Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Mike Yastrzemski emerged as a major league player last year, this year as a star. And not just on the field.
The Giants’ best MVP candidate was already baseball royalty with that last name, but now he will forever be aligned with Willie McCovey, too. The grandson of Carl Yastrzemski is this year’s Willie Mac Award winner, the Giants announced Saturday in a ceremony before their Oracle Park game against the Padres.
The annual honor is bestowed upon the most inspirational player on the club as voted by players, coaches, training staff and fans. Mike Yastrzemski, only in his second season in the majors, with all of 159 games played as a 30-year-old who stewed in the minors for seven seasons, is the type who already has seen everything, who can give advice to any young, struggling player because he’s been that young, struggling player.
He quickly became a Gabe Kapler favorite as a rare outfielder on the team who can hit both lefties and righties well, but also as a personality who can talk to anyone. Yastrzemski has knelt beside his manager during national anthems this year to protest police brutality against minorities and done so in a manner that doesn’t alienate him from teammates who don’t share his view.
“We’re not just limited to baseball players,” Yastrzemski said in late July. “We can become better people in the locker room, and we can share our experiences and our conversations, and we’re very fortunate to be able to do that.”
He is still spreading awareness of treatment of Black people in this country while growing as a locker-room staple and, oh yeah, the best player on the club for most the season, entering play slashing .285/.387/.565 and a legitimate (if lesser) MVP candidate before his calf injury, from which he has returned, even if he can’t run all-out each play.
Yastrzemski follows his outfield buddy Kevin Pillar in the legacy of the award. Other winners in reverse chronological order: Will Smith, Nick Hundley, Javier Lopez, Brandon Crawford, Matt Duffy, Madison Bumgarner, Hunter Pence, Buster Posey, Ryan Vogelson, Andres Torres, Matt Cain, Bengie Molina (twice), Omar Vizquel, Mike Matheny, J.T. Snow (twice), Marquis Grissom, David Bell, Benito Santiago, Mark Gardner, Ellis Burks, Marvin Benard, Jeff Kent, Shawon Dunston, Mark Carreon, Mark Leiter, Kirt Manwaring, Mike Felder, Robby Thompson, Steve Bedrosian, Dave Dravecky, Jose Uribe, Chris Speier, Mike Krukow (twice), Bob Brenly, Darrell Evans, Joe Morgan, Larry Herndon and Jack Clark.