Here’s a sentence I never thought the Jock Blog would type:
Where do you stand on the Slater Wars?
And I know what you’re thinking: Wait . . . there are Slater Wars?
Shout out to the Waterboy in the morning for asking if the ‘Slater Wars’ are the new ‘Belt Wars’. The short answer is ‘no’, because the Belt Wars lasted almost as long as the 100 Years War, which was one of those England-France things from, like, the 1200s that I never fully understood in school. Was Joan of Arc part of the 100 Years War? And if she was, how does she feel about Austin Slater?
But if the Slater Wars are not the Belt Wars, they still are the 2024 bonfire around which Giants fans argue — that is, when the bored fans have the energy to rage.
The Giants, see, are at odds with the fanbase. The Giants are working on 2 1/2 straight years of straight-up .500 ball, which is a long time to be mediocre. The Giants are so mediocre that they woke up on Flag Day one game under .500 — and it was a hot talking point on the show this morning. As in, can they get to .500 by midnight on Flag Day? Striving for such goals falls a tad short of John Wooden’s advice to ‘make each day your masterpiece.’
Which brings us to Slater.
The 31-year-old Austin Slater is a fine ballplayer. The right-handed batter hits lefties well, and that’s a virtue. Since his rookie campaign of 2017, he has a career .281 batting average against southpaws, and a career on-base of .372, with a career OPS of .820. These numbers are strong, to quite strong.
So what’s the problem?
The problem is the aforementioned boogieman of mediocrity.
When Slater went to the injured list earlier this year, his replacement was a 22-year-old bolt of lightning named Luis Matos who is everything Slater is not: young, laden with potential, representative of a future that is hopefully unshackled from the bonds of .500.
And when Matos won the first NL Player of the Week for the Giants since — here’s some irony — Brandon Belt in 2018, fans rightfully swooned. The Venezuelan prospect went 10-for-26 with two HRs, three doubles and 16 RBIs.
What’s not to love? Matos represented a break from the maddening past few years of .500-ness. Therein lies everything: Giants fans saw in Matos something *different*. For a fan base that was finally putting to bed memories of Boch, Timmy and Buster, and mentally readying for the next generation, the next generation was awfully boring —until players like Matos, and fellow prospects Heliot Ramos and Kyle Harrison and Patrick Bailey came along.
And then, a confluence of events that broke poorly for those on the ‘Matos’ side of the Slater Wars: Slater’s return from injury coincided with an ice-cold 10-game stretch for Matos. Seemingly exposed by big league pitchers the more they saw him, Matos fell into a 5-for-40 ten-game stretch, with only two walks and no extra base hits.
You could see it coming like a train, the ‘Front Office Plays It Safe’ Express: activate Slater, bring back the veteran, and use an option to stash Matos back at Triple-A Sacramento.
They did it, and worse for the Matos Army: Slater came up with the game-winning knock on Monday night, a key bingle in Wednesday’s win, and a 6-for-13 stretch with four runs scored and three RBIs.
I am a fan of the future, and believe the greatness of the Giants is in its future, as I was just saying to my good friend, the hologram of Al Davis I have at home. Unfortunately for that part of my brain, I see the logic in activating Slater. If you want to excite the fan base, going on a little win surge in June will do so; and making the playoffs will do so. Right now, Slater will help the team win games and inch closer to the playoffs in the immediate present more than Matos will.
I also believe Matos will be back at some point this summer. This kid ain’t done yet. Things will happen. Maybe Mike Conforto gets traded in July.
The Slater Wars rage on. One day, fellow Giants fan, we will live in peace, somehow.
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