Another cuspy outfielder for us to frer over…
2024 stats: 37 G, 130 PA, .202/ .238/ .379, .177 ISO, 71 wRC+, 56 SO, 6 BB, -0.2 fWAR
Grant McCray made his Major League debut in 2024 exactly one year after Wade Meckler did in 2023.
The coincidence of those corresponding transactions on those consecutive August 14ths is too fun to ignore. Both rookies were called up after brief stints in the minors, and both moves — not to be too flippant — could be considered as late-season shoulder shrugs. There was no substantive postseason push to make in either Augusts, the call-ups were made to patch a hole in center field while providing some valuable and inconsequential experience to intriguing prospects.
Meckler had started the year playing High-A Eugene and set fire to the Giants farm system: his .371 and his .966 OPS across three levels couldn’t be ignored by the parent club as any combination of outfielders floundered. Meckler did not bring the secret sauce. In fact, the cursed outfield at Oracle mollified him, turning the scrappy, contact-oriented player into a whiff-plagued debutante who was so clearly overwhelmed by big league pitching that he froze at the plate. While remaining on the 40-man roster, the outfielder didn’t work his way back to San Francisco in 2024 while dropping three spots on our Community Prospect List, mainly due to injuries.
Though their stars are somewhat aligned in the Giants galaxy, with some overlapping tendencies, McCray is not Meckler. While both players swung-and-missed at alarmingly high-rates in the orange-and-black (Meckler: 38.1% Whiff; McCray: 43.6%), and both paced the league in strikeouts over their short time in the league (Meckler: 39.1% K%; McCray: 43.1%) — the key difference in their performance was that McCray swung the bat and Meckler didn’t.
Giants hitters have been patient to a fault these past couple seasons. The approach is sound to a certain extent: step into the box with a game-plan, look for a specific pitch in a specific location, one that can be hit hard, then don’t miss it if it comes… And in this age of pitch counts and work-loads, a disciplined approach to hitting in which taking a border line third-strike on the sixth pitch of the at-bat might still prove to be a victory in the long run; but it also might be a pyrrhic one as well. Hitting is about composure and self-restraint, but it’s also about swinging a club at a rock. There’s that primitive, instinctual element that needs to be maintained, and Meckler’s meager 36% swing-rate (league average is around 47%) could possibly be explained by a young player over-investing in a club’s philosophy at the detriment of his innate abilities.
Despite having similar end results, what I think made McCray’s debut more compelling than Meckler’s was that stepping into the batter’s box, he was unapologetically himself.
McCray’s aggressiveness spoke to a style of play San Francisco has been lacking. His unfettered plate approach was refreshing at times given how reserved and “safe” some hitters have become. Comparing Meckler’s stint in 2023 with McCray’s 2024 illustrates the difference of process over play in developing young hitters. Surely the goal should be bringing out the positives of a hitter’s natural inclinations, rather working them to fit into a rigid mold.
McCray chased pitches out of the zone, he missed pitches in the zone — all at uncomfortably high rates — but at least he swung the bat, and he did it with a certain level of swagger.
Even with the glaring holes in McCray’s hack — which were to be expected, especially from a player who struck out 121 times in 97 games across double and triple-A this past season — there was a lot to like. When locked-in, the swing was a pretty one: relaxed, quick and confident while boasting surprising power. Despite the lanky frame, when he made contact, it was loud. His average exit velocity (90.2 MPH), barrel-rate (11.8%), and hard-hit-rate (44.1%) were all well above league average.
Speed was another element of his game that didn’t shy away from the Major League spotlight. His 29.2 ft/s sprint speed fell in the league’s 93rd percentile. He accrued a Baserunning Run Value of 2 on Baseball Savant, while stealing five bases on five attempts in about a month’s worth of games. That kind of dynamism has been sorely missed on the Giants, and Buster Posey knows better than most the headaches base-stealers give to their opponents. If the ball-in-play rate stays low and can’t find a way to consistently get on base, McCray’s skills could still be of use as a pinch-runner, or late-game defensive substitution.
Right now, Fangraphs has McCray as the Giants starting left fielder against right-handed pitching with Heliot Ramos as the designated hitter (with Luis Matos nowhere in sight). If that’s to happen, the 44% K-rate has obviously got to come down. The Steamer projections predict it drops to 32%, which feels reasonable, but probably won’t break him out of a bench role or occasional injury call-up.