Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
MESA, Ariz. — Heliot Ramos has looked like the future. Mauricio Dubon is the mostly physically different this spring. Donovan Solano the most relentlessly hitting. Mike Yastrzemski the established standout doing it again.
If it’s possible to have a quiet spring while your bat is screaming, Austin Slater is proving it.
The Giants outfielder went deep for a third straight game and knocked his fourth dinger in 25 Cactus League plate appearances in a 5-5 tie with the Cubs on Friday. He crushes lefties, and now he is obliterating righties, too, this bomb to center off Chicago’s Kyle Hendricks.
He is slashing .409/.480/1.000, which is less superstar and more superhuman. Of course, the numbers only start mattering on April 1, but last year he looked like a star until groin and elbow injuries sidetracked his season.
This spring training he had a hamstring hiccup, but has returned and looks healthy. As does his swing.
“I feel great,” the 28-year-old said. “I’m pretty happy with the results so far, and especially being able to do it off righties. My timing feels really good, locked in, and I feel like I’m swinging at the right pitches. The power is something that comes and goes, but I’m just glad that the process and the decision-making is there right now.”
A very nice swing, indeed. pic.twitter.com/aWe5Gd8JMb
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) March 26, 2021
As recently as 2019, Slater was viewed as a weapon against southpaws and not playable against righties, against whom he batted .205 with 40 strikeouts in 88 at-bats that campaign. Much of the next offseason was spent retooling his swing yet again, and Gabe Kapler said last spring training, Giants hitting coaches identified Slater as better against righties.
This year, after an offseason in which he just had to get healthy after a flexor strain in his elbow, but did not have to touch his swing, Slater looks powerful.
“It’s really hard to deny that Slater is having equally good at-bats against right-handed pitching as he is against left-handed pitching,” Kapler said from Sloan Park.
What complicates Slater’s early statement is the Giants’ roster construction. It is hard to bench Alex Dickerson or Mike Yastrzemski against right-handed pitching. Perhaps Slater, who played center Friday, can steal some at-bats from Mauricio Dubon against righties, but Dubon has played an excellent center and has shown a lot of promise at the plate.
The Giants want to get Darin Ruf plenty of at-bats against southpaws, and maybe Slater emerges as competition for the left-field platoon. At least today, there is no NL DH. It’s a problem, but one the Giants welcome.
“We have such a high-quality mix-and-match roster at the plate with a bunch of left-handed bats and a bunch of right-handed bats, it may turn out that [Slater] sees more of his reps against left-handed pitching,” Kapler said over Zoom. “But there’s no denying that he’s producing power, seeing pitches, working good at-bats against both lefties and righties right now.”
Before the injuries set in last year and he hit the IL, Slater was batting .347 in 19 games. The potential is there.
“I felt like I could have done more for us, and we were so close last year,” said Slater, who added that a goal this season is just to stay healthy.
If he does, what can those numbers look like in a 162-game season?
