San Francisco Giants Fan Favorite Having Best Start of His Career

The San Francisco Giants are off to a surprisingly strong start as an offensive unit, and the performance of the team's longtime star Mike Yastrzemski is a massive reason why.

In 2024, the Giants ranked 19th in MLB in team OPS with a mark of .701.

In the offseason, new president of baseball operations Buster Posey took a massive swing in free agency, landing slugging veteran shortstop Willy Adames, previously of the Milwaukee Brewers, on a lucrative deal.

Adames was to be tasked with leading San Francisco to an offensive turnaround, but so far this year, he's struggled mightily at the plate.

In spite of that, the Giants sit ninth in MLB with an OPS of .723, even with their signature acquisition slumping.

Yastrzemski, a 34-year-old veteran from Massachusetts, is off to a start that features a .302/.439/.566 slash line that has resulted in an OPS+ of 195, placing him in the 95th percentile of the league average hitter in this key metric.

Writing for MLB.com, Will Leitch listed Yastrzemski among seven players who have had surprisingly strong offensive seasons so far.

"For all the changes the Giants have gone through over the past seven seasons, Little Yaz has been a constant, even as his performances have sometimes fluctuated," Leitch wrote. "But he has never put up numbers like this."

Leitch is correct.

The veteran outfielder came close in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, putting up a .968 OPS over his 54 games. He even garnered MVP consideration that year, finishing eighth among National League players in the race.

The performance so far is very encouraging for San Francisco, as Yastrzemski went through the second-worst offensive season of his career in 2024 when he posted a still-respectable .739 OPS.

If he can continue to hold off the aging curve, Yastrzemski provides another star-caliber bat to a Giants lineup that will look quite formidable when Adames inevitably bounces back.

Jung Hoo Lee coming back from a disappointing rookie campaign that was ended early because of injury has also helped with an impressive 1.055 OPS that just barely beat Yastrzemski's mark for the team lead.

Tyler Fitzgerald, Matt Chapman and Wilmer Flores are off to hot starts as well, and San Francisco is excelling in the loaded National League West division, holding a 13-6 record but still trailing the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Yastrzemski could be in line for his first career All-Star nod if he can keep his momentum rolling.

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