© Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
During a segment with KNBR’s Murph and Mac Monday morning, Mike Krukow reflected on the Giants’ ability to ‘overcome amazing obstacles’ amid one injury after the next. San Francisco has now won four straight games and sits at 19-15 overall.
Joe Panik is one of the latest sent to the disabled list, where he will likely remain for another month after he underwent thumb surgery last week. The Giants have not experienced much drop-off regarding offensive production at second base, however, as Triple-A transplant Alen Hanson has stepped in admirably.
Hansen has posted three straight multi-hit games and is hitting .429 with five RBI throughout that span. He is hitting .321 with two homers and eight RBI in eight games with the Giants this year.
Hansen’s speed and range have impressed Krukow.
“I can’t think of anybody as athletic as him,” Krukow said. “Let’s put it this way: the guy could play another sport professionally. He could be a soccer player. He could be a football player. I don’t know if you can say that about too many guys that have come through in the middle infield for the Giants in the last 10-15 years.”
In addition to his speed, Hanson is highly regarded for his hitting. He produced a .284 average throughout eight minor league seasons. His fielding has long been Achilles heel, though, which is where the Giants’ middle infield experiences drop-off with Panik out of the lineup.
“He’s got enough offense to where we can be forgiving,” Krukow said. “But I do think he’s going to improve upon that. But that’s why it‘s taken him so long to get to the big leagues, and that’s why it’s taken him time to stick with another team. It’s just the glove has not been up to par here in the past.”
Hanse has endured a long, winding path to his current success. The Pirates acquired Hansen, 25, in July of 2009. He worked his way up the Pittsburgh farm system, sporadically appearing in the major leagues, before the White Sox claimed him off waivers midway through the 2017 season. He became a free agent after the season, and the Giants picked him up last December. After starting the 2018 season on Triple A Sacramento, he has been summoned to the big league roster in the wake of Panik’s injury.
He is still a work in progress, but he is starting to show potential in recent games.
“He has some amazing tools,” Krukow said. “In the big leagues, it’s not all about that. It’s about making the everyday plays— that’s the consistency he has lacked defensively in his game. But he is intriguing. He is a guy that given the right amount of coaching, he’s going to get better. It’s going to be a fun story to see where he goes.”
