San Francisco Giants 2017 X-Factors, Part 2: Joe Panik

As is always the case, teams will need players to step up and make huge contributions. For the San Francisco Giants, one of those players is Joe Panik.

Offensively in 2016, the San Francisco Giants were a mostly average team in just about every category (except for home runs). They finished the year 11th in MLB in average, seventh in on-bas percentage, 20th in OPS, 19th in runs scored, and ninth in total hits.

But the team went through long, sustained slumps that seemed to impact their entire lineup all at once. In July, they were 21st in average, 27th in runs, and 15th in OBP. In September, they were 25th in average, 22nd in runs, and 24th in OBP.

As a whole, the Giants’ lineup wasn’t great, but the most notable struggles belonged to second baseman Joe Panik, and it was shocking. Panik proved himself as a fantastic hitter during his first two seasons with a .309/.364/.419 slash-line and over 200 hits in his first 173 games. That guy just was not present in 2016.

In 127 games, he slashed .239/.315/.379, looking like a completely different ballplayer than years prior. A concussion in late June cost him about a month of the season and certainly hampered his performance upon return (his timing was noticeably off when he came back), but he wasn’t himself even before hitting the disabled list on June 28th.

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Before going on the shelf, Panik owned a .256/.321/.407 slash-line, a far cry from his normal self but still much better than how he ended the season. He even showed signs of maybe breaking out of the slump, hitting .294 in the 21 games prior to his disabled list stint (a lot of those games occurred after he was beaned on the helmet, which is what eventually put him on the DL). But when he returned on July 28th, it was painfully brutal to watch.

Panik’s second-half slash-line was .215/.308/.340, and it only got worse as the season rolled on. He hit .167 after September 1st, and .129 after September 11th.

But there were a number of good signs that point to 2017 being a bounce-back year for Panik, many of which were outlined previously. Mainly, his strikeout rate and walk rate both show that he didn’t lose his approach much, even through the struggles. His 8.9 percent strikeout rate was the lowest in baseball, while his 9.5 percent walk rate was by far the best mark of his career. Furthermore, Panik was one of just two players (Ben Zobrist) with more walks than strikeouts (50 to 47).