SAN FRANCISCO — Arguably no position has been as settled in the Giants’ recent history as right field.
While the organization has run out different left fielders on Opening Day dating back to Barry Bonds’ final season, the opposite outfield corner has featured the same mainstay for the past six years. It is unlikely to be Mike Yastrzemski manning right field next April, though, which then begs the question.
Who?
With six weeks left and the Giants’ postseason hopes fading fast, they’re hoping to find some answers.
“We might be at the point here pretty soon where we give some guys some days off and look at some other guys,” manager Bob Melvin said after Wednesday’s 11-1 loss to the Padres that dropped them three games below .500, into fourth place in the NL West and 5½ back of playoff position.
In baseball parlance, that’s about as close as it comes to waving the white flag.
Yastrzemski appeared in right field 583 times from the time he debuted in 2019 until he was traded to the Kansas City Royals two weeks ago. That’s more time toeing that turf than all but eight other players in franchise history, and only Hunter Pence spent more time exploring the unique dimensions of their current home ballpark.
In 12 games since the trade deadline, the Giants have gone 5-7 — and cycled through five different right fielders.
Before the game Wednesday, Melvin said he hoped to see “someone take the reins, hopefully take the job over and be productive offensively.”
So far, it would be hard to say that has been the case. Melvin has penciled in Luis Matos, Jerar Encarnacion, Grant McCray, Drew Gilbert and even Tyler Fitzgerald, who had never played the position until a few days prior at Triple-A. The group has batted .140 with 14 strikeouts, zero walks and two home runs in 44 plate appearances.
The most daunting task might be replacing Yastrzemski’s ability to navigate one of the trickiest positions in the sport, with swirling winds overhead, jutting angles of the 25-foot brick wall, 415-foot dimensions in Triples Alley and eight archways in the field of play.
“I wish I had Yazzie out there to give me some tips,” Fitzgerald said. “But if he was here, I wouldn’t be out there, so…”
Fitzgerald, the Giants’ Opening Day second baseman, played his first two career games in right field over the weekend for Triple-A Sacramento and, on Tuesday, was starting in right field against the Padres. The wet grass and the strong wind led to him slipping and letting a first-inning popup fall to the ground.
Before Wednesday’s game, Fitzgerald was in right field taking fly balls off Ryan Christenson’s fungo bat.
“It’s visually imposing, but I don’t think it’s as difficult as everybody portrays it to be,” Christenson, the bench coach who’s also in charge of outfield defense, said, pointing to its smaller area — 309 feet to the foul pole — compared to left and center. “The only tricky thing is just keeping track of the ’24-30′ wall (that displays the numbers of Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda and angles out toward McCovey Cove).
“If it’s gonna hit the 24-30, you get over this way. Anything to the left of it is the center fielder’s ball. Maybe have a feel for when you’re in an arch or on the brick. That’s the only trickiness. Other than that, everything goes back. That’s what got Fitzy last night. He had just never seen how hard that ball comes back.”
Gilbert, the former first-round pick the Giants acquired for Tyler Rogers, bears a striking resemblance to Yastrzemski with his diminutive frame and his ability to handle right field. Christenson tracks outfielders’ jumps by the ground they cover in the first 3 seconds after a ball is hit, and Gilbert ran 44 feet on his diving grab down the foul line against the Nationals, “which is the best number I’ve ever seen,” he said.
“Gilbert’s really good out there,” Melvin added.
However, his lone major-league hit in 17 at-bats was a bloop single, good for an .059 batting average and .118 OPS.
The two home runs the group has produced belong to Encarnacion, who remains an enigma. He fractured his hand in spring training, strained his oblique in June and pulled his hamstring last week in the same game he hit his second home run. The 27-year-old, signed out of the Mexican League last year after homering 19 times in 26 games, has been limited to only 10 games this season, making it hard on the Giants to properly evaluate him.
The right fielders’ only other extra-base came from McCray, the best athlete of the bunch. He showcased his speed for a standup triple at Citi Field and some inside the organization believe he would be a defensive upgrade in center field over Jung Hoo Lee, who has graded out as the worst in the majors at the position this season.
Heliot Ramos’ regression has also led to some discussion about their ideal outfield alignment. Ramos’ best outfield position is right field, where he would have less ground to cover, but there is some consternation about changing positions again after his struggles this season, rated by many metrics to be the worst left fielder in the majors.
And then there is the Marco Luciano of it all.
It certainly raised eyebrows when the Giants needed a right-handed-hitting right fielder and called up Fitzgerald instead of Luciano, who had been playing the position all season for Triple-A Sacramento. The onetime top prospect had also been heating up, with eight of his 20 homers this season coming in July.
That performance might have led Luciano to believe he was in line for a call-up when Encarnacion was placed on the injured list last Thursday. When the Giants went with Gilbert instead, reports made their way up the organization that Luciano didn’t handle the news well and raised further questions about his attitude.
Fitzgerald said he wasn’t told much when he was informed he’d be playing in right for the River Cats for the first time on Saturday.
“I especially didn’t think I’d be called up this soon to play right,” he said.