking home a sombrero on Thursday night.
I don’t know what the answer is. The Giants were hoping that his IL stint, recovering from an illness, would help him reset his season, but since returning, he’s struck out in 24 of 47 PA, and a lot of his at bats simply haven’t been competitive, to say the least. He needs to find something to help him out of this rut, and I certainly hope he finds it fast! But what that is, I don’t think anybody knows.
Dennis Touros
Do the Giants have a reaction to the River Cats owner converting the field to artificial turf next year? We'd loveto have them back in Fresno.
#2, Please assure us Rayner Arias is not Gustavo Cabrera 2.0. (I hope I am joking).
Hi Dennis. Generally speaking, I think the Giants’ current approach to everything dealing with the Sacramento A’s situation can be summed up as: we’ll cross that bridge when he get there. There’s simply too much uncertainty over every aspect of the situation for them to spend much energy reacting to every micro-element at this point. Heck, they really have no way of knowing if, or how much, their players will still be playing at Sutter Health Park next year.
If, however, Sutter Health Park still is home to the River Cats for some or all of next year (and the years after that), then it will certainly be a benefit to have some facilities upgrades coming (especially on someone else’s dime). Artificial turf these days is a very different animal than the ones that were so loathed back in the olden days, so I don’t imagine their reaction would be at all negative. Most Giants prospects get plenty of turf time in during their swing through the NWL after all.
It’s almost impossible to imagine a player suffering as much ill-fortune as the truly tragic Cabrera did in his regretfully short lifespan. But certainly, my skills, such as they are, do not run to fortune telling.
James Heintz
So let's talk about the DSL. Iam aware that a lot of international kids are in the ACL & San Jose and making really good contributions...especially some arms. As of today, the Orange & Black are a combined 7-0 and have a combined 55-16 runs advantage. The hitters are hitting the cover off the ball! Oliver Tejada, Vinicius Dos Santos, Juan Colorado, Jesus Alexander, Erik Arosem*na are all a bunch of teenaged boppers! Any Acunas we should be excitedfor?
Henrique Goncalves
Do you know if the Giants plan to keep 2 DSL teams on the long run or if we’re still likely cutting to 1 soon?
I haven’t specifically discussed that with anybody, but, as the restrictions that have basically forced them (and all other teams) to shut down the second domestic complex team don’t apply in the Dominican (the 165 player limit is on the domestic reserve list, and DSL players, obviously not being domestic, are not part of that list), there’s no compelling reason why they’d have to eliminate one of those two clubs. It’s obviously harder now for DSL players to force their way up, but it looks like the Giants are happy to keep trying to develop as many players in that camp as they can.
As for James’ question — I’m not ignoring you, but I will table this answer for a few weeks while we see what is what down there. I do like to emphasize that there are no “Acuñas,” there is but one Ronald Acuña, Jr., and like him, all of these youngsters will need to follow their own path. For a first blush, I’ll say that Jhonny Level and Tejada are intriguing me.
Zachary Davis
I was surprised by Marco Luciano's low Statcast bat speed numbers in his limited time with the Giants. Any rumblings that there is a physical issue that is restricting his swing and maybe explains the data and lack of home run power this year? Maybe the back injury?
It’s not just in his time with the Giants, Zachary. Luciano’s Statcast data in Triple-A this year has been somewhat on the low side as well. He does have a Max EV over 110 this year, but his 90th percentile EV (EV90) is just 105.7, which is decidedly average for a batter of Luciano’s strengths. Last year, in limited time, that number was 110 at both the Double-A and Triple-A levels.
I’ve noticed it, too, and I’m somewhat at a loss to explain what’s going on with Luci’s long demonstrated ability to hit the ever-loving bejeesus out of a baseball this season. He has been noticeably tentative, bordering on passive, at the plate, and that might explain some of it. The other number that is quite surprisingly low is his bat speed, which, according to Statcast is below 50th percentile (true for Luis Matos as well). That’s long been one of Luciano’s great strengths.
I’m not sure I’d call it worrisome just yet, but certainly I’ve got an eye-brow co*cked over this data right now. To answer your question, I’ve heard no whispers that there is a continued health issue in the back, but, I also am not sure whether people have fully come to grips with the fact that the data is down in the first place.
Eazy Sam
I guess it doesn't matter too much what level Bishop plays at, but do you think they keep him in Sac? More importantly, how is he looking in CF?
Brian Warnes
Hi Roger,
For cases like Hunter Bishop and Brett Auerbach who weren't hitting all that well in the EL at the AA level and then began to play very well in the PCL at the AAA level, what do you make of them? On one hand, the PCL is much more hitter friendly. On the other hand, they are still facing higher quality pitching and maybe they just needed a change of scenery to break out of the rut they were in at the AA level. I'm curious what you have to say.
I think they probably will keep him in Sacramento for as long as they can. They’ve been aggressive about pushing their top draft picks this year — and I think we’d be a bit naive not to think that public perception and relatively warm seat that Farhan Zaidi currently is sitting on is part of that motivation for some of those moves.
I haven’t gotten to see a ton of Bishop in center this year. He mostly played left while in Richmond, and, with McCray now moving up to Sacramento as well, I think that will continue. But he certainly showed the old speed in covering ground in the few looks that I have gotten. Like the rest of his game, more reps are needed.
As for Brian’s question, I’d probably separate the Bishop and Auerbach cases, as they seem quite distinct from each other. Bishop played just 26 games in Double-A, and in the worst time of year — hardly enough data to draw much of a conclusion from. Auerbach, on the other hand, has played 166 games in the Eastern League and taken 674 PA there — a much better sample from which to draw some conclusions. While I’m sure that there are mental health benefits to getting out of Richmond and getting to play for a while in the hitting-friendly environments of the PCL, it’s hard to believe that the underlying development issues that caused Auerbach to hit just .202/.285/.332 can really be solved or circumvented simply by promotion to a friendlier environment.
