The Giants are shaking up their struggling offense. The team announced Wednesday that first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. and backup catcher Sam Huff have been designated for assignment. Veteran first baseman Dominic Smith, who recently opted out of a minor league deal with the Yankees, has been signed to a one-year, major league contract. San Francisco also selected the contracts of outfielder Daniel Johnson and catcher Andrew Knizner from Triple-A and optioned infielder Christian Koss.
After a hot start to the season, the Giants have dropped 14 of their past 23 games. The offense has been the primary culprit, particularly over the past two weeks. Over the past 14 days, Giants hitters have posted a combined .209/.297/.306 batting line. They haven’t scored more than four runs in a game since May 16 and have been shut out or held to one run seven times in that span.
Wade’s struggles have been a major component of the team’s offensive drought, but unlike many of his teammates, the 31-year-old veteran has simply never gotten going in 2025. Wade was hitless in his first 18 trips to the plate this season and hasn’t pulled himself out of that funk. He’s batting .167/.275/.271 on the season and is currently in the midst of a 3-for-22 skid.
It’s been a swift and fairly shocking decline for Wade, who was a solidly above-average bat for San Francisco from 2021-24. He’s been the Giants’ primary first baseman in that stretch, and while he’s never been a huge power threat, he’s been an on-base machine. Wade was one of the best acquisitions of the Farhan Zaidi era in San Francisco, coming over from the Twins in a Feb. 2021 trade that sent righty Shaun Anderson to Minnesota. The swap drew minimal attention at the time, but Wade went on to bat .248/.352/.415 in his first four years as a Giant.
As recently as last season, Wade slashed .260/.380/.381 with a massive 15.5% walk rate. He’s been heavily platooned in his career, taking just 12% of his plate appearances against lefties and slashing .193/.288/.250 in that time, but Wade has been consistently productive against righties until 2025.
Wade’s 2025 struggles seem to stem from a loss of bat speed and, accordingly, pronounced troubles against velocity. He punished four-seamers from ’21-’24 but is hitting just .164 with a .262 slugging percentage against them in 2025. Statcast measured Wade’s bat speed at 73.8 mph in 2023 and 72.4 mph in 2024; he’s down to 69.7 mph in 2025, which places him in the 18th percentile of big league hitters.
Wade is still drawing walks at an outstanding 12.4% clip, and his 18.1% chase rate on pitches off the plate is the sixth-lowest among the 220 MLB hitters with at least 150 plate appearances this season. It’s clear that he has excellent pitch recognition and is still making good swing decisions — he’s just not doing any damage when he does make those correct choices.
In Wade’s defense, his .211 average on balls in play is more than 70 points shy of league-average. That can’t be entirely explained by bad luck, however, as he’s currently sporting a career-high 47.3% fly-ball rate. Fly-balls that stay in the yard are easier to convert into outs than grounders and especially line-drives, so even there’s unquestionably been some bad luck at play, Wade’s current batted-ball profile shouldn’t portend a rebound all the way back to his career .279 BABIP. That’s especially true given that he’s already hit more harmless infield pop-ups (six) through 169 plate appearances than he did in all of 2024 (four) in 401 trips to the plate.
Wade is being paid $5MM and is a free agent at season’s end. There’s still about $3.12MM of that sum that’s yet to be paid out. That figure could make it hard to find a trade partner, though the Giants could pay down a portion of the salary if another team has some interest.
The remaining money on Wade’s contract might be steep enough to allow him to pass through waivers if the Giants go that route, as any team that claimed him would take on that full $3.12MM (or a bit less, depending on the date he’s actually placed on waivers). If Wade were to clear, he has enough service time to reject a minor league assignment and retain the rest of that guaranteed money. In that scenario, any club that signs him would only need to pay him the prorated league minimum. That’d be subtracted from what the Giants owe him, but San Francisco would still be on the hook for the rest of his salary.
For at least the time being, Wade will be replaced by Smith. The former first-round pick is a veteran of eight big league seasons but has seen his offense drop after a huge 2019-20 showing wherein he batted .299/.366/.571 in 396 plate appearances with the Mets. Smith has begun to slip into journeyman status; the Giants are his seventh organization since 2022.
