There wasn’t too much to get excited about when it came to the San Francisco Giants during the 2024 MLB campaign.
A majority of the offseason moves that were made to help push the team forward and into playoff contention didn’t pan out.
It took Blake Snell until July to find his groove, and his hot finish resulted in him opting out of his contract. He then signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent this winter.
KBO star Jung Hoo Lee struggled in his adjustment to the MLB before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury after only 37 games. Jorge Soler signed as a free agent and was traded to the Atlanta Braves in a salary dump.
The only hit for the Giants was third baseman Matt Chapman, who agreed to a six-year, $151 million extension in September to replace the option years that were on the original contract.
Another failure was the duo of Nick Ahmed and Marco Luciano as the starting shortstops.
But, their shortcomings led to arguably the best thing to come out of the 2024 campaign for the franchise; Tyler Fitzgerald.
Never a highly-regarded prospect, reaching as high as No. 28 in the organization’s pipeline, the 2019 fourth-round pick came out of nowhere as a regular contributor for the squad.
In 341 plate appearances, Fitzgerald recorded a slash line of .280/.334/.497 with incredible power production, hitting 15 home runs with 19 doubles and two triples. He added 17 stolen bases as a multi-tool offensive player.
Adding to his value was the versatility he provided defensively.
Most of his innings played came at shortstop, but he also played second base, first base, center field and left field. In 2023 during his debut, he even logged a few innings at third base.
With Willy Adames signed to take over at shortstop, Fitzgerald is the projected starting second baseman for Opening Day.
Expectations are high after his stellar 2024 campaign, which is why Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report has listed him amongst the 10 biggest bust candidates for hitters in 2025.
Some of the underlying and advanced stats Fitzgerald produced in 2024 are hard to ignore.
His .280 batting average required an unsustainable level of luck, as his expected batting average was only .227.
There wasn’t a hitter in baseball who had a wider margin in batting average marks, and his .380 average on balls in play is unlikely to be replicated when taking into account some of his underwhelming batted-ball numbers.
It is certainly possible Fitzgerald can overcome some of the shortcomings in his game, but numbers don’t lie.
He is in for a regression in some areas of his game.
The question is, will he make improvements elsewhere so that his production doesn’t fall off a cliff in 2025?
The Giants are certainly hoping so.
They are lacking impact bats and would love for some of their younger players to continue taking positive steps in their development.
Fitzgerald is expected to be the guy, but he’ll have to avoid the regression that could come this year.
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