Brandon Belt’s season is over, but the Giants’ is not.
The results might not matter, but San Francisco still has a month of baseball left. The playoffs aren’t in play, but that doesn’t mean the season’s stretch run is worthless.
Throughout the roster, players can use September as a launching pad. And that roster now includes two more players with particularly notable stakes: David Villar and Lewis Brinson.
Villar, the under-the-radar prospect who mashed all season at Triple-A, is back with the team for more big-league competition. The 25-year-old infielder has hit .175 in 23 games with the Giants this year, but with September success could show he’s more than just a Quad-A player.
“My mindset is we need to see him as much as possible because he’s an important part of our future,” Gabe Kapler said Friday.
Brinson, meanwhile, carries more pedigree and a higher ceiling. The dynamic outfielder once raced to the top of prospect lists off his athleticism, but has since struggled to find a foothold in MLB.
In his first game with the Giants, a 13-1 romp over Philadelphia, Brinson recorded a hit in his first at-bat. He manned center field in Oracle Park, where he’s most comfortable and much happier to play for the Giants than as a visitor.
San Francisco’s losing streak-snapping win didn’t matter as much as the demarcation point in the season it marked: Brinson, and other prospects, have begun their tryouts.
“These are meaningful, meaningful games,” Kapler said Friday. “One of the ways they’re meaningful for a guy like Brinson, he has a chance for him to re-establish himself as a major league-caliber talent. In a perfect world, he gets off and kind of affirms the industry’s belief in him over a long period of time of being an elite-level athlete and a guy who can change the game with that athleticism. Lot at stake for (Brinson).”
San Francisco acquired Brinson Thursday from Houston via cash and immediately activated him as center fielder Austin Slater is dealing with a dislocated pinky. The Giants’ investment in him shows both a belief in the talent; they elevated Brinson over homegrown centerfielders Heliot Ramos and Bryce Johnson.
The Giants have a recent track record of acquiring and developing players in their late-20s. LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski rekindled their careers with SF. Neither had the raw talent Brinson has.
“The difference is I think Yaz and LaMonte were guys who really had to scratch and claw and fight their way through the minor leagues,” Kapler said. “Whereas Brinson was one of the game’s top prospects. Involved in major trades. From a pedigree standpoint, a draft status standpoint, a prospect status standpoint, it’s just a different conversation.”
Brinson, 28, was a 2012 first-round pick and highly touted prospect for years. He posted a .903 OPS in Triple-A in the Astros’ system this year. But he was available because he’s a career .199 hitter over parts of five MLB seasons.
He also committed nine errors in 2018, most among National League outfielders despite only playing 108 games. His strikeout rate has hovered around an alarming 30%. In The Show, the athleticism hasn’t translated.
“Full disclosure: he’s had a lot of struggles at the Major League level,” Kapler said. “This is no turn key thing. It’s going to take a lot of work. And it’s also going to be grasping the opportunity in front of him.”
Brinson’s talent remained on teams’ radars, though. The 6-foot-5 outfielder was involved as a centerpiece in both the Jonathan Lucroy deal in 2016 and Christian Yelich blockbuster two years later.
“I think I put a little too much pressure on myself,” Brinson said Friday. “Everybody thought I was going to go out there and bang right away and it didn’t happen. I was disappointed. Everybody else was disappointed. I was worried about what everybody else was worried about. Now I could care less. I play my game and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Brinson said his game has developed since he debuted in 2017. He thought homework was over once he graduated from high school, but now realizes the importance of preparation. Knowing the game plan allows him to play more freely, he said.
On the field, Brinson wants to be unabashedly himself. “I’m fun, man,” he told reporters shortly after introducing himself. Giants fans might remember Brinson bringing flair to Oracle Park when he bat-flipped a clutch single in 2018, igniting a feud between him and Hunter Strickland.
That was years ago, when Brinson still beamed with untapped potential. Now he’s on his fifth organization. Not even the savvy Astros could fix him. The situation Brinson — plus Villar and other prospects yet to be called up — is in now is familiar. He’s been here before.
“I’m going to take it as, you know: playing baseball,” Brinson said. “It’s a great opportunity. Last month of the year. I’m just going to go out there, not try to impress anybody. Just play ball. I’ve done that in the past, where I’ve gone up and tried to do too much. Now I know what to expect.”
That started Friday night in the fifth inning when he pinch-hit for Joc Pederson. Brinson has had success against left-handed pitching in the minors, and could be deployed as a platoon option. He reached over the plate for a changeup fading away from him, but fired his hands through the ball and lofted a single into shallow center field.
Brinson received a standing ovation from the fans behind the Giants’ dugout as he jogged back after running into a fielder’s choice. Then he jogged out to his spot in center field.
The speedy outfielder has time to prove himself. There are worse ways to start building a résumé.