The Giants are one of several teams “showing interest” in outfielder Hunter Pence, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). Other pursuers have yet to be named.
It’s not surprising to hear the Giants connected to an outfielder, given the news yesterday that the club is looking to add there. But Pence represents quite an interesting target for the rebuilding Giants.
When last he plied his trade in San Francisco, Pence looked to be ramping down. He was highly productive for the organization after his mid-2012 acquisition, but turned in successive duds (87 wRC+ in 2017; 60 wRC+ in 2018) in his final two seasons.
Pence flipped that script with a 2019 revival. Over 316 plate appearances with the Rangers, he knocked 18 long balls and turned in a .297/.358/.552 batting line — good for a healthy 128 wRC+. Pence generated personal bests in hard contact (42.6%) and exit velocity (91.4 mph) while approximately doubling his average launch angle (10.1 degrees) over his prior output.
True, Pence was limited mostly to DH work last year and hasn’t graded terribly well in the field of late. But he’s still got quite a lot of spring in his legs. Statcast numbers show that Pence ranked in the 84.7th percentile in average sprint speed last year.
No doubt the Giants would view Pence as a part-time option who’d help bring along and supplement younger players. The presence of the beloved Pence, along with the just-re-signed Pablo Sandoval, would also go a long way towards comforting some segments of the fanbase that are less than enthused with the degree of recent roster turnover.
Getting the band back together.
Like the Doobie Brothers at a county fair.
Haha….nice!
I’ll take him in Cleveland. with the revolving door of OF we have, he’d get regular playing time
You can have JaCoby Jones for a..high five? I would like to see Pence in DET
no… thank you though.
No Pence in Detroit. Detroit has some young OFs that need playing time. I would rather see Harold Castro get ABs. ( Besides, Pence is tied into that Quid pro Quo thing).
Just like Hunter(Biden)?! Hahaha
I like this idea. Cleveland would be a good landing spot.
Bobby Evans killed Farhan and is wearing his skin as a suit.
Seriously…. what the heck is going on I. That front office?
well I think the question to ask is that if you want to upgrade the offense in the OF what are your options right now – puig, santana, pence – pence is probably the only one of those guys that can provide some value in both offense and defense in a corner
Puig is easily better on both offense and defense than Pence. The defense, in particular, separates those two.
Pence is the worst of those 3 defensively. By a good margin from Puig, who’s above average. Pence needs to DH somewhere. Bad signing for an NL team if they plan to start him.
I wouldn’t sign puig – he is a downward trend guy. He has declined on both offense and defense and posted a negative dwar that matched pence.
Puig is a butthead, and Pence is Mr. Giant. It’s a lost season anyway, so why not give the fans a guy they can stand behind?
Lol Puig is easily better than Pence right now. But being a crap team with a bunch of young guys pence makes mote sense for in house leadership and some pop part-time.
Relax and enjoy the rebuild. Don’t be deceived. Zahdi is nobody’s fool.
Hahah
Great! SFG get “older”.
It’s called waiting for the right time to spend. Giants have some contracts to wait out or move, so why not make the Giants fans happy to see an old familiar face? Then when the youngsters take over you can plug in some more star power players. Just my opinion.
You could say that again … oh you did
The giants look kind of bad with this type of move. The thinking is, wait until the last minute to pick up Pence on a discount.
They couldn’t strike a discount deal with anyone else, so they will take Pence if he’s cheap enough.
What’s happening, I believe, is that analytically oriented FO’s are starting to accept that leadership and clubhouse chemistry do matter, even though it can’t be quantified. Numbers are great and I am personally into the advanced metrics. However, and I’ve seen this with my Cubs after 2016, leadership can make a huge difference. When the Cubs lost good guys in the clubhouse and leaders like David Ross things just weren’t the same.
Hunter Pence’s leadership could bump them from 40 games out of first to 38.
Look, I’m not saying one guy – even a Mookie Betts – can turn a bad team into a good one. Baseball just doesn’t work like that. What I’m saying is there is a bit more value being assigned to these kinds of guys than there used to be.
Let me tell you something: They’ll sell a helluva lot more Pence jerseys to fans than Puig ones.
Obviously not a Giants fan, but this would be a great reunion for both sides. Awesome rebuild in the winter leagues, respectable season in TEX, and he would get to go home for one final ride.
Home? He’s from Texas, didn’t play after the beginning of August, and provides no future value! Got his jersey, loved the way he played, but does nothing to move this team forward. I’d rather give Slater, Davis, and Shaw more consistent playing time.
I love pence too, but I cannot understand why slater isn’t getting more love, he’s shown more than most on this team, but gets no respect from the staff or FO
Looks like he could be a solid contributor, but he never gets consistent playing time
Slater hasn’t shown anything that great, has he? He’ll get a shot in spring training; he’s in the mix. Hunter Pence is not going to be playing 162 games anymore, and he knows that well. At this point he’d be coming in as a fourth outfielder, possibly to spell Dickerson.
you can never go back home
Kapler and Pence could spend there time talking about how much they just love the Phillies.
Noooo! That’s where he went to die before.
Phillies bring him back. He can play vs lefties, bumping Cutch to CF so Haisley can sit vs lhp. The energy he would bring to that fanbase and clubhouse would be amazing!
