The San Francisco Giants just made perhaps the least surprising move of the offseason, agreeing to trade cash to the New York Mets in exchange for switch-hitting, positionless wonder Cooper Hummel.
The news was first reported by Robert Murray of Fansided.
This extremely surprising news was only made possible by the extremely surprising news from last month: that the Giants North Seattle Mariners waived Hummel without the Giants picking him up. Instead, they waited until the Mets designated the 29-year-old for assignment before swooping in and grabbing him, filling the vacant 40-man spot created when the team struck a two-for-one deal and Mitch Haniger and Anthony DeSclafani traded to – who else – Seattle for Robbie Ray.
Hummel is almost everything the Giants crave when it comes to shaking up players on the back end of the roster, meaning he's basically a Blake Sabol hitting the changeup and putting up worse numbers in the major leagues. He has split most of his MLB time between catcher and left field, finishing third in AAA at first base last year. He has an excellent hit tool (.288 batting average in AAA) and draws a lot of walks (169 free passes against 207 strikeouts in 977 AAA plate appearances). All of that has led to a lot of offensive success in the upper minors: In 2021, he posted a .942 OPS/155 wRC+ in 168 plate appearances for Milwaukee's AAA squad and a 1.004 OPS/148 wRC+ in 198 plate appearances for Arizona's AAA team after a trade in mid-season. He spent much of the next year on the Diamondbacks' MLB team, but had a .950 OPS/138 wRC+ in 156 plate appearances in AAA this season.
Things looked less pretty in 2023 as Hummel posted an .844 OPS/114 wRC+ in AAA in his first season in the Mariners organization. But Seattle's AAA affiliate, the Tacoma Rainiers, play in the Pacific Coast League alongside San Francisco's AAA team, the Sacramento River Cats. Even though Hummel wasn't at his best, Giants scouts took a close look at him.
His time in the majors was dismal. He played in 66 games in his debut season in 2022 and just 10 last year, hitting .166/.264/.286 (58 wRC+) with a 32.2% strikeout rate in both seasons. But if he can build on his minor league success, there's an interesting player there (and he still has an option). He's also begun to reinvent his game a bit: After stealing just 24 bases in his first six pro seasons, Hummel captured 27 sacks last year between AAA and the majors.
He is also a good tweeter.
There's no need to worry about the back of the roster because the Giants will constantly rotate, rotate, rotate and swap pieces in and out as players become available. But it's certainly notable how much the team has flooded the roster with catchers and outfielders. Hummel joins Sabol to form a duo of part-time catchers behind three full-time catchers: Patrick Bailey, Tom Murphy and Joey Bart. And those two, along with Brett Wisely and Tyler Fitzgerald, form a quartet of part-time outfielders behind eight full-time grass-dwellers: Jung Hoo Lee, Michael Conforto, Mike Yastrzemski, Austin Slater, Luis Matos, Heliot Ramos, Wade Meckler and TJ Hopkins.
It goes without saying that further steps are in sight. Until then, enjoy your stay, Cooper…however short it may be.
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