In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Giants manager Bruce Bochy announced that recently acquired outfielder Andrew McCutchen will indeed play in right field at AT&T Park, and that Hunter Pence will move over to left. This of course leaves the Giants with a hole in center, and general manager Bobby Evans was asked what the club’s plan is at that position moving forward.
“We’ll stay engaged with any of the agents and clubs that we have,” Evans said about acquiring another player. “From our standpoint, a number of people have asked us about (Steven) Duggar, and we think Duggar is very much ready. We’d like to give him a little more time at the minor league level, although I think he’s going to make a big push to make this club. This is the time of year when you’d rather have Duggar in your back pocket if you can, and work on other things you can do to bring in a centerfielder that allows Duggar more time.
“That said, we’ll just continue to explore all the different options and we’re engaged in a number of difference scenarios right now, and we’ll continue to stay engaged and to figure out whether there’s a good fit on both sides for the player and us, and we feel like the options still remain pretty large.”
It appears that Evans’ preference would be to add a midlevel centerfielder in free agency, perhaps one of these names, as a bit of insurance for the unproven Duggar, who it sounds like Evans thinks could be at least a short-term solution there. If the Giants are unable to add another centerfielder, they will likely roll with a platoon of Duggar and Gorkys Hernandez to start the season. It would be a risky move to do so, and one that blew up in the Giants’ face last year when they elected not to sign an everyday left-fielder.
Duggar, 24, was a sixth round pick out of Clemson by the Giants in 2015. Duggar has never played in a major league game, but impressed in both the field and at the plate at Single A San Jose last year, finishing with a slash line of .270/.361/.470 and four home runs in just 29 games.