San Francisco Giants Need To Add at Least One More Bat Late This Offseason

A projected San Francisco Giants lineup leaves a lot to desired in some spots.

Jun 12, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants first base Wilmer Flores (41) drives in a run with a broken bat single during the third inning against the Houston Astros at Oracle Park. | Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images

Coming into the offseason, one of the things on the San Francisco Giants’ to-do list was adding more pop to their lineup.

Convincing hitters to sign with the team and play half of their games at a pitcher’s haven such as Oracle Park is no small task. But, the team’s new president of baseball operations Buster Posey was able to convince star shortstop Willy Adames this was the place for him.

The two sides agreed to a massive seven-year, $182 million deal, the largest in franchise history, for him to take over at shortstop.

His addition is huge, as he is one of the most productive players in the sport at his positon.

He provides the lineup with some major pop coming off a 2024 in which he hit a career-high 32 home runs.

Adames already has five consecutive seasons of 20-plus home runs and 25-plus doubles on his resume, not counting the COVID-19 shortened 2020 campaign.

He is projected to slide right into the No. 2 hole in the lineup by Maria Guardado of MLB.com, with center fielder Jung Hoo Lee batting leadoff. 

If Lee can find a rhythm after his first year in the MLB was derailed by a season-ending shoulder injury after 37 games, the Giants will have something cooking at the top of their lineup.

However, when taking a look at the rest of Guardado’s lineup prediction, it is clear the team needs to add another bat to the mix.

They cannot go into the 2025 season with Wilmer Flores getting the lion’s share of at-bats in the designated hitter role.

In 2024, he produced a ghastly .206/.277/.318 slash line with a 72 OPS+, recording a -0.6 WAR. Flores isn’t as bad as those numbers would suggest, but he also won’t replicate the production he provided in 2023 when he had a career-high 2.6 WAR and 137 OPS+.

Likely somewhere in between those two extremes is where he will fall, but it is imperative for the team to find another option to take some at-bats at designated hitter.

Jerar Encarnacion is an option in place. Jake Lamb, who was signed recently to a minor league deal, could also find himself in the mix with a good showing in spring training.

The player who fans would love to see get promoted is top prospect Bryce Eldridge.

He is the future at first base and adding him to the mix would provide the lineup another power hitter.

If the Giants look outside of the organization, veteran J.D. Martinez would make a lot of sense, as he showed last season he can still pound left-handed pitching.

Justin Turner, even at 40 years old, can still hit and would offer a little bit of positional versatility able to play both corner infield spots.