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PHOENIX — With Heliot Ramos’ return, the Giants’ roster is more or less back to where it was when the season began. As in: More square pegs for circular holes.
Make no mistake: the homegrown 2024 All-Star is a welcome addition to a lineup that, despite showing signs of life, still averaged only three runs per game over its latest home stand.
“It’s just good to have him in the locker room and the dugout because he’s full of energy,” manager Tony Vitello said of Ramos’ return after missing 37 games with a quad strain.
And yet, his presence only makes the rookie manager’s job more complicated.
When Ramos landed on the injured list in the middle of May, there were already positional logjams being sorted through. In a way, it acted as a blessing in disguise of sorts.
Casey Schmitt took up left field, giving Vitello an easy way to get their most productive bat into the lineup everyday. Same deal with Bryce Eldridge, who hasn’t had to sit much while splitting duties between first base and designated hitter with Rafael Devers.
And consider Jung Hoo Lee and Luis Arraez, who not only keep hitting — both among the top three hitters in the NL by batting average — but also look increasingly comfortable in the field.
Inserting Ramos into the picture could amount to adding oil to water — it won’t mix.
Vitello said it himself while gaming out the likeliest scenario to incorporate the power-hitting but defensively challenged 26-year-old outfielder, whose 102 wRC+ and .731 OPS trailed only Schmitt and Arraez among San Francisco’s roster at the time of his injury.
“I don’t think that would be our first choice defensively,” the manager said. “But on any given day, I could see it being our first overall best choice.”
Vitello got one gimme in Ramos’ first game back Sunday, opting to sit Eldridge, a rookie left-handed hitter, against one of the game’s fiercest southpaws in Chris Sale.
That opened up the DH slot for Ramos, who didn’t play many nine inning games in the field on his rehab assignment. Because of that, Vitello said the Giants hope to “ease” him back in.
But once Ramos is fully ramped up, the positional alignment to which the manager alluded wouldn’t only not be anyone’s first choice. It should be a last resort.
The “most likely” option, according to Vitello, would keep Schmitt in left, a position he has played capably but still has only 30 games of experience. That would move Ramos, one of the worst defenders in the majors last season, to the other corner, despite the prowess Lee has shown prowling right.
Lee would be required to cover center, where he rated about as poorly as Ramos last season, prompting the move to right field, which has largely been a success.
In other words: Vitello’s proposed solution would stick an infielder in left field, a right fielder in center and, realistically, a designated hitter in right. Then again, despite Lee’s improvement, the Giants’ outfield already ranks as the second-worst defensive group in the majors.
In fairness, some within the team have suggested Ramos would fare better in right field anyway because of Oracle Park’s dimensions, which makes for less ground to cover than in left.
What if we told you there is an easier, almost inevitable solution?
Because the real sticking point isn’t in the outfield grass; it’s on the infield dirt.
And it will almost certainly sort itself out by Aug. 3, which so happens to be the MLB trade deadline and more likely than not the last day Arraez is on the Giants’ roster.
The signing of Arraez to a one-year, $12 million deal just before spring training may go down as one of president of baseball operations Buster Posey’s most successful moves to date.
But it was superfluous at the time and even more so now given the emergence of Schmitt, who is better suited to be the club’s second baseman of the future than a newcomer to the outfield.
The roster imbalances don’t stop there: As it stands, Arraez is one of just five infielders — counting Schmitt — on the 26-man roster, two of whom can only play first base.
They’ve instead decided to carry six outfielders — again, including Schmitt — leaving sparse playing time to go around between Jonah Cox, Drew Gilbert and Victor Bericoto.
If the Giants could trade Arraez now, rather than wait another month, they should. All the more so in regards to any of their other infielders on bloated, longer-term contracts, who are also standing in the way of Schmitt playing his natural position or Ramos taking over DH duties.
The problem is it takes two to tango and teams generally don’t make their best and final offers until closer to the deadline. The Giants, for their part, spent last week finalizing their big board for the amateur draft that predates the deadline by a few weeks. This week, they turn their focus to the deadline with a conference of all their pro scouts.
In the meantime, the task of constructing the lineup everyday only gets tougher for Vitello.
“It’s impossible to have too many good players,” the manager said. “Certain guys will get a little hot or a little cold at the plate, so there will always be puzzles to solve. But the more weapons we have the better off we are.”
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