As the Giants’ position players sauntered onto the field for their pregame routines, Casey Schmitt nestled up behind Brandon Crawford in front of the home dugout and wrapped his arms around the unsuspecting 13-year veteran for a hug.
When the warm embrace released and the 36-year-old and 24-year-old turned their separate ways, they each giggled.
“He’s goofy,” reliever Cole Waites, who played with Schmitt across three levels in the Giants’ farm system, said pregame.
Three hours later, Schmitt dug his cleats into the same shortstop dirt Crawford has occupied over the course of his venerable career. Schmitt, the second round pick from 2020, isn’t necessarily Crawford’s heir apparent at the position long-term. But for his MLB debut, he occupied his position and made an instant, unforgettable impact.
Silly and skilled, Schmitt socked a home run off struggling veteran Patrick Corbin for his first career hit. The rookie may be a personality the Giants’ fan base latches on to, and his first impression was nothing short of cinematic. In a 4-1 win over Washington, Schmitt looked like a potential pillar of the next generation of Giants (16-19).
“I’m comfortable in my skin,” Schmitt said postgame. “I just like to have fun, I love to play baseball. I just kind of take it as that and just go out and have fun, let everything else take care of itself.”
Schmitt got the call from River Cats manager Dave Brundage at Monday night at 10:30. He missed his initial call because he was watching “Guardians of the Galaxy,” starring his self-proclaimed doppelgänger Bradley Cooper.
A sleepless night bled into his arrival at Oracle Park, where a big-league locker and big-league welcomes awaited him.
Schmitt’s straight-out-of-a-movie moment came in the fourth inning with one out. He walked up to the batter’s box to “Kiss Kiss,” the 2007 pop song by Chris Brown featuring T-Pain — a selection appropriate for the Gen Z rookie. A group of at least 40 of Schmitt’s friends and family did their best to drown out the Oracle Park’s speakers.
Then on the first pitch of his second at-bat, Schmitt turned on a 92.1 mph inside sinker and sent it over the fence in left-center. As the shortstop’s 103.8 mph barrel left the park, his traveling party went berserk.
As he rounded third, Schmitt — clearly a quick learner — blew a kiss to the Giants’ dugout. There, a tunnel of high-fives awaited the grinning Schmitt. The Oracle Park crowd gave him a standing ovation as he took the field the next inning after the homer.
Like pregame with Crawford, Schmitt was all smiles. He awkwardly clapped for himself as the center field big screen displayed him, which turned into Kapler’s favorite moment of the night. “I didn’t know what to do,” Schmitt said postgame.
In the field, where Schmitt has turned himself into one of the Giants’ top prospects, Schmitt didn’t see much action to begin the game and grounded out in his first Major League at-bat.
He watched as starter Logan Webb stranded two runners in scoring position in the second inning with three consecutive strikeouts.
In the third, Schmitt got his first chance in the field when Joey Meneses chopped a grounder his way. The sure-handed Schmitt, a Minor League Gold Glover, flipped to Thairo Estrada for a routine 6-4-3 double play.
“There’s always going to be something, whether it’s a double play at third base or shortstop, or hitting a home run like that,” Webb said. “I think he’s just a very exciting player…I think that in general is going to provide a spark for our team.”
Scouts have compared Schmitt’s defense to Matt Chapman. Crawford likened his hands to those of Nolan Arenado. None of that surprises Waites.
“It’s a lot easier to pitch when he’s behind me,” Waites said. “He’s a really good defender. Minor League Gold Glove speaks for that. He puts you at ease as a pitcher.”
Waites was the first player drafted by the Farhan Zaidi regime to debut for the Giants. Schmitt is the second, and the first hitter.
Unlike Waites, and so many others who have come up for a favorable pocket of schedule only to get sent right back down to Triple-A, Schmitt’s stay with the Giants appears more permanent. There should be ample opportunities across the three infield positions he can play.
“We always say we can’t really see the future,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said pregame. “Nothing’s set in stone. But Casey’s here to play for us. He’s here to help the Giants win and continue to develop.”
Both those goals came true on Tuesday; Schmitt gained confidence with his play and helped the Giants beat Washington. With his fourth-inning, 420-foot bomb, Schmitt became the youngest Giant to homer in his debut since Will Clark in 1986.
The crowd of 22,028, including his parents — who hadn’t slept since 10:30 Monday when they got wind of their son’s call-up — stood up for Schmitt’s third at-bat. In front of the fans already rallying around him, the second-round pick from 2020 lined a single up the middle.
“Let’s Go Casey” chants broke out in his third at-bat, which ended in another ovation even after he struck out. In just one night, the infielder already won over the masses.
Webb, the ace two years Schmitt’s senior, spun out of frequent danger for one run in seven innings. Thairo Estrada, 27, has been baseball’s best second baseman this year and stole his 10th base. Joey Bart, 26, has shown substantial improvements on both sides of the plate this year and went 1-for-4. Camilo Doval, SF’s 25-year-old closer, struck out two in his eighth save of the year.
If Kyle Harrison and Patrick Bailey continue performing at Triple-A, they too might have the chance to direct cinematic moments like Schmitt did Tuesday. The edges of a young nucleus — one constructed by Zaidi’s front office — are crystallizing.
That’s exactly what the Giants, and any club in search of sustainable success, need.
“I have a strong belief that when you’re winning championships, you’re winning divisions, you’re a playoff caliber team, a lot of that has to do with the contributions that are made from the players that come up from the minor leagues,” Kapler said.
“Sometimes they’re homegrown players like Casey, other times they’re players we signed as minor league free agents. One thing that players often say who are part of championship teams is it takes 40. It’s not (26), but 40 that win.”
After Doval’s save, Schmitt beamed through his first postgame handshake line. He had his first postgame clubhouse fog machine and first home run ball negotiation (with a 10-year-old). He spent the first minute of his postgame interview by his locker laughing and trying to scrape a piece of gum off his bottom lip and most of the rest of it glowing.
“It felt like I was in a movie,” Schmitt said.