However, even though Smith has bounced around the league, he’s managed to deliver passable, if unspectacular offense in each of the past two seasons. Over 893 plate appearances between the Nationals, Red Sox and Reds, he’s slashed a combined .247/.321/.370. That’s about 8% worse than average, by measure of wRC+, but is still miles better than what Wade has produced so far in 2025. Smith was hitting decently with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton, slashing .255/.333/.448 with eight homers in 189 turns at the plate.
In all likelihood, Smith will be a placeholder at first base. Top prospect Bryce Eldridge was promoted from Double-A to Triple-A yesterday and shouldn’t be too far from getting a look in the majors. The 2023 first-rounder is still only 20 years old, but you wouldn’t know it when taking a look at the .280/.350/.512 line (147 wRC+) he produced against older, more experienced competition in Double-A this year. Eldridge is widely regarded as one of baseball’s 25 best prospects, and once he gets a call to the majors, he’ll get everyday at-bats at first base. Smith could hang around in a bench role if he’s hitting well enough, but Eldridge is considered San Francisco’s first baseman of the future and shouldn’t be long for the minors.
Huff, 27, has appeared in 20 games this year and only tallied one multi-hit effort. In 58 plate appearances, he’s turned in a .208/.259/.340 batting line with a huge 43.1% strikeout rate. The former Rangers top prospect has struggled to make contact throughout his limited run in the majors over the years. Huff entered 2025 with a career 33.6% strikeout rate in 214 plate appearances at the MLB level.
Patrick Bailey is entrenched as the Giants’ starter behind the plate and is among the sport’s best defenders at any position, but he’s struggling with the bat as well (.191/.254/.276). Bailey is so good defensively that the Giants aren’t going to make any changes there, but with their catcher batting an MLB-worst .191/.253/.291, they’ll shuffle things up on the reserve side and hope for a bit more offense from Knizner.
Knizner, 30, isn’t a great hitter himself. He’s a career .210/.279/.317 hitter in 887 major league plate appearances. That said, his career 23% strikeout rate is markedly lower than that of Huff. Knizner isn’t as well regarded from a pitch-framing standpoint, but Statcast gives him much better grades than Huff when it comes to blocking balls in the dirt.
Knizner has also had a massive showing in Triple-A this year, batting a combined .378/.512/.520 with more walks than strikeouts in 129 plate appearances between the top affiliates for the Nationals and the Giants. No one would realistically expect him to maintain even 75% of that pace in the majors, but given Huff’s struggles and the broader-reaching difficulties incurred by the Giants’ lineup as a whole, it’s not a surprise that Knizner’s eye-popping numbers earned him a bump to the big leagues.
Rounding out today’s influx of new bats in the Giants clubhouse is Johnson, whom they signed out of the Mexican League earlier this season. As was the case with Jerar Encarnacion in 2024, Johnson posted video game numbers in Mexico (.429/.512/.943) and caught the eye of Giants scouts. He’s been quite good since signing back on May 2, hitting .272/.312/.534 with six homers and five steals in 109 plate appearances. He’s seen brief MLB time with the Guardians and Orioles but has only 95 big league plate appearances to his credit. Johnson has a solid Triple-A track record, having slashed .257/.323/.452 in parts of six seasons.
Seems like a lateral move at best
Posey scrambling to cover his arse. Nothing he’s done has panned out but hie’s Buster so fans will give him a pass.
Worthington—
BS.
Yeah. Nah. The start was great. This stretch is the first hurdle.
I’m a longtime Dom Smith fan, but you know your seasons tanked when you’re replaced by him.
Wade has cratered at the plate this season…
He’s had a really good 2023 and efficient 2024. Shocked to see him completely lose his rhythm in 2024.
If your bat speed is that bad all pitchers have to do is throw big fat heaters right down the pipe.
Most shocked they couldn’t work out a small trade for him—I guess it’s his remaining salary.
Big fat heaters reminds me of Mark Grace’s slumpbusters, Wade!
yeah it is amazing how much of an automatic out he has become. he still has an elite eye but hasn’t been able to catch up to anything in the zone all year
I came here to say this. Dom Smith as upgrade? Nobody else out there that might be better?
Posey may be anticipating Eldridge taking at AAA and getting promoted by the end of June. That would be ideal outcome at this point. If not, acquire a better cold corner man in July.
