San Francisco Giants: Who should be the primary third baseman in 2017?
By Anthony Sosa
Conor Gillaspie
In his second stint with the Giants, Conor Gillaspie provided the club with a pinch hitter and a third base option. Gillaspie played in 101 games in 2016. More than half of those games were him pinch hitting.
Gillaspie hit .262 with six home runs and 25 RBI, in 2016. Obviously, the stats don’t jump out, but Gillaspie got hot toward the end of the season.
In the postseason, Gillaspie started at third base in all five of the team’s games and hit .421. He drove in six runs and provided the two most clutch hits during the Giants’ 2016 playoff run.
When the Giants played the Mets in the Wild Card Game, Gillaspie hit a game-winning three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning off Mets’ closer Jeurys Familia. Then in Game 4 of the NLDS, Gillaspie came up clutch again. He hit a go-ahead two-RBI triple against former Cubs’ closer Aroldis Chapman.
He’s not a flashy player and won’t win a silver slugger or gold glove but he plays with a lot of heart. And last postseason showed that Gillaspie has a bit of a clutch gene that few players possess.
Could Gillaspie use his hot postseason swing as motivation for 2017?