We don’t normally lean towards the absurd at The Outside Corner unless it’s absolutely necessary. You know, like Churro Dogs. But after Thursday’s unlucky mishap for the Giants involving Hunter Pence, who will be out 6-8 weeks with a non-displaced fracture in his ulna, the Giants need to figure out a new game plan in right field for at least the first month of the regular season and absurdity reared it’s ugly head. How people are panicking over an injury this early in the season is truly absurd.
Really, there’s only three options: Trade, sign a free agent or promote from within. Let’s take a look at each one:
Trades: Man, everyone was quick to jump all over the glut of Red Sox outfielders that are currently available, as both Allen Craig and Shane Victorino were thrust into the discussion immediately for the Giants. No, really.
The #SFGiants fear that Hunter Pence may have a broken forearm, and #RedSox OF Allen Craig may be the perfect fit as trade possibility.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 5, 2015
Craig, as some of you might remember, can’t really play defense all that well, and right field at AT&T Park is the most difficult to traverse in all of baseball thanks to Death Valley in right-center. But he once had right-handed pop, and any whiff of that gets people all riled up. Unfortunately, he’s also being paid a whole lot of money over the next three seasons ($26.5 million at minimum assuming his $13 million option for 2018 gets bought out, which it will), and the Giants have Pence locked up through 2018 anyways, so…yeah. That won’t happen.
As far as Victorino is concerned, he is better defensively than Craig, but he’s not exactly thrilled with the idea of not being an everyday player, and as soon as Pence comes back, he wouldn’t be, since Nori Aoki does basically what Victorino does in left field. So he’d be extraneous, too.
Another player that has been mentioned (hopefully in jest) is Andre Ethier, because of course he was. Don’t think that’s going to happen, either. So at this point, it looks like a trade for an outfielder at this point looks like it won’t happen.
Signing of Free Agents: According to the always-helpful free agent tracker over at MLBTradeRumors, there are a couple of outfielders still out there to be signed, including Jason Kubel, Ryan Doumit, Scott Hairston, and, yes, Raul Ibanez. So for those of you keeping score at home, that’s two DH’s, a catcher that no longer profiles as an outfielder and Hairston, who is a hated enemy of Giants fans for his numerous home runs against the team over the years. Out of the available options (and there will be plenty that become released throughout Spring Training, obviously), he’d be the only one worth taking a look at, as he would be cheap and easily disposable. Of course, there’s always Jeff Francoeur if he doesn’t make the Phillies roster…
Promote from Within: This is what’s going to happen. It’s not sexy, it’s not thrilling, it’s hardly even exciting. For yet another season, fourth outfielder extraordinaire Gregor Blanco will be slated to take over for an injured Giant, but will most likely need a platoon partner against left-handed pitching, which will be either Juan Perez or Justin Maxwell. (See? Exciting!) There is a question of whether or not Blanco will actually be in right field with Nori Aoki also in the fold, but Blanco, if you might recall, knows that area pretty well.
This was going to be an issue for the Giants in the first place, as they don’t have the strongest bench in the league. Even though they won’t need the platoon advantage thanks to having a bunch of left-handed hitters that hit lefties well, losing Pence is obviously going to sting for the first 4-6 weeks of the season and could cost the Giants a win or two in the long run, which is critical considering the amount of teams vying for a Wild Card spot in the National League. The Giants will just have to hope they can hold it together for a few weeks, which is exactly what any team in this situation should be doing anyways. Freak injuries like this are always tough to deal with since they’re unexpected, but the Giants will just have to suck it up and move forward without their superstar right fielder for the time being.
