The San Francisco Giants, the parent club of the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels, were mired in fourth place in the NL West on May 14 with a 17-23 record, sitting eight and a half games out of first.
The Giants, on that May 14 date, started making what has become a series of minor-league callups, eventually adding catcher Patrick Bailey and outfielder Luis Matos, each of whom spent time in Richmond this spring, along with infielder Casey Schmitt and relief pitchers Ryan Walker and Tristan Beck, a trio of 2022 Squirrels alums, and the Giants since have gone on a 27-11 run that has them sitting at 44-34, two and a half back of first-place Arizona, and holding, for the moment, one of the three NL wild-card spots.
Bailey (.323/.352/.535, 4 HR, 22 RBI in 29 games in 2023 with the Giants) has maybe been the team’s most valuable player since his call-up, with a team-best 1.4 WAR since his debut on May 19.
Schmitt (.256/.296/.368, 2 HR, 21 RBI in 40 games in 2023), meanwhile, has been an important piece in the middle infield, stepping in when starting shortstop Brandon Crawford went to the IL in May and pushing the long-time foundation piece with his solid play.
“I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that there’s going to be ebbs and flows,” San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler said. “Casey got here and he was raking and everything was going his way and then he hit a little rough spell. It doesn’t mean Casey’s not as good as he was when he got off to his great start.
“The first two weeks or a month isn’t a player’s career. It isn’t who that player is going to be. While these guys all have the potential to be good, they’re just young, developing players. More than anything, we’ve just got to hang in there with the ebbs and the flows of this,” Kapler said.
“Pat Bailey’s off to a great start, (but) he’s not going to hit .500 with homers all over the place and throwing everybody out. He’s going to hit some rough patches along the way. I personally think we should be measured when we talk about a player’s success and measured when we talk about a player’s challenges and struggles,” Kapler said.
Bailey slashed .333/.400/.482, 2 HR, 10 RBI in 14 games with the Squirrels earlier this season. Schmitt hit .342/.378/.517, 3 HR, 16 RBI in 29 games in 2022.
Matos (.282/378/.385 with one homer and four RBIs in 11 games in San Francisco) was called up after an injury to outfielder Mitch Haniger. Matos, the #3 rated prospect in the Giants farm system coming into the 2023 season, hit .304/.399/.444, 3 HR, 16 RBI in 31 games in Richmond in 2023.
The Giants pitching staff has been getting relief help from right-handers Walker (2-0, 1.89 ERA in 15 appearances, with 20 Ks and 7 BBs in 19 IP), and Beck (1-0, 3.54 ERA in 16 appearances, with 33 Ks and 10 BBs in 40.2 IP).
Beck had two stints in Richmond: going 2-2 with a 5.89 ERA in four starts in 2021, and 0-1 with a 2.57 ERA in three starts in 2022.
Walker was 7-2 with a 3.35 ERA in 43 appearances with the Squirrels in 2022.
“We’re just kind of trying to find out what we have in these players right now,” Kapler said. “It’s great that they’re off to a great start and it’s great that we’re winning baseball games. There’s no question that the energy and the youth and the enthusiasm has impacted our group. That is just absolutely true. But these are young, developing players and we are going to find out what they are able to contribute going forward.”
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Chris Graham
