It has been a middling start for the Giants, who fell to 16-20 with a loss to the Nationals this evening. San Francisco’s lineup has been a mediocre group overall, largely thanks to slow starts from Michael Conforto, David Villar and Brandon Crawford.
Despite the bland overall results, the Giants are getting strong contributions from a handful of players acquired in minor trades. LaMonte Wade Jr., J.D. Davis and Mike Yastrzemski all landed in the organization via small or buy-low deals. That’s also true of the player who has been arguably the team’s most valuable contributor in 2023: middle infielder Thairo Estrada.
Estrada began his professional career a little more than a decade ago. He signed with the Yankees as an amateur out of Venezuela. While he was never an elite prospect, the 5’10” infielder appeared among the organization’s top 30 minor league talents at Baseball America every year between 2014-19. Estrada had been an effective hitter up through Double-A but he lost the bulk of the 2018 season after being shot in the leg during a robbery attempt the preceding offseason. He required a pair of surgeries, and while he returned to play the majority of the ’19 campaign, his offensive numbers in Triple-A dropped.
The Yankees played Estrada sparingly at the big league level between 2019-20. Relegated to a depth role on a roster with DJ LeMahieu, Gio Urshela and Gleyber Torres, he appeared in 61 games in pinstripes. New York designated him for assignment during the first week of the 2021 season upon trading for Rougned Odor to serve as a depth infielder. The Giants jumped the waiver order, acquiring Estrada for cash five days later.
Getting any kind of contributions from a player added for that kind of minimal cost would have counted as a win. Estrada has far exceeded what the Giants themselves likely had anticipated. He was on and off the active roster in 2021, hitting .273/.333/.479 in 52 big league contests. By last season, he’d established himself as the primary second baseman. Estrada held that job with another above-average showing, putting together a .260/.322/.400 line with 14 home runs and 21 stolen bases through a personal-high 541 plate appearances.
San Francisco tabbed Estrada as its Opening Day second baseman for a second consecutive season. He’s responded with a torrid start, carrying a .338/.388/.522 slash over 38 games. He’s already connected on six home runs and seven doubles, and he’s swiped 10 bags in 12 attempts. Estrada has split his defensive work almost evenly between the two middle infield spots, moving to shortstop lately after Crawford hit the injured list. Public metrics suggest he’s better suited for second base, where he figures to return once Crawford is healthy.
Estrada isn’t going to keep hitting at this pace. He’s running a .396 batting average on balls in play in spite of a modest 31.8% hard contact rate. As a few more batted balls find gloves, his offense will take a step back. Even with some regression, Estrada looks to have established himself as a slightly above-average hitter. He’s now up to 820 plate appearances of .277/.336/.435 batting since landing in San Francisco. He puts the ball in play to compensate for middling walk totals and has solid if unexceptional power.
Combine that offense with quality baserunning and the ability to play up the middle and Estrada looks like a well-rounded everyday option who’s currently playing at an All-Star level. The Giants have already gotten far more out of Estrada than teams get in the vast majority of transactions for players who’d been in DFA limbo.
He’s likely to remain a contributor — albeit not quite at his early-season level — for the next few seasons. Estrada is making just $2.25MM in his first of four years of arbitration eligibility. The Giants can keep him around via that process through 2026. It’s rare for teams to retain players whom they’d added in a cash transaction for multiple seasons but Estrada has played his way into an important role in the Bay Area.
Well we can rule out Sean Manaea from that headline
It’s funny the signing of Arson Judge was never mentioned in this article.
The Captain doing his schoolgirl thing. Never gets old.
Neither was the re-signing of Joc Pederson whose contributions this year have been modest at best.
They fail to mention Judge is a juicer.
Estrada was essentially purchased. Manaea was a free agent. You’re one of those people, amk, who completely deflects away from this successful acquisition in order to point out a negative. But since you want to ignore the other positives mentioned in the article (transactions that brought them Yaz, Wade and Davis) how about we focus on a different headline: GIANTS AVOID WASTING CASH ON FREE AGENTS. Then we could mention Correa Rodon Judge (half as good as last yr) Stanton Story Longo Belt Abreu Suzuki. The list is long.
There is nothing positive about what Farhan has done to the Giants. Their identity is a mediocre platoon team that will show flashes of power but nothing consistent enough to win anything. They spent over 160 million on free agents and every single one of them has been terrible. Finding a few diamonds in the rough doesn’t magically make them a good team.
read better
Hi claude, hope you are doing well!
