Player review: Casey Schmitt

About Schmitt

2024 stats: 40 G, 113 PA, .252/.283/.477, .760 OPS, 114 OPS+, .224 ISO, 22.1 K%, 3.5 BB%, 0.2 bWAR

I basically already wrote Casey Schmitt’s 2024 player review last September. These paragraphs sum things up nicely.

With the arrival of the Giants’ new iron man Matt Chapman at third base in the offseason and his subsequent 6-year extension, Schmitt appeared to be out of a job. Boxed out from the hot corner, pushed off of short by Nick Ahmed, then Tyler Fitzgerald’s power surge, with second base not even a consideration given Thairo Estrada’s glove work at the position and Brett Wisely’s hot start with the bat and Luciano… He was on the periphery of the infield conundrum. Around but not the focus, and Schmitt spent a lot of time in Sacramento with a bleak outlook in terms of career growth.

Then things started to break his way. Opportunities like a platoon-role at second or temporary coverage at third for Chapman on the paternity list became available, and credit to Schmitt for making his play hard to ignore in those brief windows…which is what Heliot Ramos did and Tyler Fitzgerald did and what the Giants kept waiting for Luciano to do.

Even with nowhere to go, with nowhere to go, Schmitt played his heart out. He tantalized and teased with glove and arm and bat over that final stretch of the season. Eyebrows jumped as he jumped from the left to the right side of the infield and back again, as he started games or came off the bench, as he hit for average (.429), some power (2 2B, 1 HR), and unveiled a developed discipline at the plate (3 BB to 4 K!) Fingers of bored writers tap-danced across the keyboards, giddy at the prospect of substance to poke and prod and ponder (guilty as charged). In the dying light of last season, amidst the crumbling columns of the Zaidi administration, Schmitt displayed his talents to the powers-that-be, whoever those powers ended up being.

Unfortunately for Schmitt, since season’s end, he has only become a more distant, peripheral piece of “the infield conundrum” that is fast becoming solved. With the signing of Willy Adames, the Giants arguably have one of the most resilient left-sides of the infield in Major League Baseball. Room for Schmitt to operate defensively has been winnowed down to second base. If all goes according to plan, the average human has enough fingers to count the opportunities Schmitt would get to play his preferred position(s) as a Giant in 2025.

It’s a shame. Well, it’s not really a shame. But…ya know. It can be both. Schmitt’s arm is his greatest asset. Joy abounded when he got the opportunity to show it off, to let loose, when Matt Chapman was on paternity leave.

Paradise for Schmitt is a shoulder-high hop to his backhand — an easy grounder for him to receive, then plant, transfer, grip and hurl, the ball beating the runner to first by half-a-step. It’s the simple things: hucking a baseball as hard as you can without shoulder ache or dead arm; splitting diamonds for all of eternity.

As David Byrne and later Belinda Carlisle sang: Heaven is a place — third base specifically, and I want Casey Schmitt to find it. I think it’s possible — just not in San Francisco, not with the Giants.

If that’s going to happen, it’ll be through a trade. Schmitt as a part of viable trade parcels has become its own cottage industry on fan social media. Here’s one of them…

There are hundreds more with minor tweaks, names swapped, different reasonings. All of them make sense and none of them make sense. The trade winds whip and swirl and stir, erratic gusts that turn a viable proposal on Monday into a non-starter on Tuesday, which was specifically the case with Marc’s idea. The Verlander signing makes an intriguing proposal for Castillo moot. Timing is everything.

The reality: Trades are hard and risky and probably not worth the effort. Any deal involving Schmitt will require another name, if not names, which increases the difficulty of two teams agreeing to terms. He’s not a sole entity yet — his trade value is a little hard to pin down. He’s not a highly-ranked prospect, nor does the label “prospect” really fit for him anymore. He’s a AAAA player with around half a season’s worth of plate appearances logged sporadically over two years. He can play three infield positions, but defensive metrics have historically docked him on range, limiting him to a corner. He has boasted pop, but in small sample sizes. He doesn’t walk, doesn’t hit the ball particularly hard. He’s young but not that young. 25 sounds way worse than 26. Other than age though, his work in September suggests Schmitt is trending in the right direction as his experience and exposure increases — but there’s potentially still a lot more value on the market to be gained. Does Buster Posey want to sell low on Schmitt now, or see if the organization can increase his worth by implementing him in a utility role in 2025?