Sure but Rhys Hoskins (RH) would fit even if Eldridge (LH) is up and capable of average or better defense.
The trouble with Hoskins is he isn’t capable of even average defense, -5 OAA since the start of last season. Plus, he’s the Brewers, starting 1B, playing in 58 of their 62 games so far. They would certainly want something decent in return
I think he is an expendable upgrade. Wade hasn’t broken ,180 all season. there is the hope for eldridge but also you could do something like swing an o’hearn trade later and not feel bad about DFAing smith
Tell us who out there is better? And ready to play!
Buster needed to shake things up.
The offensive collapse of Wade Jr has been sad to watch. He finally got his legs healthy and was running well. But his hitting ability completely vanished.
Smith is a veteran and should provide more production at first
But wait I thought Buster was just the common sense GM brought in to make the obvious decisions not made by elitist college boy Zaidi.
I guess it’s not as easy as everyone made it out to be.
Someone had to say that. Thx.
The Padres offense is equally struggling but I’m guessing they keep their Wade a bit longer. Hard to find meaningful upgrades this time of year. But a small shake up can be a message to some other players and serve its purpose
Lamonte > Maldonado
DFA the C, Campy is the in-house back-up. New Wade can be the 26th Man. Better potential offense, or it will be very offensive. Either or, roll the dice.
Maldy couldn’t hit his way out of paper bag, much less organize a piss-up in a brewery, or organize a chook raffle at a poultry farm, or pour water out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel
From reports. Maldy seems to be working well with SP and that is huge right now since bats aren’t doing much. Lamonte may have more nat upside (not really current production) but can’t manage a pitching staff so, I’ll stick with Maldy over LW (or Campy but jury still out on Campy).
Candy Maldonado(in his playing days) > Late Night Lamont
Maldy couldn’t hit water if he fell out’a boat!
The Candy Man can, paddy o’!
paddyo, Only to someone clueless as to how to read stats.
Which stats? Neither has a great career WAR, yet the Candyman played 14 seasons, hit over 100 HRs and over 1000 hits.
Say what you want about counting stats, but Wade will not surpass any of those career milestones that Maldonado achieved.
Yet it was fairly obvious I was not being serious, just following up Gwynning with facetious one as the Candy Man stopped playing in the kid 90s.
Mid* 90s
Since we’re all stirring the pot today, my turn…
Carmelo Martinez > Candy Maldonado
Agreed! For baseball anyway-maybe not confectionaries.
Also, all of Carmelo Martinez, Carmelo Castillo, and Candy Maldonado are Boriqua. It must be a sweet island.
Can I offer up John Candelaria? He was the “Candy Man”.
Longtime… thank you, I “mis-nicknamed” Maldonado.
“Buster needed to shake..Smith is a veteran..more production at first”…Buster definitely needed to shake things up. Dom Smith is a pro and will fit right in the clubhouse, but I’m not too sure on the “more production” thing.
I’m a longtime Dom Smith fan, back to his NY days. But, even I gave up on Dom “producing” much a long, long time ago. I am hopeful it works out for both him and team though.
Y’all want Mountcastle and/or O’Hearn?
(Probably not since you’ve got a dude in the pipeline).
It’d be a good way to at least get them through the season though..and they could still bring up Eldridge in a couple months, and rotate.
O’Hearn is a FA @ next year so yea it is actually something that would make sense for the giants. Eldridge has defensive work to do before he is called up so an expiring contract would be a good thing
bag o ballz and Tiberius —
Rhys Hoskins —he doesn’t block Eldridge.
I hope Smith hit’s the cover off the ball when and if he faces the mets or Red Sox just to show them they made a mistake and plays well but doesn’t do any damage if he ever faces the Yankees as a thank you for letting him showcase his talent and get himself back into the majors LOL
That’s a very specific ask
And not one based on anything but blind hope given Smith’s last few years.
All I can think of is the spider man meme.
Send it again since I feel exactly like you do!
Houston needs to take a hard look here!
I don’t see an upgrade at first base.
.167 ,.275 ,.271 …… if he played enough to qualify he would be rated 5th worst in all of baseball. by OPS – nearly anything is an upgrade
I thought this was supposed to be Jerar Encarnacion’s opportunity.
