Okay.
At long last, the San Francisco Giants acquired some veteran middle infield depth. It’s just not really the kind you were expecting or hoping for. But it has arrived, in the form of former division rival Nick Ahmed, who agreed to a Minor League deal with the Giants on Monday.
Ahmed is not an All-Star caliber player near his prime, like Willy Adames. He’s not a quality veteran who might bounce back to a star level, like Tim Anderson. He’s not a sure-thing MLB player like Amed Rosario. He’s not a franchise legend like Brandon Crawford.
He’s just Nick Ahmed.
Now that I’ve gotten the pessimism of who Ahmed isn’t out of the way, let’s focus on what he is: a really good player to bring into camp. He’s a two-time Gold Glove-winning shortstop who can mentor Marco Luciano for the next month. He can provide backup infield competition for Tyler Fitzgerald, Casey Schmitt, Brett Wisely, and Otto López, helping bring out their best selves through both competition and mentorship. And if Luciano — who is currently sidelined by a mild hamstring issue — isn’t able to go at the start of the year, he provides a veteran defensive presence behind arguably the most groundball-heavy pitching staff in the Majors.
Remember: This is a Minor League contract. He’s not forcing a young player off the roster. He’s not eating into the money that’s hopefully allocated for Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, or Jordan Montgomery. All 30 teams have veterans in camp that you hope don’t play in the Majors for your team. Remember Giants legend Kevin Padlo? He hit the very first home run of the 2024 preseason … for the Dodgers.
It’s best to think of Ahmed as a worse version of Crawford, who won’t make you feel nauseous when you read that he’s been designated for assignment. He has half as many Gold Gloves as Crawford. His best offensive season by OPS+ is Crawford’s career average. He hits right-handed, just like the players he’s here to back up.
But he gives the Giants a veteran option in camp at a position where they sorely lacked it. And he’s better than the player the Giants were linked to over the weekend — Kiké Hernández. Who, speaking of which, just signed with the Dodgers for $4 million. I wish the Giants signed Shohei Ohtani to the deal the Dodgers did. I wish they signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the deal the Dodgers did. I wish they signed Teoscar Hernández to the deal the Dodgers did. I wish they acquired and extended Tyler Glasnow to the deal the Dodgers did.
I do not wish that they signed Kiké Hernández to the deal the Dodgers did.
In other minor Giants news, the team reassigned left-handed pitchers Reggie Crawford and Thomas Szapucki to Minor League camp. This is standard fare; this time of year the camp reassignments come frequently. Neither Crawford nor Szapucki pitched in the first three preseason games, as both are dealing with injuries: a minor lat strain for the former, and surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome (which wiped out his entire 2023 season) for the latter.
Hopefully both are healthy soon, and able to pitch in some games before the end of Spring Training (a reminder that players in Minor League camp can still play in the Spring Training games … in fact, we saw four [Chris Wright, Wil Jensen, Tanner Kiest, and Mat Olsen] during the team’s third preseason game on Monday).