Rays outfielder is proving to be the one that got away from SF Giants

It's easy to forget all the players that have been in the SF Giants organization since Farhan Zaidi was hired as the team's president of baseball operations. Zaidi has prioritized churning the edges of the 40-man roster to acquire organizational depth off waivers. During the 2020 season, they claimed an intriguing young outfielder named José Siri. Without a minor-league season, though, Siri spent his time at the alternate site before he was designated for assignment four months later. Now, less than three years after the Giants moved on, Siri is emerging as a star with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Siri has appeared in 50 games with the Rays this season, starting in center field nearly every game with the exception of April, when he missed most of the month with a right hamstring strain. When on the field, Siri has hit .232/.288/.548 with 15 home runs and seven stolen bases. He's also graded out as an elite defensive center fielder, ranking in the 83rd percentile in Outs Above Average.

The Cincinnati Reds signed Siri as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic back in September 2012. Early in his career, Siri was already flashing a tantalizing combination of tools. Siri had true plus-plus arm strength, speed, and power potential. The question was whether he could develop his hit tool enough to reach his full potential.

In his age-21 season in 2017, Siri made his full-season debut at Single-A and hit .293/.341/.530 with 24 doubles, 11 triples, 24 home runs, and 46 stolen bases (58 attempts). Needless to say, those numbers led him to shoot up prospect rankings. Scouts were concerned that Siri's incredibly aggressive approach at the plate would cause him problems as he faced better competition, but the tools were too good to ignore.

Indeed, Siri's production dipped as he reached the upper minors, and with the Reds facing a roster crunch heading into the 2020 season, they decided to designate him for assignment. The Seattle Mariners claimed him off waivers before doing the same thing two months later when the Giants nabbed him.

Siri actually cleared waivers after San Francisco designated him for assignment and outrighted him to the minors. However, following the 2020 season, he became a free agent and inked a minor-league contract with the Houston Astros.

In 2021, Siri finally posted above-average production in the upper minors, hitting .318/.369/.552 at Triple-A and received his first big-league call-up. During his 21-game stint with the Astros, Siri stayed hot, hitting four home runs in 49 plate appearances that carried him to a .956 OPS.

MLB pitchers seemed to figure Siri out the following season. They took advantage of his swing-and-miss tendencies and held him to .178/.238/.304 line in 147 plate appearances. With Siri in the biggest slump of his career, the Astros traded him to the Rays at the deadline in a three-team deal that also included the Orioles and sent Trey Mancini to Houston.

Siri performed better to finish the season in Tampa Bay, recording a more acceptably mediocre .241/.292/.367 line. It looked like the Rays had found a solid fourth outfielder, but Siri's continued struggles with contact and tendency to chase had indeed prevented him from taking on a larger role.

Of course, now 27, Siri is changing the narrative this season. He has continued swinging and missing at some of the worst rates in the majors alongside a well below-average chase rate, but his tools are indeed loud enough to make up for his shortcomings. Despite missing two weeks of the regular season on the injured list, Siri has three more home runs than any player on the Giants this season.

The Giants may be quite happy with their outfield mix right now, but it's impossible not to look at José Siri with the Tampa Bay Rays and imagine what could have been. Instead, his tenure with the SF Giants is simply a footnote on his transactions page as he blasts home runs in the American League East.