Buster has said he will get time at 1B, DH, and RF
Jerar started in RF yesterday. They’ll likely platoon between RF and 1B
Anything from now is just be a stop gap until
Eldridge is ready … hopefully mid August
Remember how much we wanted Buster Posey to come up during the 2010 season to replace Bengie Molina … we had to wait a long time but he did make it up in time to get us in the World Series and win rookie of the year… I know that’s asking a lot out of Eldridge… but this is also about keeping the fans interested in coming out… I’m having trouble watching this team at this point…
I keep yelling at the batters ( who I like and support) when they come up to the plate
“Be better! “
It’s a brutal watch. No doubt. Last night crushed my soul. Runs are fun.
My minor league watcher YouTube guy says the Eldridge defence isn’t so good. A time required thing. A price they might have to pay.
these last 2 games have been some of the worst baseball games I have ever seen. at least a blowout would be a blowout but man, just watching 2 offenses fail and fail to knock runs in until the manfred runner wins the game sucks.
I feel the same, complete misery to watch. Both teams deserved Ls.
“Torture” is back. In an agonizing way. I too have been yelling at the tv. Last night I said swing the bat bi__h to one of the players. Wife only heard the last part from another room. She said are you talking to me? Giants are killing me in a few different ways. Lol
The torture is worse now. Before it was winning games in torturous ways. Now they’re losing them.
This. So much worse.
Is your name in reference to Jesse Foppert? He was one of my favorite prospects. Thought he and Jerome Williams would be SFG rotation mainstays for years.
It is. Same thoughts. First young guy I became attached to as a Giants follower.
That’s exactly what I meant when I said in an agonizing way. What’s really frustrating to me is the lack of offense has really wasted some great pitching. Lots of games where just a little offense would have won games. Now we are slowly fading away. If not for the great start we’re the same damn borderline .500 team we’ve been the past few years. Real torture.
I hear you. If only the offence had been average. Soul destroying.
The good news is the pitching is young.
That’s amazing, haha. I’m a lifelong Cardinals fan, but he was one of the first prospects I showed an interest in too. All because of 2002 Bowman! Was awesome when Jerome made his way to the Cardinals in 2016.
What kills me is they could have won Monday night, if the hitters weren’t so anxious to swing, offering at garbage outside the zone.
Bottom of the 2nd, based loaded. no outs, and Fitz swings at a ball 4 to 6 inches inside, Adames out at the plate. Ramos then swings at a pitch in the same location for a GiDP. If they can’t score with a man on 3rd, and no outs, and then with 1 out, they don’t deserve to win.
Schmitt later had a chance to drive in a run and K’d on a pitch that looked to be 12 to 15 inches outside. If they’d scored the game doesn’t go to extras, and Giants win.
I guess I’m not the only who thinks the collective pitch selection has been horrible. We could improve the offense by signing MadBum to hit cleanup.
well I guess it is good I don’t name myself like that since when I was a kid one of the first prospects I followed closely was rusty kuntz
Dom Smith..ultimate dei hire”…Making this into a “race” thing is fairly silly to me. MLB is literally full of dozens and dozens of fringe AAAA types who travel the country getting regularly dfa’d and then resigned to a different team regularly.
Tyler Wade, Chadwick Tromp, Jessie Hahn and Jessie Chavez are just a few players signing and getting dfa’d multiple times literally every single year. Choosing or not choosing someone based purely on their skin color is extremely racist, but that’s clearly not the case here.
Why remove the post?
“Why remove the post”…I can’t remove my posts; does a paid subscription allow you to alter or remove posts after the fact?
It looks like you replied to a dei post that is now removed.
Paid does not allow alter/deleting. Though you can edit within 5 minutes. It was more of a comment to the admin. I replied something similar as you, but now it’s gone.
I wish I had seen that. Too funny. Is Dom like a darker shade ? Hence the DEI claim. It that what it has descended too ?
did someone really say that? if so that is pretty dumb and racist.
“that is pretty dumb and racist.”
Par for the course for a significant (and unfortunately growing) portion of the US population, and it’s being encouraged by those in power.
Please don’t tell me it’s growing. Surely not !
