The Giants will purchase the contract of outfielder Austin Slater, according to Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News. Slater, 24, was taken in the eighth round of the 2014 draft.
A corresponding move has yet to be reported, but the Giants will need to clear roster space to make way for Slater. While that could involve optioning youngster Christian Arroyo, a 40-man move of some kind will be needed regardless.
Slater has thrived in the upper minors since the start of the 2016 season. All told, he owns a .308/.381/.487 slash through 474 trips to the plate at Triple-A, with 48 walks to go with 91 strikeouts.
While the right-handed hitter can play center, it makes sense to expect he’ll find most of his opportunities in left field. San Francisco has struggled to find production from the outfield all year long.
The struggling Giants could ultimately begin cycling in more new faces, Baggarly notes, if the club can’t quickly break out of its season-long struggles. It seems that light-hitting outfielder Gorkys Hernandez is the most likely player to go to make way for Slater, though a few of other roster spots also appear to be less than secure.
Just designate Gorkys
They need to so bad he’s just awful!
I’m surprised he’s been around for this long already.
As a Giants fan its hard to see the batting averages on some of these guys in the starting lineup.
but he’s a great defender when he isn’t missing the ball or booting it… um
Advanced metrics have him average at best.
Advanced metrics are pretty right, the guy has a pretty bad first step and glove awareness – he can cover ground but a lot of times does it when he shouldn’t have to.
No confidence in Melvin Upton I’m assuming? With Bochy’s track record of squeezing the last out of veteran players I’m surprised they at least haven’t given him a look yet after signing him to a minor league deal.
He had surgery on his thumb before playing a game this year, I believe he is out till late June than rehab…. so maybe around All-Star break he will be ready.
Okay got it, makes sense. He has a Pat Burrell 2.0 resurgence in black and orange written all over him.
Upton is injuried at the moment if he wasnt im pretty sure Giants would have called him up already.
Yes! Been excited to watch this dude play
Geez, the Giants’ below average farm system is finally starting to expose itself. They really, really lack talent.