MILWAUKEE–As Cactus League play drew to an end and the Giants prepared to travel north to round out their exhibition schedule, they hadn’t settled on a starting center fielder for 2018.
Back in March, the Giants had practically penciled in their Opening Day center fielder for 2019, but the team’s top decision-makers struggled to determine whether Steven Duggar was ready to play in the major leagues right away.
Days before the season began, Duggar learned he would open the year at Triple-A Sacramento while free agent signee Austin Jackson would man the middle of the Giants’ outfield.
The plan backfired, but it wasn’t because the Giants felt Duggar needed more seasoning in the minor leagues.
Jackson didn’t have the range to cover the vast outfields of the National League West and he failed to drive the ball, recording just eight extra base hits in 59 games. The Giants needed a better defender and a more threatening hitter, but they didn’t have to look far to find one.
Reserve Gorkys Hernández was easily the more capable player.
As the Giants play out their remaining schedule, Hernández is tied for the team lead in home runs despite starting just 86 of the club’s 141 games. His 15 homers are easily a career-high and on Tuesday, he became the first player to hit 15 a year after recording 300 plate appearances without a home run since Phil Bradley accomplished the feat in 1985 with the Mariners.
“You look at Gorkys’ year, I think we’ve seen the improvement,” manager Bruce Bochy said.
But even after a career year, Hernández isn’t being billed as the Giants’ center fielder of the future. Despite recording just 141 at-bats in an injury-shortened season, that title still belongs to Duggar.
“I really liked where he was at the plate,” Bochy said of Duggar. “That’s why it was so unfortunate he got hurt when he did. But I think he showed enough in the two months that he can play up here.”
Duggar is the fastest player to appear for the Giants this season, recording a 28.9 foot per second sprint speed that even outranks speedy infielder Alen Hanson. The rookie was easily the best outfield defender the Giants used this season, as he is still tied with Hernández for the team lead with three Outs Above Average, a range-based metric of fielding skill that accounts for the number of plays made and the difficulty of the plays.
And while Duggar hit .255 with a .303 on-base percentage, he showed glimpses of gap-to-gap power and adequate plate discipline the Giants believe will improve over time.
“When Duggar came up, you saw what a tremendous defender he is,” Bochy said. “And the bat, I thought he made a lot of progress with the swing. He was really cutting back a lot of those swing and misses.”
Rewarding a starting job at such a critical position to a player lacking experience isn’t an easy decision, but the Giants don’t need to deviate from their plans in center field next season. As long as Duggar’s rehab from a labrum tear plays out as expected, the Giants can count on him to start in part because of the potential he showed, but also thanks to the emergence of Hernández.
When Jackson struggled, the Venezuela native proved he could handle the rigors of playing everyday. He’s a .260 hitter as a starter, and he’s the rare outfielder on the roster with the power to hit the ball out of AT&T Park. After playing through a hamate bone injury last year, a healthy Hernández is now in a better position to lift the ball when he swings.
“I just think with him being healthy, he’s able to get through the ball and his hand is healthy so with more bat speed, he’s able to get the ball up in the air,” hitting coach Alonzo Powell said this summer. “We didn’t tweak his swing or anything to hit more flyballs.”
Seven of Hernández’s 15 home runs have come at home and he leads all Giants with 10 homers of at least 400 feet. Though new Yankees outfielder Andrew McCutchen and third baseman Evan Longoria have also hit 15 for the Giants this season, the marquee offseason acquisitions have combined for 10 home runs of at least 400 feet and neither player hit more than five of their homers in San Francisco.
Hernández, 30, also has the defensive versatility to play all three outfield positions, which makes him a more valuable asset to a 25-man roster. He has the range to spell Duggar in center –Hernandez has a sprint speed of 28.3 feet per second– but he can also patrol both corners and provide power when he’s in the lineup.
With a duo of Duggar and Hernández, the Giants have enough talent, particularly defensively, to feel confident in center field heading into next season. Though the roster has a list of flaws that must be addressed this offseason, the front office should be able to dedicate more time and resources to fixing holes in the corners, in the infield and potentially on the starting staff thanks to two center fielders under team control.
“It’s always going to stay competitive, but I certainly like what I’ve seen from both of them,” Bochy said.
Be the first to comment