I am guessing you missed the Obama years
Rockies should kick tires on Wade
@brod21
Little too pricey…
not if he gets released, he can be had for the minimum
.378/.512/.520 is a wild slash line regardless of the level
I would’ve pushed up Eldridge past AAA and skipped on signing Smith entirely
I’ve been watching a weekly package of Eldridge highlights. Big tall fit dude with a noticeable presence. Just looks different. Like man v boy different. Even though he is meant to be the boy.
he needs to figure out defense, they don’t want him to just be a DH they want him to have staying power on the team – meaning that they really need him to be on the field and occupying a defensive position
It’s been a long way down for Wade. I wonder if there’ll be much interest in him.
When warm bodies are healthy, they are often coveted and in demand. I mean, if you need a trained(not good but fully trained)first baseman where are you gonna go? Costco? Walmart? Amazon?
I think what you do is you call up Dom Smith.
Brandon Belt, c’mon down…!
Wade is right up Pittsburgh’s alley. They don’t need him at the moment, but I could see them stashing him in AAA.
To go from a 2 rWAR to a -1 rWAR in one season is pretty impressive. I wonder if something is going on in his personal life or pitchers are just exposing his weaknesses.
If your primary tool is your ability to take walks you need enough bat speed to discourage pitchers from throwing everything right down the middle.
@WadeBoggsWildRide
He has pretty much the same bat speed as Tommy Edman, Taylor Ward, Freddie Freeman & Will Smith. When did those guys get DFA’d?
Seriously Edman and Freeman, Smith are all in the bottom 18% of baseball in swing speed?
Are they just better at pitch recognition so they can “cheat” the fastball by getting their swing going sooner?
this – he has been unable to catch up to fastballs in any part of the zone this year, when you have a guy at the plate whose weakness is a straight fastball it isn’t hard to pitch to him – you just throw as hard as you can in the zone
Noticeably fitter. Taking heat off his dodgy legs I imagine. I wonder if it affected the swing speed drop. No idea how, but yeah, who knows.
Deck chairs. Titanic.
Are you the same bivouac that turns into a rapid dog when someone writes something negative in a dodger post ?
The word is rabid.
And apparently hypocritical.
About what exactly? There are the champs and then there are the giants.
All good. I know what I wanted to know. Carry on.
Thank you for your permission. And best of luck to you and yours.
It wasn’t permission. Just a statement suggesting you move on with your hypocrisy. There’s a difference there. No off you go. If you want to of course.
Finally some action taken to hopefully address offensive problems
No more Wade Jr.
Now Encarnacion must start hitting – 2 games & 0-6
If he doesn’t expect more pressure from fans
Too early to be dumping on Encarnacion.
And the Giants have many more holes in their lineup, including some of the highest paid. Not worried about those guys long-term, but now it’s particularly in the spotlight.
Ha ha. I’m thinking Jerar isn’t too concerned about the fan pressure.
A shake-up is what the Giants needed and they got one. You never know, they might just catch lightning in a bottle with any of the 3 coming in. Ultimately the Giants need a difference maker and they have a few weeks to make that happen on the trade front. In the mean time I will be checking Eldridge’s at bats with Sacramento.
A lot of fantastic starting pitching has been going to waste with the Giants lately.
Wilmer, Yeah they needed a shake up. This might be a message to the other guys. And selecting Dom Smith is like saying they can find a warm body to replace almost anybody.
But the shake up I’d like to see is with the coaching staff. The hitters are either going to the plate with a bad approach, or they just aren’t very good. I tend to think it’s the former, since Ramos is good, and yet he’s sometimes overly aggressive and too anxious to swing.
Thank you Lamont. Honestly, you’ve earned your Giants paycheck. Late night heroics. OBP. Consistency for years.
The team needs to get stronger, so going a different direction makes sense.
“Over the past 14 days, Giants hitters have posted a combined .209/.297/.306 batting line.”
Over the past 14 days (64 PAs), Heliot Ramos has a combined .305/.359/.542 batting line, which shows how pathetic the other hitters have been.
I’ve been a Wade fan for awhile. I thought he was underrated. I advocated for patience hoping his bat would start to produce. But patience has run out. His swing isn’t coming back, and it’s the right move. He got plenty of rope.
Not sorry to see them move on from Huff. He was supposed to be the better bat as back-up. I wonder if any team is interested in claiming him.