In my eyes, Schmitt profiles as a pretty intriguing bench option. The only other legitimate possibility right now (unless you count David Villar) is Brett Wisely. Wisely had his moments in 2024, he also bats left (which the Giants roster doesn’t have a lot of right now), and he can play both the infield and outfield. But at his best, he’ll provide great defense and maybe hit for average. Frankly Wisely feels a little Nick Ahmed-y. Schmitt on the other hand provides power potential that’s rare for a back-up infielder. He might be a tad more unruly than Wisely, but I think a higher-ceiling with more volatility in such a “inconsequential” team role is a worthwhile tradeoff. Late-at-night when I’m playing pretend manager in the pillow fort I built in my bedroom, I often imagine telling Schmitt to grab a bat, swapping him for Mike Yastrzemski for a platoon advantage in the late innings, as an opposing southpaw takes the mound. There’s always a risk that the he’ll immediately dig himself into a hole with ill-advised swings, but the reward is pretty great too. We started to see the pluses tip the scales, and start to outweigh the negatives. Schmitt’s .224 ISO led the club (min. 100 PA) in 2024. He hit for average (.311) and slug (.644) against left-handers (49 PA) and had a lot of success pulling the ball towards left.

The potential is ripe in Schmitt’s swing. We saw it come into its own in 2024 after a rocky, but lovable 2023. But this strength is often undermined by his lack of discipline. On one hand, I think it’s good for Schmitt to come to terms with the kind of person he is in the box. His struggles last year could, in some part, be attributed to being in his own head, trying to toe the organizational line about discipline and pitch-selection while suppressing his primal urge to hack away. No one expects, or wants, or needs, Schmitt to work walks. Abandon adds to Schmitt’s charm — though it can also bury some positive tendencies he’s developed with the bat.

Schmitt legitimately can’t control himself when he steps up to the plate — the prospect of clobbering a baseball is just too dang exciting. His 39.8% first-pitch swing rate is ten percentage points higher than the MLB average. If he took the first pitch and put himself in a 1-0 count, Schmitt posted a 1.078 OPS over 33 PA (164 sOPS+ relative to the rest of the league). In plate appearances in which he went down 0-1, the offensive production halved to .590 OPS over 65 PA (a 94 sOPS+). He only nominally improved his elevated chase-rate from 38% to 36%. Funnily enough, he actually swung the bat less this past year (55% in ‘23 to 52.4%) while working less pitches per plate appearance than he did in 2023, which means he had more success putting the ball in play. Better swing decisions will reap better results from these solid contact and positive squared-up rates.

Overall, I think this past year was about solidifying his presence in the batter’s box, proving to himself he could wallop big league pitching. Now his evolution hinges on mindset. Swinging smarter and quicker — not harder. Pull-side contact is great, but what if he made a conscious effort, like Heliot Ramos, to see pitches deeper, to think opposite field, thus expanding his power to the right-center gap?

Schmitt is never going to be picture-perfect image of consistency or technique, but he has the mechanics and strength to become viable. “A dude” as they say. If he can remain productive offensively, I imagine a decent chunk of playing time could be set aside for him by a manager already inclined towards him. More at-bats against lefties, starts at second base to capitalize on the platoon advantage with Tyler Fitzgerald shifting to an outfield corner.

I know it’s not third base, not his place of origin, but he has the ability to make a home at second. Taking the left-side of the infield off the table will help Schmitt focus on learning the position’s idiosyncrasies. He’s got the hands for it, a he’ll learn the angles, the reads, the pivots, the contortions. The position won’t take full advantage of Schmitt’s arm, but strength is still needed on turns, on no-step throws after being forced in the hole with his momentum taking him away from first.

Bottom line: I think Casey Schmitt is the most compelling infield depth option for the 2025 Giants. He made major strides offensively in 2024 and is trending upwards — to trade him away now might prove near-sighted.

Also, I like him. He’s fun. So that settles it.