The Giants and Gerard Encarnación they agreed to a minor league deal, Mike Rodriguez reports in X. This player played with Guerreros de Oaxaca in the Mexican League, too posted on X about the deal with the Giants. It is not yet official as Encarnación is still waiting for his work visa and needs to claim his body, according to Rodriguez.
Encarnación, 26, came as a prospect in the Marlins system and spent some time in the big leagues as well. He was released from their roster in July of last year and was able to opt into free agency at the end of the season.
He has shown great potential throughout his career but also a worrying tendency to drop out. In his 81 major league games in 2022, he hit three home runs but was struck out in 39.5% of them. He spent all of last year in Triple-A, getting into 122 games at that level. He hit 26 homers there but also struck out 38.8% of the time.
With Oaxaca this year, he has crossed the plate 107 times and delivered an impressive 19 home runs. That helped him produce an absurd .366/.439/.989 batting line. His strike rate of 24.3% was unreal given his recent career in corporate football, although it is difficult to measure the level of scoring he faced in Mexico.
It’s understandable why the Giants are willing to give him a shot and see if he can bring that solid performance with him to their system. They currently have seven position players on the injured list, including four outfielders Jung Hoo Lee, Jorge Soler, Austin Slater again Michael Conforto. While Blake Sabol he can play the outfield position, he is tied to the catcher position now Patrick Bailey again Tom Murphy both in IL. Wade Meckler is on the 40-man roster but is dealing with a wrist injury in the minor leagues.
Mike Yastrzemski he is the most stable member of the outfield that is healthy right now. The other two areas are heavily filled Heliot Ramos again Luis Matos recently, each of those two has no experience. Tyler Fitzgeraldwho also humiliates with ignorance, wanders around to play outside and inside.
With all those moving parts, the Giants will bring Encarnación up to Triple-A Sacramento and see how he does. If he keeps crushing the ball like he has been playing for the Guerreros, it’s not hard to see him leading the bats in the big leagues, whether or not he can finish the strikeout.
