The Giants have released shortstop Nick Ahmed, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The club had designated him for assignment earlier this week. He’s now a free agent and can sign with any club.
Coming into 2024, San Francisco seemed committed to moving on from the Brandon Crawford era, something the longtime Giant discussed back in March. The plan was to give more playing time to younger options like Marco Luciano and Casey Schmitt, but Ahmed was brought in as a veteran fallback plan and eventually won the job out of camp.
Ahmed has long served as a glove-first shortstop in the big leagues, but his subpar offense dropped even lower last year. The Giants were surely hoping for a bit of a bounceback this year but didn’t quite get it.
He had hit .241/.299/.401 from 2018 to 2022, with that production translating to an 83 wRC+. But that dropped to a line of .212/.257/.303 and a 51 wRC+ last year. It has climbed a bit here in 2024 but only slightly, as he hit .232/.278/.303 for a wRC+ of 68 prior to being designated for assignment.
On top of that, his elite defense has been declining as well. From 2015 to 2021, he racked up 81 Defensive Runs Saved, second only to the now-retired Andrelton Simmons at shortstop. His 102 Outs Above Average in that time frame tied Francisco Lindor for the best in baseball, though Ahmed accumulated that total in far fewer innings than Lindor.
But DRS has him closer to league average over the past three years, with a total of -1 here in 2024. OAA still likes him quite a bit, with a tally of +4 this season, but that’s still a drop from his previous levels.
Given those trends, the Giants decided to move on. Luciano and Schmitt still working on things in Triple-A but the club is rolling with Brett Wisely and Tyler Fitzgerald at shortstop for now. Ahmed has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment while retaining his salary, which the Associated Press lists as $1.5MM, a bit north of this year’s $740K league minimum. The Giants skipped over that formality by releasing Ahmed.
The Giants will now remain on the hook for that salary while any club could sign Ahmed and only have to pay him the prorated version of that league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Giants pay. His declining results will likely limit him to minor league deals but he’s still a fairly capable defender and clubs like the Dodgers, Tigers, Braves, Guardians and Red Sox have some uncertainty at shortstop.
Don’t know if the dodgers would be interested in him. Is he an upgrade over rojas?
No
A definite Chisox upgrade. Plus – – the Price is Right.
Ahmed’s glove still plays very well.
No
No
No
Not in the least. Rojas can bat circles around Ahmed, and Rojas’ glove-work at 2nd and 3rd let alone shortstop far exceeds Ahmed’s at this point.
Won’t accept a Ring, don’t even offer it.
Maybe the Giants would like Crawford back?
Nope.
Crawford: 67 OPS+.
Wisely: 119 OPS+.
Fitzgerald: 122 OPS+.
What do you think?
To be fair to Crawford he’s getting literally no playing time behind Masyn Winn. It’d probably be a bit higher but maybe not that much with at least league average defense
Crawford and Ahmed had different types of contracts. Comparing the 2 players is silly.
Wizcards, In 211 games over the last two seasons he’s averaged a 77 OPS+. So you might be right about it being a bit higher. But last season in 93 games his OPS+ was 63, so you also might not be. But, obviously the emphasis is on ‘a bit’. But My response to @DonOsbourne was in regard to the Giants wanting him back, and clearly, comparing him to what they have now, the point stands.
It’s not his playing time this year. Just look back over the last few years. It’s the end of a career of a very fine ballplayer.
Wisely played short last night. 3/4 of the cycle. Pay attention Osbourne
As a coach or a “special assistant to the GM”, sure.
I mean there is no way he isn’t a clear upgrade over Ryan Kreidler and Zach McKinstry. Hell, Javier Baez has worst OPS+ in all of baseball. If the Tigers aren’t making that phone call then Scott Harris really ISN’T trying to win this year, which is pathetic
Ahmed was a fine stand in at SS while the Giants waited for a SS internally to show up; that SS is Brett Wisely.
Also, when you consider Ahmed’s salary, less than $1M, he was more than adequate. Having watched him most of this year I can tell you his defense is still very good. And although his overall offense wasn’t great he had many clutch hits this season.
I appreciate his contributions and wish him well. Let the Giants youth movement proceed! Fitzgerald is highly underrated.
This is a great summary of Ahmed’s constructions!
Braves should yard-a-pult youtu.be/6prPrnXutKY?si=Meivhb6SyGpWFZQI Zach Short and bring him back to his OG team.
Tigers should snatch him and give Baez the boot !!!
Someone will pick up Nick Ahmed. He can still pick it.
That would come in handy if the players ever were to strike again.