Brad Martens / SF Giants
SCOTTSDALE — There are no questions about Jason Vosler’s spring bat. After a surreal .450/.522/.750 slashline last year with the Padres, he has opened his first Giants camp swinging well.
There are questions about his regular-season bat because it has yet to debut. And there are questions about his glove that the Giants are trying to answer, the main one being: Is there a position he can’t play?
Vosler has been impressive early in camp, one of the few hitters to hit immediately. Against the Dodgers on Tuesday, he doubled twice, which was a nice development for the third game of the Cactus League. A nicer development was the hits came off heat from Walker Buehler and Dustin May. The 27-year-old said he’s always been comfortable against good velocity, and that has shown through early.
The Giants picked him up on a surprise major league deal as a possible platoon bat at third with Evan Longoria, who struggled against righties. The late-offseason acquisition of Tommy La Stella complicated the role of Vosler, who was blocked in San Diego by Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer at the corners.
“I’m not trying to think about where I fit on the team,” Vosler said this week over Zoom. “I’m just trying to do what they want me to do.”
What they want him to do is some of everything.
Vosler played predominantly at the infield corners with the Padres but also some second base. On Saturday against the Royals at Scottsdale Stadium, Vosler will make his professional debut in the outfield, getting a start in left. Like the Great Austin Slater Experiment, in which the athletic, ostensible outfielder played every position but pitcher, catcher and shortstop in the Giants’ minors and majors in 2019, Vosler will need plenty of gloves.
He’s “a really good, versatile weapon for us. And look: If he keeps swinging the bat the way he’s swing the bat, it’s going to be exciting,” Gabe Kapler said Friday. “I think we all know that a left-handed bat off the bench or that can spell Longoria at third base and move around for us is a valuable weapon.
“Very similar to [Darin] Ruf, we’d like to get him as many looks as possible in camp so that we can evaluate him and so that he can continue to improve.”
The Giants like the bat, which hits righties well and tore up the PCL in 2019 (.291/.367/.523). They also like the athleticism and were “really aggressive at the start of free agency.
“It just seemed like the place to be,” Vosler said. “They had a plan for me, they knew a lot about me. It just seemed like their interest was a lot higher than any of the other teams.”
Perhaps because they saw him as more than he was.
He never got a chance with Scott Harris’ Cubs, who drafted him in 2014 and then traded him to the Padres after the 2018 season. He never got a chance with San Diego despite impressive minor league and spring numbers because the Padres were loaded at his positions.
It’s possible that if those positions are expanded, he finally can get a chance with the Giants.
