D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
To get Austin Slater’s bat in the lineup, he’ll have to pick up a new glove.
Apart from three innings at second base, Slater has only played the outfield this season at the major league level. Farhan Zaidi suggested that may change.
“[Bruce] Bochy’s trying to think of different ways to get him in the lineup, not just against left-handed pitching. He’s hit them very well, but he’s done well against righties, too,” Zaidi said on KNBR’s “Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks” on Thursday. “The at-bat quality is there, he’s gotten some really big hits for us. And he’s played really good defense in the outfield.
“…One thing I think we’re gonna have to take a look at — it may not happen this year — he’s obviously got some experience in the infield at first base and second base. That may be another way to get him at-bats going forward.”
Slater has starred this month, typically in the lineup against lefties but slashing .266/.390/.484 against righties. Last year the Giants played him 21 games at first, the season before one game at third. He saw time in the outfield, at first, second and third at Triple-A Sacramento this year. For next season and perhaps the end of 2019, first base would make the most sense.
“He’s been a revelation for us,” Zaidi said.
In 107 at-bats, the 26-year-old is slashing .299/.409/.542 with four home runs and 20 RBIs.
Other Zaidi thoughts:
On Jaylin Davis, who has 10 homers in 18 Triple-A Sacramento games: “It’s really hard to keep a guy like Jaylin Davis down with the way he’s swung the bat, but we’ve got a really productive outfield right now, and it’s not clear how we’d get him in there. It’s a good problem to have.”
On Kevin Pillar, who may be a non-tender candidate after the season: “He’s a guy who has hit really well at Oracle Park, which is not an easy thing to do. As we evaluate our team going forward, that’s going to have to hold a lot of weight. Obviously, getting offensive production is going to be an objective for us. Getting guys who can hit in our home park has been an issue for a few years now, and he’s done a tremendous job with that this year.”
On the emergence of Mike Yastrzemski: “He’s always been a guy I liked, dating back to his college days at Vanderbilt. I just always thought he was a really nice player. The power I think has been a big surprise. I don’t think anyone could’ve seen that coming. He’s talked about the fact he worked on his swing and tried to make his adjustments this offseason. When you have good all-around players who have aptitude and desire to get better and make those kinds of adjustments, I think sometimes we underestimate the kinds of upsides those guys might have, as opposed to the tooled-out young prospects.”
On how this year’s baseball, which doesn’t seem to come down, will affect evaluating players: “It’s going to be really interesting, going into next season — are we going to see the same thing? Are there going to be adjustments made? And how do you evaluate players and the numbers they put up this year? Things normalize again, a lot of the things where we saw this year, where we maybe thought players took big steps forward, or pitchers took big steps backwards, maybe those things will go out the window. … I think it’ll be a very interesting offseason, and it’ll be fun to see how things unfold and how the offensive environment looks in 2020.”
