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The Giants cannot force you to smile. If you, the fan, are unhappy with the way things are going — a roster that looks worse after a 77-85 season in a division that appears to be better, a rebuild that is not being openly called a rebuild delaying real leaps in production and money spent for at least one more season — you can stay away from Oracle Park, turn your TV off and live in peace.
But they can sure try to make your face crack, the corner of your lips beginning to curl.
A few days after a reunion with Pablo Sandoval, the Giants officially rekindled their relationship with Hunter Pence, who signed a one-year major league worth $3 million plus incentives on the eve of FanFest.
To: Hunter Pence, Pablo Sandoval⁰
CC: Posey, Crawford, Belt⁰⁰Subject: Getting the Band Back Together! pic.twitter.com/FOwO9swHKj
— KNBR (@KNBR) February 8, 2020
The righty will fit in to a lefty-heavy outfield, competing for at-bats against southpaws predominantly with Jaylin Davis and Austin Slater. Pence left as a too-old, too-declining fan favorite, going off to great fanfare at the conclusion of the 2018 season. He returns more sage than veteran, yet another coach who just happens to also play the field, and coming off a remarkable comeback season in which he was an All-Star for Texas and crushed lefties with a tweaked swing.
The 37-year-old-in-April also will fit in to a clubhouse that is valuing positivity to an extreme degree under this new, young staff.
“He’s one of the best teammates that anybody will ever have,” Buster Posey said Friday at Oracle Park before the deal was official. “His enthusiasm for baseball is contagious. … His season was cut short a little bit last year, but before that he was really putting up some big numbers, so I’m interested to just kind of pick his brain and see what adjustments that he made.”
Pence’s back cost him the tail end of the season, but Posey alluded to the intangible Pence being back entails: He’ll be a bat and a voice, helping rookies and veterans alike, a player who has risen and fallen and risen again. In role if not position, he may be replacing Stephen Vogt, more than anyone else.
Brandon Crawford, citing “sources,” said he’d heard Pence would be returning.
“Hunter’s one of the more positive people any of you [media] have ever met,” the shortstop said, “so you know what he’s going to bring here to the clubhouse and the team, how important he has been to this team in the past.”
Pence, a two-time champ with San Francisco, undoubtedly will be an attraction in a stadium that might not have many. As will Sandoval, another beloved #NearlyForeverGiant who, while he will help, is valued as much for presence as effectiveness.
“Pablo the past few years has been one of the best teammates that I’ve played with. Hunter’s always been like that,” Brandon Belt said of Pence, who can make as much as $2.25 million extra in various performance incentives. “Just to have them back and be in the clubhouse, it’s going to be great for guys who were teammates with them before, but it’s also going to be great for the younger guys to look up to that. They can be pretty good role models for them.”
The Giants outrighted righty Luis Madero to Triple-A to make space on the roster. Madero will be in camp as a non-roster invite.