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Looking back at the 2019 Giants, with an eye toward the future. Previously: Kevin Pillar, Alex Dickerson, Fernando Abad, Stephen Vogt, Madison Bumgarner, Will Smith, Pablo Sandoval.
Donovan Solano was not supposed to see this much playing time. He also was not supposed to perform like this.
The middle infielder was signed on a minor league deal, insurance for a team that already had Yangervis Solarte to move throughout the infield. Until Solarte didn’t hit.
The Giants cut ties with Solarte on May 6 and up came Solano, who was tearing up Triple-A pitching — just as he had a season earlier with the Dodgers’ affiliate, and Farhan Zaidi wanted to see more of him. While Solano never got his shot in LA, he got his first major league at-bats since 2016 with San Francisco and never allowed the team to consider demoting him again.
Solano was perhaps the quietest contributor on a team that needed offense from anywhere it could find it. What began as occasional pinch-hits became spot-starts to spell Joe Panik and Brandon Crawford, which became his bat forcing its way into a lot of lineups. In all, he played in 81 games with the Giants — and he would have played in more without the team’s loyalty to Crawford — and slashed .330/.360/.456. If he qualified for the batting title, he would have won; Christian Yelich led the NL at .329.
Solano lacked much punch, swatting four homers, and was another victim of Oracle Park, where he batted .259 without a homer. On the road, meanwhile, Solano was a history-maker, hitting .402 in 107 at-bats, becoming the fourth player since 1950 with at least 100 road at-bats to hit that benchmark, as Kerry Crowley of the Mercury News pointed out.
Solano had starred at the Triple-A level, but hadn’t put up numbers even in the same realm since his 2012 rookie season, when he slashed .295/.342/.375 in 93 games with the Marlins. Due about $1.2 million in arbitration, as MLB Trade Rumors estimates, he made himself a surefire returning Giant, but is the hitting sustainable?
His BABIP is a concern, his .409 mark — for a player with a career .321 BABIP — a sign that a fall is coming. But a higher BABIP does make sense considering Solano had a career-high 38.1 percent hard-hit percentage, his career mark being 29.9.
Solano actually struck out 21.5 percent of the time, the highest of his career, while walking slightly less than usual. It adds up to a more aggressive, harder-hitting utility player who brought a solid glove to both shortstop and second base. It is remarkable that a journeyman backup infielder, who played in half the games, accounted for the third-best WAR (1.6, per Baseball Reference) of 2019 Giants position players, behind just Mike Yastrzemski and Evan Longoria.
Solano, who still has an option left, has positioned himself for a similar job for next season, the biggest question becoming if and when he would intrude on Crawford’s gig. The franchise shortstop for the Giants is still just that because of his legacy and the $30 million he’s due over the next two seasons, but by the end of this campaign, even Bruce Bochy was beginning to sit him more often. The 32-year-old was among the worst hitters in baseball, slashing .228/.304/.350 in 147 games. A platoon is sensible, with the lefty Crawford and righty Solano, though Solano did damage against both righties and southpaws.
Panik was ousted — eventually, at least — to give a younger, more exciting prospect some time at second in Mauricio Dubon. Solano does not carry the same intrigue. But if he continues to emerge within a whole new regime, the pressure would be on.