Scott C.
I’m stoked to see Heliot Ramos thriving and hope it continues. It sure seemed like he’d become an afterthought given how few MLB chances he got last season and the lack of offseason coverage he received from the prospect community. So, how has Ramos suddenly become so potent at the plate? And why didn’t anyone see this coming?
CRAIG ELKINS
Tagging on to Scott's question, I've been wondering if the Giants have a "hole" in their evaluation criteria, such that they perhaps overvalue certain things leading to, for example, Meckler's quick rise, and undervalue other tools/attributes, leading to certain prospects languishing, Ramos being a prime example. Of course, Ramos could have just made a big step up (prospect development is not linear--some smart guy said that a time or two) so now was his time. But given how he had dominated Triple A before with no corresponding "love" from the big team, I really think that without the injuries, he would have been up and down a few times this year, then in the same "no options left", try and trade then finally DFA him boat that Bart landed in.
And to Scott's point about the prospect community not being high on Ramos, it seems like other teams could have made a good offer and the Giants would have jumped on it--so a hole there, too? I know this is all speculation, but with your ties to scouts and management with the Giants and other orgs, just wondering if you might have some thoughts and insights?
The Ramos situation really is a fascinating and important subplot for the Giants this year, because I believe it really does point to something of a blindspot in the Giants’ evaluation processes. While Farhan Zaidi said all the right things about Ramos this past winter, actions speak louder than words and it’s always been crystal clear what the Zaidi front office thought about Ramos. They spoke it loudly when they chose Wade Meckler over him last summer, and when he was basically the only prospect who wasn’t starting every day during the final week of the season, and when he was the one who was removed from the roster so Brandon Crawford could receive his final farewell.
Though a new coaching staff promised fresh eyes, nothing in the organization’s evaluation of Ramos appeared changed when he was one of the first players sent down in spring, or when, after finally being brought to the majors on the last road trip, he got one start before returning to the bench. In sum, I don’t at all disagree with Craig on how this year might have gone for Heliot sans the wave upon wave of injury.
It has been very, very clear that the organization was skeptical that his skills would translate to the major league level, and it doesn’t take a PhD in Zaidi-ology to grasp that that underlying skepticism was about his chase rate, his swing decisions, and his BB/K. That philosophy has been incredibly beneficial for the Giants — it’s brought them players like Wade and Yaz, it’s the reason they were always high on Bailey, despite lack-luster numbers in A-ball. Valuing swing decisions has, on the whole, been a boon to the Giants.
But it does have its limits as well, and right now the Baseball Gods appear to be illustrating that one of the limits is a failure to appreciate other avenues of success in the game. It took not one, not two, but multiple injuries and failure of other options for Ramos to really get a chance. Who knows? It’s possible that it was Ramos’ absolute knowledge that a chance like this was never going to come for him again in this organization that has helped provide the missing ingredient for him. Perhaps it was a less critical eye than Gabe Kapler’s that helped foment confidence and success. Perhaps it was the fact that he made an impact with other elements of his game first, lessening the demands on his bat. Or perhaps it was just his time. One thing is for certain, he’s bouncing around the field with joy and having fun, just the way he did for so many years in the minors — an element of his game that has been noticeably missing in his sporadic major league call ups before now.
I think it’s worth remembering something I repeat often: Ramos’ success this year was predestined, and it wasn’t the only way his story might have turned. His strikeout proclivities could absolutely have continued to get the best of him. His Triple-A adjustments might have turned out to be insufficient to deal with major league stuff. And they still might! Heck, we live in a world where Corbin Carroll has gone from a 6 Win unanimous Rookie of the Year and MVP candidate to a .200 hitter seemingly overnight. Nobody ever “solves” this game for good.
But I do hope that deep in the front offices the Giants are mulling over the fact that they appear to have been at least somewhat wrong in evaluating this young player and the value he could provide the team. And I hope they’re pondering the possibility that perhaps only lucky accident prevented them from making a real Adolis Garcia-level transactional mistake with him. I hope they are mulling and pondering and considering and perhaps even undergoing that most difficult of all actions: growing. After all, Ramos isn’t the first non-Zaidi-type player with whom they’ve found success in these years. Thairo Estrada is most definitely not a “Giants’ Blueprint” player either — and that can be frustrating when he’s wildly chasing 3-2 pitches out of the zone. But he’s also a really important part of the core of this roster.
I think the real thing to learn here is that you can have priorities and values, but there’s no one way to crack the code in this game, and you should always be willing to accept value in whatever form it presents itself.
As for Craig’s question, I wouldn’t read too much into the lack of a trade scenario. There is a certain predictable rhythm and timing regarding trades in baseball, and mostly the Giants just haven’t been much in the acquiring business the last couple of years. I don’t think it necessarily means that other teams wouldn’t have been happy to bring in Ramos on the cheap had they sensed a market for him. There’s no doubt that his status had dimmed in the industry — the lack of initial success in the upper minors played into that, and, unfairly, his body type I think has, too. But I’ve never gotten the sense from scouts that they had soured that much on him.
Jason S
Which prospect has surprised you the most so far this season?
I’ve added Jason’s question to the end of Scott’s because Ramos is very clearly the answer here.
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That’s it for this week’s mailbag — which was super stuffed, so I didn’t get to all of you. But hopefully next week, I’ll have time to circle back and catch everyone who went unanswered here.
Look for a new podcast, hopefully later today, and finally another KROG sometime later in the week. And, for my paid subscribers, I’ll have the normal stats and complex level detritus later this morning.
