San Francisco Giants: Duggar Heating up as Summer Approaches

Top center field prospect Steven Duggar is heating up for the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A team, and it might be happening at just the right time.

After wowing with his speed, bat, and glove in Spring Training, one of the San Francisco Giants’ best prospects is starting to put everything together in Triple-A with the Sacramento River Cats.

Steven Duggar opened eyes in big league camp, but didn’t make the Opening Day roster. The team wanted the young, electrifying center fielder to play every day in Sacramento rather than be a part-timer as a big leaguer. He played well over the first month of the minor league season, putting together a .296/.394/.432 slash-line as the team’s everyday center fielder in April.

He fell into a slump at the beginning of May, however. In his first 12 games of the month, his slash-line sagged down to .146/.255/.208 and he struck out in nearly 33 percent of his plate appearances. The guy who looked like he would soon make the jump to the big leagues was floundering with the River Cats, and his status as a 2018 big leaguer was coming into question.

But now, as summer creeps closer and the weather warms up, Duggar’s bat is catching fire as well. Since May 15th, the 24-year-old is playing some of his best baseball ever. In those 21 games, he owns a .330/.378/.484 slash-line and has nine multi-hit games, including two three-hit games and a four-hit day.

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He’s also showing more extra-base power than he has in the past, even during his strong start to the 2018 season. He has nine doubles, a triple, and a home run in that stretch, and is currently riding an eight-game hitting streak. In his most recent game on Thursday night, Duggar picked up two hits, both doubles, and drove in three runs.

This is exactly what teams want to see from a young player like Duggar: the ability to adjust and pull yourself out of a slump. That’s just what Duggar did. He wasn’t hitting, so he made adjustments, slowing himself down at the plate so he could drive the ball better, and it’s paid off.

Duggar’s hot streak might just be coming at the right time for the Giants. Austin Jackson was signed in the offseason to, not play every day, but to be the primary center fielder for the most part, but has never gotten comfortable in San Francisco. He’s struggled offensively and defensively, and has been relegated to bench bat and occasional spot starter.

Gorkys Hernandez took advantage of the opportunity opened by Jackson’s struggles, and staked his claim to the everyday job with an extremely strong month of May. However, he hasn’t been able to keep the same pace in recent days while acting as the number one center fielder. Hernandez has just three hits in his last 26 at-bats (.115), and could be coming back to Earth after an insane stretch.

If that is the case and Hernandez’s struggles continue while Duggar keeps playing at this level, it would be an easy switch to make. As the days continue to roll on and the season gets deeper, Duggar certainly would seem to be the best option in center field.

The comparison that keeps being made is between Duggar and Giants’ shortstop Brandon Crawford. When Crawford came up for the first time in 2011, his glove is what kept him in the lineup for a while. His bat eventually caught up, and he’s having his best offensive season right now, but his glove was his calling card and has gotten him three Gold Gloves in the last three seasons. Duggar can contribute in the same way, especially if he continues to make catches like this one from Thursday:

(Duggar also threw out a runner at the plate on Thursday, his fifth outfield assist of the season.)

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As long as Duggar plays strong defense in center field, any offense he can give the team would be icing on the cake. The Giants have had a positive defensive center fielder by defensive runs saved since Gregor Blanco in 2013 (7 DRS in 550 innings, which isn’t exactly “every day”). Considering the park they play in, that’s an astounding stat. They need a guy who can cover that ground and make the difficult catches, and Duggar sure looks like he can be that guy.