San Francisco Giants: Nicholas Castellanos is a necessary addition

It has been a weakness of the San Francisco Giants for the past few seasons. All signs point to this power-hitting outfielder to be at the top of the Giants’ wish list.

It is the first offseason with officially new brass in the San Francisco Giants organization. Farhan Zaidi, Scott Harris, and Gabe Kapler have a lot on their plate with not only deciding which players to bring back and which players to bring in.

Last offseason there were two big candidates for massive contracts in Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. The Giants inserted themselves in the arms race for Harper but it was more of a win-now attempt and with a team that was aging too fast for its own good.

This offseason, there are again two big candidates in Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rendon, but the Giants likely won’t pursue either of them with Longoria already at third base and so many alternatives at starting pitching they could consider – like Madison Bumgarner.

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It goes all the way back to 2007; the final season of Barry Bonds.

Bonds was the last great power-hitter on the Giants and in the years that followed, the Giants have found themselves at the bottom of the major-league power ranks and rarely having individuals collect above 20 dingers in a season.

Though the title gives it away, what if there was an available outfielder, who in a span of just 51 National League games clubbed 16 homers, drove in 36 runs, touted a slash line of .321/.356/.646 and had an oWAR of 2? Would you sign him? Would you sign Nicholas Castellanos?

The Giants should highly consider Nicholas Castellanos to be their ‘splash’ free-agent signing.

If there is one thing the San Francisco Giants have desperately needed these past 12 years it is a power-hitting outfielder and one who is on the younger end rather than the older end.

Castellanos has collected 20 or more home runs in his last four seasons and is going to be 28-years-old by the time the season gets underway. He has played in right field as of late and has a strong arm despite a not as great glove.

Castellanos also has a little speed to him with 32 triples in his career and 18 of them coming in the last three years.

He has also played at least 150 games the last three seasons which shows his durability and longevity.

The only downside with Castellanos, as already hinted at, is his defense which has not done a lot of favors for either the Tigers or Cubs. His career dWAR is -10.2. His struggles at third base is what moved him to the outfield practically following the path of Ryan Braun and Alex Gordon (despite Gordon going on to become a gold glove outfielder).

To be fair, defense has never been the highest of priorities for the Giants’ outfielders. Kevin Pillar makes Superman-like catches but his metrics assume him to be around average for a centerfielder. Mike Yastrzemski might be their best defensive option next to Steven Duggar but Duggar missed a lot of time last season and Yastrzemski doesn’t have a true outfield spot yet.

The addition of Castellanos could solidify an outfield corner – likely right – and put a solid presence in the heart of the order.

The only factor that could make negotiations tough is one side is overly analytical and values a player based on what they will create, and the other side is a Scott Boras client. Castellanos made nearly 10 million last season so it is certain his eyes are wide with visions of green.

Whatever happens, this seems to be a necessary move for the San Francisco Giants and could help get them back to their prominence of only a few years ago.