Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
SCOTTSDALE — Steven Duggar noticed that the Giants brought in LaMonte Wade Jr., whose skillset is pretty familiar. Both are lefty-hitting outfielders with center-field capabilities, vying for a job to complement Mauricio Dubon at the spot. Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Slater also will get looks, and Heliot Ramos is impressing early.
“The competition that Farhan’s brought in from the beginning — it only makes everybody else better,” Duggar said. “To me personally, I’m just focused on myself. If I’m able to do the things that I want to do and train the way that I want to train, ultimately I think everything will work itself out.”
Duggar also has noticed the Giants employ an outfield filled with late-bloomers. If he wants proof that players can emerge in their late 20s (or later), he can look to Mike Yastrzemski. Or Alex Dickerson. Or Slater. Or Darin Ruf.
“Sometimes it just takes a little longer for different guys to kind of break through and get an opportunity and run with it,” Duggar said Wednesday over Zoom before the Giants hosted the Cubs. “That was honestly — after last year, going home and just kind of replaying everything, I think the biggest focus is just to leave it all out there. … Just go be me, man. Go be myself, go be aggressive.”
A reflective Duggar, with a swing and stance that resembles how he made his way through the Giants system, has reported to Giants camp for what could be his final shot with the team. He’s at the end of the 40-man roster and no longer among the discussed options to break camp with the team. He was a valued prospect with excellent speed, a great defensive reputation and a bat that hit consistently, with a lifetime .382 minor league on-base percentage.
That last part — the biggest part — has yet to translate. He has gotten chances in each of the past three seasons and has a .236/.281/.349 slashline to show for it.
Last year, he was fairly straight-up, re-adopting a narrow stance he had swung from in high school. He was looking for something that worked, and it didn’t, abandoning the look while he was at the alternate site.
This offseason, he has worked with the hitting team and is again wider at the plate, with mixed results early in spring.
“It’s been a tale of two camps for Duggar,” Gabe Kapler said Tuesday.
The first one was unpleasant. The 27-year-old began his Cactus League season 1-for-8 — which could be forgiven — but with six strikeouts. The contact was not there for a team that values it.
It has still been spotty, but the pitches he has made contact with have gone a long way. Duggar launched his second homer in as many games Tuesday, and his second that he volleyed over the left-field wall. He walked three times against the Brewers and stole a base, both encouraging developments.
He knows he is coming around when the power to the opposite field is on display. And he hopes his power will come around more often when the scale is friendlier to him.
He said he is around 190 pounds and has been working with Leron Sarig, the organization’s director of performance nutrition, to get up to 195-200. It’s a tangible way for him to grow, with a belief that better play will follow. There are plenty of less tangible ways.
In his first media session with reporters, he spoke about getting “back to myself” multiple times. Getting back to the player and hitter he was before multiple shoulder injuries and several call-ups that did not go as planned. He played in 21 games last year and batted just .176, and nearly as concerning was his one steal.
He’s the fastest player on the team, and that was his only attempt.
“I’m an aggressive player, and it doesn’t always show up in a game, and that’s on me. I feel like part of that is just a mentality approach,” said Duggar, who also has been working on his bunting. “I feel like if I get on first, there’s an opportunity to get to second, an opportunity to get to third. It’s only going to help the rest of the team. It’s a lot easier to score from third than from first.”
He wants to be louder on the basepaths but quieter at the plate. There’s less movement in his stance now than his last year, the hunt for a consistent approach that works proving elusive. Time is running out on a team that has found big parts of its present outfield in Yastrzemski, Slater and Dubon and is looking at its future with each Ramos blast.
For Duggar to be a part of that, he needs to find what works. He’s trying to become the player he was when he was the Giants’ center fielder of the future.
“There was a reason that I got to the big leagues in the first place,” he said.