Sean Manaea has never really been that good, a #5 or more like a #6, except for 2018. Five years later, he’s proving what I said in the off season, “Ooh, no!”
What the Giants do with him now —at $25M thru the ’24 season—is a mystery. If they could trade him (while discounting his salary considerably) they should do it sooner than later. Maybe some team like the Royals, Athletics or Cardinals have a place for him—at the right price.. Please.
Future is bright in SF with Webb and Estrada. Lock this kid up long term and Dodgers and Padres fans will start shaking from fear. The 2021 NL West championship core needs to be kept together.
but Dodgers and Padres got money so long. Giants need a larger base of young talent before they start consistently competing for anything more than a wildcard spot.
Assume this is sarcasm.
The main guys left from that 2021 team:
A washed up Crawford
An average OF in Yaz
A guy in Wade who will regress
A solid SP In Webb
DeSclafani – who knows
An injured and average Alex Wood
Of the past 2 years they had one great regular season and one bad one, not too bad but probably not much to build on.
DFAing Estrada in order to keep Tyler Wade and acquire Odor was a terrible move at the time and looks even worse in hindsight. The game has evolved at a way quicker pace than Cashman has, he has honestly been one of the worst GM’s of the past five years.
DFAing Estrada was the correct move. He hit .167 with a .460 OPS in 2020 and was out of options. Wade was more valuable that year as the backup infielder / pinch runner and we did not have Locastro at the time. Odor had too much power potential to pass up on, especially in a season we had to reset our luxury tax penalty and with Texas paying his salary and hit left-handed so he could share playing time with DJ, Gleyber & Gio. Odor carried the team in the early part of 2021 while Jay Bruce, Miguel Andujar, Clint Frazier were putrid until other left-handed hitting reinforcements arrived (trading for Rizzo & Gallo) Hindsight did it work out, no, but with Volpe, Peraza, Cabrera on the way they would not have had been able to give him the MLB opportunities to learn on the job like he had in SF.
don’t forget, the amount of money we received for him was undisclosed – it may have been the tipping point to retain Judge and get Colon from SF instead of the SF getting Judge and/or retaining Colon. #ArsonJudge
I remember watching them with Trenton. Gleyber was the one they kept talking up, and Estrada was the one actually producing.
(1) with good reason, Gleyber had torn up the Arizona Fall League after returning from Tommy John Surgery in 2016 with a 1.158 OPS… (2) you’re wrong about who was actually producing 2017 Trenton Thunder: Estrada .745 OPS (16th on the team of 30 hitters that season), Gleyber .863 OPS and then promoted to AAA and had .863 OPS again.
Franco best writer. Also, am I the only one who thinks CHiPs when I see Estrada?
Ponch and John!
Story of the modern Giants franchise. Solid trades, amazing minor league development, great waiver claims, strong contracts for homegrown talent…. and god awful big ticket free agent signings.
At least Zito didn’t have an opt out in case he started pitching well.
Amazing minor league development? I’m a giants fan and their minor league development has been lackluster. They’ve been super slow to promote guys. Only recently and prob pressure from the fan base and ownership have they started moving guys up.
Yea, but all those WS were mostly based on homegrown talent. Not as great recently but most of us aren’t the Rays, can’t somehow be constantly great with controllable rookies.
We have next to no idea how Zaidi is with minor league development considering Schmitt is the first hitter Zaidi drafted to reach the majors (and he’s looked great in two games so far). Their big prospects haven’t planned out in a long time with the last first round pick I remember contributing at all was Joe Panik.
lol at fan pressure. Fans over estimate their influence. More likely they actually have some players that have earned a shot.
Was Estrada the one trying to rob somewhere or was he a bystander who happened to get shot? Wording is a bit unclear
I assumed that someone robbed him.
I just looked it up. Two teenagers demanded his cash or his wallet, and one of them shot him when he said he had neither.
thank you!
You’re welcome.
The season is still early and Thairo will regress. He’s not a player you build a future around. 2B is a bat first position and he has a lot to prove beyond a hot start.
Hard not to love this kid he plays with such heart, he and Wilmer have a great relationship also glad to see him with a good mentor in the team. He’s been rocky at short but he gives his best and has improved defensively I think every season he has played with the giants. He puts up mostly good at bats and is one of the best base runners on the team which I hope can spread a little because they aren’t the best base running team (not sure if that’s more on the coaches yet not the hugest kap fan).
