The Giants announced they’ve selected outfielder Grant McCray onto the major league roster. San Francisco optioned Marco Luciano back to Triple-A Sacramento in a corresponding move. The Giants already had an opening on the 40-man roster.
They’ll use it to take their first look at McCray, whom they drafted out of a Florida high school in 2019. The former third-round pick is starting in center field tonight against Braves righty Grant Holmes. McCray can play all three outfield positions and has spent the vast majority of his minor league time up the middle.
That defensive acumen is McCray’s biggest appeal. Prospect evaluators credit him with plus or better speed and an excellent arm. He has the tools to be a plus defender in center field. Outfield defense has been an issue for the Giants for a few seasons. That’s particularly true in center, where Heliot Ramos has been the starter lately. Ramos has had a breakout year offensively but is clearly stretched playing up the middle. Most scouting reports have long pegged him as a corner outfield fit. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast’s Outs Above Average have graded him harshly in his 493 innings of center field work this year.
Ramos moves to left field tonight, pushing Michael Conforto to designated hitter. If McCray is up as an everyday center fielder, that’ll probably have the biggest impact on Jerar Encarnacion’s playing time. The Giants have given him five starts apiece at DH and in the corner outfield since they selected his contract on August 2. He’s hitting .237/.293/.395 over 41 plate appearances. McCray playing center field would leave the corner outfield/designated hitter roles to some combination of Ramos, Conforto and Mike Yastrzemski on most days.
The long-term viability of that plan probably depends on how well McCray acclimates to big league pitching. Scouting reports at Baseball America and FanGraphs credit him with nascent raw power but have never been bullish on his pure hitting ability. McCray has turned in decent results between the top two levels of the minors this year, combining to hit .242/.330/.446 in 97 games. He has 12 homers, seven triples and 26 doubles through 421 plate appearances.
McCray is drawing walks at a strong 10.7% clip but has fanned in nearly 29% of his trips. Strikeouts have been a problem throughout his minor league tenure. It’ll be a challenge for him to make contact in his first look at big league pitching, but his combination of power and athleticism present some upside if he can put the ball in play somewhat regularly.
Strikeouts have also been a question for Luciano, who has long been one of the Giants’ top prospects. San Francisco initially planned to give him everyday run at designated hitter after the Jorge Soler deadline trade. They backed off on that fairly quickly, perhaps because of trepidation about his elevated strikeout tallies in the upper minors and his limited look (31 games over two seasons) against MLB pitching. Luciano scuffled defensively at shortstop and has yet to really find a position at the MLB level. He’s still just 22, so the Giants will get him consistent reps in Triple-A to continue his development on both sides of the ball.
The Giants have dropped three straight to fall back to .500, though they’re only 3.5 games behind Atlanta in the Wild Card race. They’re playing the Braves tonight and tomorrow in what could be pivotal games.
If only S.F. had even avg situational hitting. They be taken very seriously.
Hitting in the clutch, strikeouts and not able to bunt are all major issues.
If they would and could bunt, they could have 6 to 8 more wins this season.
But the real question for me is why have Fitzgerald attempt the bunt at all.
Melvin was playing not to lose instead of playing to win, forgetting that playing not to lose is exactly how you lose.
Crazy how fast they have already moved on from Brandon Crawford. He should refuse to be inducted into the Hall of Fame with a Giants hat because of it.
I love Brandon Crawford but only thing he’s getting inducted into is the Giants wall of fame. Also what else are they supposed to do? Just leave SS empty every game?
.249 hitters with barely 1,400 hits seldom make the Hall.
Weird comment. Crawford was cooked and is cooked as a MLB player
Crawford has nothing to do with this, but their current starting ss has an ops over 1.000. stupid comment
The guy is worse than replacement level.
Tyler Fitzgerald has produced more in his last 30 games than Crawford has the last 3 seasons combined. This is one move the Giants did very well on.
I don’t agree with those that think Zaidi has done a poor job. But if he had kept Crawford, whose OPS+ is currently a miserable 52, out of nothing but sentiment, he would have been negligent.
Got to be to get heliot off center. Dudes super athletic, but he’s gonna struggle real hard to hit.
Yeah, I agree. Yaz isn’t great in CF either, but I thought he would’ve been better than Ramos.
I think they want to keep him in right, he’s elite defensively there, but rushing mccray to do so seems like a bad idea
I think you’re correct in why they kept Yaz in RF. It does make sense. But I have no problem with them looking at McCray. Some guys have the mental attitude to handle an early debut. They must have some sense that he can handle it.
awesooooome!!!
Giants struck out 17 times Monday. They went 0-9 with 9 strikeouts with RISP, including bases loaded no outs a few games ago.
Chapman hit a leadoff triple in the eighth inning with them down a run a couple of games ago.He was thrown out at home on a grounder to ss. Canha got to second. Canha thrown out at third in a ground out to short. Two outs a runner on first. LOL. Giants lost 5-4. Never saw that before.
Heliot and others can’t hold up on swinging at balls in the dirt, a foot outside foot high, just hard to watch.
If it’s low, let it go.
My dad and I have been talking and indeed his complaint was avg with risp. I tend to agree a bit more with you! They can’t even connect with the ball in those scenarios! All I see with risp is whiff whiff whiff called strike 3 etc. not trying to beat up on the guys in the clubhouse but they are the ones who look lost at the plate in those moments. I’ve never seen hitters get down 0-2 so fast.
Yeah, it’s been very frustrating watching that ineptitude. They had a runner on 3rd with less than 2 outs last night, and couldn’t score the run. They lose the game in extra innings, which never would have been necessary had they got the guy in from 3rd earlier.
I wonder if the super aggressive approach at the plate doesn’t fall on the hitting coach. Twice last night the batter swung at the first pitch, and hit into a DP. The batters love swinging at the first pitch, which I have no problem with, if it’s a good pitch. But they’re swinging at marginal pitches, that they should only offer at if there were 2 strikes. On the first pitch they’re swinging like they’re down 2 strikes, and have to protect.
Seems like they’re always scrambling to fix the latest plan that didn’t work out.
Fire Farhan