The San Francisco Giants have a new free-swinging, switch hitting infielder, and if the name Pablo Sandoval comes to mind, it should.
That’s who Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy compared his newest player, 24-year-old Dominican Republic native Miguel Gomez, to after Gomez’s arrival at AT&T Park on Friday evening.
“I just like the way he (Gomez) attacks the ball from both sides,” Bochy said. “He reminds you a little bit of Pablo Sandoval, but he’s got I think better discipline at the plate. Maybe not quite the power, but just the way he attacks it from both sides. Very confident kid, uses the whole field, he’s going to get his swings in and that’s what you like about him.”
With three games left before the All-Star break and reliever Chris Stratton unavailable after making an emergency start on Thursday, the Giants elected to bolster their bench heading into the weekend and called up Gomez from AA Richmond.
“With (Chris) Stratton going back to Sacramento, with him starting yesterday and throwing that many pitches, he could maybe give us an inning, maybe two the last day, we think we have coverage there on the pitching side, that’s why we brought up another bat to help us off the bench,” Bochy said.
San Francisco added Gomez to the 40-man roster last winter, so he fits into the organization’s future plans, but Bochy indicated he won’t factor into the Giants plans much this weekend.
Bochy said Friday that Gomez was not called up to start, but rather to provide the team with a capable pinch hitting presence off the bench and a possible double switch candidate.
“We’ll use him off the bench,” Bochy said. “Go-Go we call him, a switch hitter, we had him in the spring and did a nice job there in the little bit of playing time he got and he’s been swinging the bat well
Gomez said he found out about his call up after his Thursday evening game with Richmond, and that he and his family shed tears over the news that he’d be headed to San Francisco to make his Major League debut.
“We were done with the game last night and the manager, he called me and I stayed in the training room and he called me about that,” Gomez said. “I was very excited and I cried and I was very excited about that.”
Gomez spent a small portion of Spring Training with the Giants’ big league club, which sparked Bochy’s interest in having him face Major League pitching at this point in the season.
Bochy said if Gomez does enter a game defensively, it will likely be at second base. The Giants’ skipper said San Francisco has discussed using Gomez at third base or in left field, but Bochy said he would be hesitant to use Gomez for an extended period defensively.
“I would be hesitant to put him somewhere else,” Bochy said. “We’ve talked about playing third or maybe left field but he’s mainly played second so for the most part he’ll be a double switch guy or a pinch hitter.”
Gomez said his natural position is catcher, but after joining the Giants’ organization back in 2012, he’s focused primarily on playing second base.
After a relatively slow path through the Minor Leagues that included three seasons with the Giants’ rookie ball team and one year with their short-season club in Salem-Keizer, Gomez enjoyed a breakout 2017 campaign at AA Richmond.
In 78 games, Gomez has posted a .305 batting average with 19 doubles and 38 RBIs, while only striking out in 36 of his 308 at-bats. Though Gomez doesn’t strike out, he doesn’t walk a whole lot either, as he’s drawn just 12 free passes this season.
There’s plenty of reasons to compare Gomez and Sandoval, and if the Giants’ newest player produces like “Panda,” he could carve out a nice future at the Major League level down the line.