“He’s now up to 820 plate appearances of .277/.336/.435 batting since landing in San Francisco.”
A .336 OBP with a .277 BA means that he hits his way on base. I remember Thairo from the minors when he was with the Yankees. Yes, he’s a great story and I’m happy for him. Truth be told, U rather have him over Gleyber. That said, he’s not a core player to build your future around.
“2B is a bat first position.”
Huh. So after 150 years, they changed it?
I once read that second base was a bat first position back in the early 1900’s and third base was a mostly defensive position around the same time. That changed as more and more double plays were turned.
A 2B is essentially a failed SS who lacks the arm strength to play 3B. Such a player had better hit well or he is useless.
No, not at all. Bill Mazeroski couldn’t hit and he’s in the hall of fame. Frank White was another successful second baseman who couldn’t hit.
@bright side
3 years in a row with an OPS+ over 100. 104 in 22, 118 in 21. He has already proved a lot lol. 2nd base has never been a “bat first” position. Nobody ever said anything about building a future around him! He is a player that is cost controlled through arbitration and that in itself has value. They have a player that has shown that he can hit above average at the major league so that’s less holes that they need to fill. Oh, and they got him for absolutely dick because that Yankees are a horribly run organization thanks to Cashman. That was such a horrible take.
Everything about Thairo Estrada indicated he was going to be a slightly above replacement level player at worst (so 1.0 WAR) and might blossom into a solid 3 WAR player if he realized his full potential. But yeah they went with the overpaid underperforming Odor because he had a tiny bit of power and we went with Wade, the career Quadruple-A player who was never going to be more than that.
The Yankees Bubba Crosby’d themselves with Wade- remember that era?- instead of going with Estrada, who could very well turn into a Cano-lite player.
That’s what Farhan Farside does: he pans for gold, sifting through the detrius and occasionally finding a gold nugget-celebrates with a root beer. One of these days he will find that platinum coin worth a trillion dollars and Barq’s stock will skyrocket…..
Man what?
Thairo is one of the few reasons to watch this team. Not going anywhere when the entire bullpen beside the closer is terrible and you consistently have 3/4 dudes in the lineup who can’t hit at all. Not to mention Manea and Stripling are automatic L’s everytime they pitch. Manea might as well just spot the other team 4 runs before the game starts.
Yaz Wade and Estrada all have talent, the only question is their ability to access it consistently. In all honesty, those aren’t the guys we should be looking at in the first place. Conforto, Haniger, Pederson, and Bart are where a lot of the stock is invested and those guys need to live up to the billing.
Webb and Doval are A assets
Yaz, Cobb and Estrada are B assets, although Estrada and Cobb are having A years so far
Bart and Schmidt are C assets, although Schmidt deserves a chance to prove himself maybe he’s more
But otherwise, the Giants look like a distant fourth team that may barely edge the Rockies due to an edge as to starting pitching.
So is he a trade candidate? Otherwise, why write about him if you’re MLB Trade Rumors? Or are you trying to rebrand as “Generic MLB Site?”
Stick. To. Transactions. Stop trying to be a discount Fangraphs.
Had this app for 10 years. This is how it’s always been. They’re a diet bleacher report and always have been. Transactions and notables. Always and forever. These are the outcomes of random transactions that had little fanfare originally that ended up being key dudes. This is the type of post that reinforces what they’re all about, how a cash deal for a minor leaguer CAN pay dividends for a team, even if they look like a dime a dozen when they happen.
All this article does is get people to pay closer attention to those seemingly insignificant deals teams make year round, because these ones were under the radar when it happened.
Gotta see the bigger picture man, you’re missing the forest for the trees.
Thairo Estrada has been my favorite Giant for a while now. He’s literally a guy every team wishes they had at least 3 of. He’s a minimum .250 with 15+ HR and 15+ stolen bases with solid to good defense everywhere he plays. Idk if it’s the way he’s built or what but he just has the perfect look for a baseball player. I’d take a team of 9 Thairo Estrada’s to go 100/62 and win a couple World Series. If you could print a middle infielder/utility starter(2B/SS/3B/LF/RF) it’s him. Plays hard, has incredible focus, doesn’t let loud fans or big moments shake him, and will leave you with zero second thoughts when it comes to effort and his ability to get the job done.
Casey Schmitt is literally the first guy this regime has drafted to make the majors. Everyone else has been carryover, or hopeful bets on a change of scenery. Yea, I’d say above average minor league development. Easily.