He could even give Harper a day off against a tough lefty or day night doubleheader and DH interleague games.
Where he went to die? He had multiple good seasons, played in all 162 games 2 years in a row, set a career high in HR and RBI, and won 2 World Series rings. He was a Giant longer than any other team in his career.
Pence is entertaining to watch at bat and in the field no matter how good or bad he plays.
The Reds could use another outfielder, they don’t have 20 yet.
Why not? He could platoon with Alex Dickerson in left field, we have yet to find him a servicable platoon partner. Why are people acting up over this, it honestly makes sense.
Yes, absolutely agree. I said the same thing in a recent Pence article and got “lol”ed. At worst he’s putting butts in the seats and he mentors younger guys, at best hes a platoon member on the cheaper side that maybe turns into prospects. Yes, he might “be blocking the young guys” but, we’ve heard about Shaw for what 4 years? He still hasn’t fixed his Strike out issues. Slater (who I’d actually like to see more game time to see what his new form helps him with) can play anyone of the 3 OF spots plus 2nd base. Ramos is 2 years away anyway…who’s Pence really blocking?
Agreed 1600. People need to calm down. And I don’t even know if he would platoon. I think he’s depth mostly off the bench. And veteran presence. Zaidi is big on depth. Depth people. Isn’t that obvious by now?
Btw, he may be a good influence on the core vets due to how he changed so much of his plate approach. Analytics may have played I role in that. AND I wouldn’t be surprised if he’ll soon transition to coaching for the Giants.
Sandoval, Pence…why stop there.? Bring back Rob Nen and J.T. Snow. Although, the Giants may want to act quickly on Snow…the Astros may be looking to sign him so he can save any toddlers Baker lets on the field during a live game.
Gold!
Not sure about this potential move. Loved Pence but not sure where he fits on this type of team. Maybe for leadership and a bench option but is he good enough for that role? The Sandoval re-sign is equally puzzling. I love both these guys but just not quite sure what Zaidi is doing here.
Bring back Timmy!
If Timmy came back, I’d buy season tickets right now. I don’t care how bad they suck
Pence DH’d more than half of his games last season and wasn’t able to finish out the year due to a back injury. Being another year older, I don’t really see the fit — he needs to go to a club that can give him a healthy amount of AB’s as a DH.
He’d be brought in for leadership, enthusiasm, and as an example on how to be a pro to the younger guys. Pence is a hard nose guy who never takes an at bat off. He’d be a good add to platoon for a couple hundred at bats and to show the younger guys how to be pros. These moves aren’t necessarily about this year, they’re geared towards getting the younger guys prepared for 2021 and beyond. Pence would be a great role model
Oh how the turntables
TEXAS still needs a RH Bat with POP… Pence has many pluses + leader
People on here are acting like Pence is going to cost even close to Puig. Pence would probably be a minor league signing or maybe like $1-2M deal at most
PR Heavy Front Office. I said this yesterday.
This would make Hunter’s wife happy.
Oh, please bring Hunter back!
I thought Farhan was going to let the past die. Pablo yesterday and possibly Pence now…. Giants need to move on already.
Relax, man. They need to move on from albatross contracts, and they’re well on the way to doing so. If Pablo and Pence are around as part-timers in the interim to mentor the new guys, that’s hardly an albatross. We’re talking about one year deals, not taking on five years of Longoria’s decline or whatever.
Im plenty relaxed. The Giants just need to move completely away from the 2010-14 years and start trying to build there next good team. Pench should not even be a consideration
Still not clear what your beef is. They need their large contracts to expire.
The build of their next team is taking place in their farm system. The current roster is not relevant for their future so who they sign to short term contracts doesn’t matter, so why not have them be fan-favorites?
Why not, he was really good last year. Worth a small gamble
Everybody that is upset about Pablo or pence possibly coming back, who were the supposed to get? Castellanos is a good hitter but a bad defender at 27. He wanted 4 years. His defense wasn’t going to get better as time went on. So if it were more than 2 years, we’re out. Is there any other players that jumped out at you that we really wanted?
Pence made a major overhaul to his swing mechanics and fundamentally changed his approach (launch angle only one aspect of several key improvements). He gets on plane sooner with early bat speed. He’s always been a strong quick twitch athlete. Willingness to rethink his game and take drastic action including testing his new fundamentals in winter ball have extended his viability as an MLB player. Giants or any other team will benefit from Pence in 2020.
Pence plays the game with so much soul. Whether he lands with SF now or not, I would love to see him come back to SF in his post-playing days. He would be awesome as Mike Krukow’s successor when Krukow decides that he is ready to pass on the torch
People talk about Posey being a future manager, but Posey doesn’t have the people skills and the chutzpah that Pence does. This guy belongs back in SF one way or another. One day, he will make a great manager.
Rumors of Pence, and the re-signing of Panda, are the only things that have brought a smile to this Giants fan this off season. Giants are gonna lose 90+ games anyway. Might as well make the rebuild more tolerable along the way, with the addition of some familiar faces in bench roles.
This guy was painful to watch before his skills eroded. But he does provide comic relief by hiking up his uniform pants to nearly his mid-thighs like a genie.
Reunion or Rebuild?