It’s really tough to understand having a 2B who only has 7 rbi on the season. Fitzgerald has speed and a decent glove, but 7 RBI is horrendous at this stage of the season. Going to miss Wade scooping the ball for the infielders, but the time has come to make the change. Hopefully Dom Smith has a decent glove.
Unfortunately Fitz isn’t that good a hitter. I loved what he did last season, but I was skeptical he could sustain it. There were red flags. Too many SOs, too much chase.
His 2025 Statcast page is ugly. The only red is for his baserunning. His chase and whiff rates are both in the 16th percentile. And when he does make contact, his barrel rate, hard hit rate, bat speed, squared up rate, are all not good.
SF Giants acquire:
Brandon Marsh OF
Weston Wilson LF/INF
Mick Abel RHP (#7)
Phillies acquire:
Camilo Doval RHP
Heliot Ramos LF
Trade Ramos ?
In your dreams AC.
Wade is one of many huge disappointments on this roster, They have holes currently at 1B, SS, C, RF, 2B, and overall the team has been, totally inept at the plate this year. They are where they are at due to their pitching, which will fade at some point, then the losses will add up.
Several of the geniuses here said that Dom Smith should retire when he voluntarily opted out of his Yankees deal. Looks like he knows better.
Time for Knizner to do some damage! He was lauded for his bat as a prospect and kind of reminds me of Carson Kelly in the sense that he looks like he’s finally tapping into that potential at age 30. Always had solid contact skills.
signed off the street and batting 5th. farhan is that you?
If you haven’t noticed a difference between the methods of Farhan and Buster then you haven’t been watching.
Is that supposed to be a reply to the comment? Signing a scrub and batting him 5th is something Farhan would do. That’s it. No interest in your opinions beyond that
Yes it was. That type of transaction is something a lot of orgs do. Try following the game. It helps in preventing dumb and ignorant comparisons like that.
Oh no. How will I cope with your non interest.
Devastating !
It’s apparent you cope by acting like an expert on this website . You’re just another guy with opinions , sorry about that
Ok. I’ll take that on board. You alluded to a very dumb comparison. They are polar opposite in approach and it’s as clear as day. If you watch and follow that is. Apologies for hurting your feelings.
Hurt feelings ? You’re saying more things and assuming that makes them true but I can tell you really believe it
A scrub off the street? The Yanks were interested enough to sign him. He wasn’t released, he opted out of his contract And it was the second time he opted out. The first time the Yanks re-signed him. This was his 2nd opt-out. Signing him would not be at all unusual for any other team.
Ha ha. Ok.
Yanks are interested in him as a org depth piece and he’s batting 5th for the giants
Depth piece means potentially being on the ML roster. You are excellent at splitting hairs.
Depth piece with the hope of being on a roster is a far cry from batting 5th
With the ineptitude of the Giants’ lineup, you’re over-valuing the 5th spot in the order. As a team the 5th spot has a .631 OPS for the year so far. It’s a low bar. Batting 5th for the SFGs isn’t the same as batting 5th for the NYYs.
Correction: he was. That’s what it says in the headline.
Dude this is the point
He was what? Who are you responding to?
The headline I see is: “Giants Designate LaMonte Wade Jr., Sign Dominic Smith”
I think it’s time to clean house on the hitting coaches. Pat Burell is a great guy but something has to give. Bring back Bam Bam (3 world Champions) or Ecker (107 wins in 2021). Couldn’t frigin’ hurt.
Bring back Donnie.
Nail on the head. The team is still a work in progress no doubt in Posey’s first year. This would be something to look at in the off-season or even possibly bringing in someone post All Star Break to “help out” till then. Change is coming soon in this area here.
Dominic Smith?!!!!! you gotta to be kidding me. I expect a DFA coming in soon he is worse than what they DFA’d
The quality 1Bs won’t be available until late July, so it’s a worthwhile gamble with Wade hitting like a pitcher all year.
What surprises me is all the hits Wade was robbed by. I have been watching Wade all year. I can’t tell you how many times he was robbed of a hit. Such bad luck. I hope he can find a team to play for. I’m pretty sure he is done with the Giants. But never say never.
It is about time that major changes were made. In fact, it is w-a-y past time. Let’s hope these changes will make things happen for what was an exciting start of the ’25 MLB season has turned into a sad disaster. SF struggling with guys who can consistently hit for a good average has been a problem for endless years. Good luck to the team.