Infielder David Villar elected free agency after being outrighted by the Giants, relays Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. He’d been designated for assignment on Monday with Casey Schmitt returning from the injured list.
Villar, 28, will look for a new opportunity for the first time in his career. He has been with the Giants since they selected him in the 11th round of the 2018 draft. The right-handed hitter showed some promise during his rookie season three years ago. He hit nine home runs with a .455 slugging percentage in 52 games. He would have needed to improve upon a 32% strikeout rate to find long-term success, though.
The Giants never gave him much of a chance to do so. Villar appeared in 46 games the following season, and he hit just .145 while striking out 32% of the time. That more or less closed the book on his MLB tenure in San Francisco. He has appeared in only 20 big league contests over the past two seasons. Villar has tallied well over 1200 Triple-A plate appearances over the last three years. He’s a lifetime .273/.381/.507 hitter with 61 home runs at the top minor league level.
That minor league production has also come with a decent amount of swing-and-miss. Villar has punched out at a near-26% clip in Triple-A. He has cleared outright waivers twice in the past two months, suggesting every team has trepidation about him making enough contact to produce at the big league level. He’d be limited to minor league offers if he remains in the affiliated ranks. Speculatively speaking, he could also explore opportunities in a foreign league. That’s a relatively common path for players in their mid-late 20s who have had Triple-A success but face questions about their ability to hit major league pitching.
Good riddance.
AAAA ball player at best, perhaps he can find success in the KBO or NPB, because he’s not a MLB caliber player.
To be fair neither is Schmitt. One could argue Villar would be the better choice citing both minor and major league seasons. You could even use college.
One thing Schmitt does have is MLB level defense at multiple infield positions. He’s a great utility player, something Villar can’t do. And Schmitt’s OPS last year was a very average .760. An average bat with good defense and positional flexibility will get a player a decent MLB career.
I agree, except for maybe I’d say Schmitt is a good utility player, rather than great. If Villar played the skill positions like Schmitt he probably would have been claimed.
@Grey matter
Schmitt is both 2 years younger and more athletically gifted than Villar.
He’s had far too few regular big league AB’s in ’24 and ’25 (so far) to draw any firm conclusions about his MLB potential – other than to note that he’s improved his approach at the plate, since his rough rookie debut in ’23.
It’s still early days for Schmitt – more so than it is for Villar.
Villarreal got chances to play but never showed enough to get a longer look. One year he was supposed to be the starting 3rd baseman but had a bad spring training.