The Giants officially announced their two-year deal with Harrison Bader on Friday afternoon. President of baseball operations Buster Posey and general manager Zack Minasian conducted a conference call with the beat to introduce their new outfielder.
Posey confirmed that Bader will be the everyday center fielder, a move that pushes Jung Hoo Lee into right field on most days (link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). It doesn’t appear the incumbent center fielder had any issue with the change. “Jung Hoo was great,” Posey said of his reaction to the signing. “Also there’s an understanding on our end and to Jung Hoo that there’s a chance that he could still be getting reps in center field. But our plan is to have Bader playing center field.”
Lee had a decent amount of right field experience in Korea. He has played exclusively up the middle over his two seasons in the majors. Lee’s physical tools are strong. He’s an above-average runner with plus arm strength. His first step and routes weren’t as polished, and defensive metrics weren’t fond of his overall work. Statcast graded him five runs below average, while Defensive Runs Saved had him a glaring 18 runs worse than an average center fielder. No player had a worse DRS mark at the position.
The 27-year-old should grade more favorably in his new position. He’s a much better athlete than most corner outfielders. There’ll still be plenty of ground to cover in home games thanks to Oracle Park’s massive right-center gap. The move to a corner will put a little more pressure on the bat. Lee is coming off a solid but unspectacular .266/.327/.407 slash across 617 plate appearances. That’s much better than the .241/.303/.395 league mark for center fielders but lands more middle-of-the-pack in right, where the average player batted .247/.319/.422 last year.
Right field was the biggest weak point in the San Francisco lineup. After they traded Mike Yastrzemski at the deadline, their right fielders hit .202/.249/.376 across 194 plate appearances. Drew Gilbert projects as a fourth or fifth outfielder. Luis Matos was a well-regarded prospect but hasn’t found much success on either side of the ball over three MLB seasons. Matos is out of minor league options and will be a player to watch in camp, as he’ll either need to win a bench job or be taken off the 40-man roster.
Pushing Lee to right field leaves second base as the last potential position of need. The Giants have looked for upgrades over Casey Schmitt, with reports tying them to various trade targets (e.g. Brendan Donovan, Nico Hoerner, CJ Abrams). Posey declined to go into specifics in response to a question about trading for a second baseman, but that appears to be a bigger priority than further augmenting the rotation. The Giants stayed away from the top of the market, instead signing back-end arms Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser to short-term deals.
Even as Framber Valdez remains unsigned, Posey downplayed the desire to add another starter. “We’re happy with our rotation right now, with some of the adjustments that Houser made last year, and we feel like Mahle is in a good place physically,” he said (relayed by John Shea of The San Francisco Standard). “You’re never going to close doors, but we feel good with the group that we have.”
They’ve taken a similar approach to the bullpen despite losing key contributors Camilo Doval, Tyler Rogers and Randy Rodríguez (the latter to Tommy John surgery) from last season. They’ve taken one-year fliers on Sam Hentges and Jason Foley, both of whom are returning from shoulder surgeries. There’ll be plenty of high-leverage innings available as first-year manager Tony Vitello evaluates the group. That extends to the closer role. Ryan Walker has the most ninth-inning experience of their relievers but is coming off an uneven year.
Walker tells Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle that he’s hoping to win the job, though it seems like it’ll be an open competition in Spring Training. “As we sit here today, I think we’re hoping that Ryan Walker can get back to his 2024 form. But without discussing it with Tony in depth, I guess the way that I would see it now is that we’ll see who steps up,” Posey told reporters (including Slusser). “We’re not coming into this season necessarily with one guy that we say, ‘You are going to be the closer.’ There’s a chance that somebody takes the reins and does slot in to that closer role as we get into the season, but right now I wouldn’t say that there’s one person that we’re targeting for the ninth inning.”