San Francisco Giants: 3 players who surprised the most in the first half

The San Francisco Giants may have started slow, but they ended the first half of the season red hot. Here are the team’s three biggest surprises from the first half.

The San Francisco Giants‘ 2019 season has been full of twists and turns and no doubt plenty of surprises. Long seen as an afterthought, the Giants were expected to trudge into July and sell as many pieces as they could come the trade deadline.

And while that still might be the plan, they’ve certainly made that plan a bit murkier as of late.

After their thrilling extra-inning victory Friday night, the Giants have now won seven of their last eight contests and sit just 4.5 games out of the second wild-card spot.

No matter how many players have surprised this season, there is no bigger surprise than that.

Regardless, there’s still plenty of baseball left to be played and it’s best not to let optimism run rampant, but it’s certainly fun for the time being. For now, let’s take a look at three players whose first-half success has been part of the reason for the Giants recent victories.

Here are the Giants’ three biggest surprises of the first half of the 2019 season.

3. OF Alex Dickerson

Is it a bit early to put Alex Dickerson on this list? Perhaps. And is this more a case of recency bias than anything. Yes, probably.

But that doesn’t change the fact that what Dickerson has done in his first few weeks with the Giants has been nothing short of incredible.

Dickerson was designated for assignment by the San Diego Padres back in June and was subsequently traded and recalled to the Giants roster by the 21st of the same month. Since then, Dickerson has been absolutely phenomenal.

In just 17 games and 50 at-bats with his new ball club, the 29-year-old is slashing an astounding .340/.421/.740 and has totaled 15 RBI to go along with four home runs. Dickerson has been a spark plug for the recently resurgent Giants offense and all of this has come out of absolutely nowhere.

Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has made a number of low-cost, bargain additions during this season but none have panned out quite like Dickerson.

The former Padres outfielder missed all of last season recovering from Tommy John Surgery and hadn’t played in a major-league game since the 2016 season. If Dickerson can stay healthy, he figures to be a regular fixture in the Giants outfield plans for the remainder of the season.

And who knows what the future could hold.