How Melvin, Giants plan to fill DH hole with in-house options

How Melvin, Giants plan to fill DH hole with in-house options originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When the Giants signed Willy Adames and committed to moving Tyler Fitzgerald across the bag, they just about set their everyday lineup. There was just one notable hole remaining, and it’s one they never really filled.

The lineup needs a consistent option at designated hitter, and given the uphill climb in the NL West, the Giants really could use a solution that offers much more than just stability. On the first day of camp, manager Bob Melvin said the DH slot is the biggest puzzle that he needs to figure out this spring on the position player side, although there are two clear frontrunners.

Wilmer Flores is back for his sixth season in San Francisco and Jerar Encarnacion will look to break through in his second. There are plenty of others — most notably young players like Luis Matos and Marco Luciano who are blocked in the outfield — but Melvin’s preference at the moment is to go with experience.

“They stand out a little bit more,” he said of Flores and Encarnacion.

In theory, the 27-year-old Encarnacion is the upside play, but that might not end up being the case. Flores was the team’s most productive hitter as recently as 2023, bashing a career-high 23 homers and consistently grinding out some of the league’s toughest at-bats. The 2024 season was his worst offensively since his rookie year of 2013, but the Giants and Flores are hoping that the downturn can be just about entirely chalked up to a lack of health.

Flores played through right knee tendonitis the entire season and underwent a Tenex procedure on August 6 to clean out dead tissue around his quadriceps, just above his right knee. He admitted Thursday that he pushed too hard at the beginning of last season.

“The way I’ve been taught to play this game is you find a way to play even if you don’t feel 100 percent. I think I took it too far trying to play, but it wasn’t an excuse,” Flores said. “I’m 100 percent now and we’ll see where things go … (this is) how I’ve felt my whole life, so, normal. When I’m hitting, I don’t feel as much pain.”

As Flores rehabbed, he was faced with what ended up being a very easy decision. The Giants signed him a two-year extension during a solid 2022 season that included a complex option for 2025. Flores could exercise the option for $3.5 million, and if he failed to do so, the Giants could bring him back for $8.5 million.

At the time of the deal, it seemed somewhat possible that the Giants could be the ones pushing for a reunion. But given the injury and lack of production, it was a no-brainer for Flores to pick up his player option, and he said Thursday that he was intent on being back in San Francisco.

The salary won’t keep the Giants from moving on if Flores cannot rediscover his form, but there were no hints in the offseason that anyone in the front office was thinking that way. New president of baseball operations Buster Posey said Wednesday that his team is set at first base with LaMonte Wade Jr. and Flores, and Melvin wants Flores’ experience on the bench on days when he’s not at first or DH. For Posey, this is one decision where he has more info than just about any executive possibly could. He played with Flores in his final season.

“He was just in the training room and I was talking to him like he was still a player,” Flores said, smiling. “It’s weird. It’s weird. He knows what he’s doing. I feel like him being a catcher and the way he played — he won so many times — he knows what it takes to win.”

While Flores will turn 34 this year and is well into the back nine of his career, Encarnacion still is looking to bust out after a wild 2024 calendar year. He started the season in Mexico and signed with the Giants after hitting 19 homers in 26 games, jaw-dropping production that led then-president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi to joke that he would sign someone who did that in backyard games. In Triple-A, Encarnacion homered 10 more times in 33 games and posted an OPS north of 1.000.

The big league numbers — 99 OPS+, five homers in 35 games — didn’t jump off the page as much, but the batted ball data was intriguing. Encarnacion ranked as elite when it came to bat speed, exit velocity, hard-hit percentage, expected slugging percentage and other advanced metrics. It was a very small sample, but among players with at least 50 batted balls last year, he trailed only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani in hard-hit percentage. His average exit velocity placed him fourth, one spot ahead of Giancarlo Stanton.

All of that loud contact was enough to keep the Giants from pushing too hard for similar options in the offseason. They brought in Jake Lamb, and he’ll have a real opportunity to work his way onto the bench and get some at-bats against right-handers, but Flores and Encarnacion enter camp as favorites to soak up a lot of DH at-bats.

Flores said he’s happy to be back and thrilled to be healthy. For Encarnacion, this spring represents the best opportunity of his professional career, and the Giants are hopeful he jumps on it.

“He can not only swing the bat for power in our ballpark, but can DH and play some first and play some outfield,” Melvin said. “We’re going to take a hard look at him. He impressed us last year.”

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