2 SF Giants playoff heroes are heavily involved in training team's next generation

The SF Giants have a lot of exciting developments going on in Arizona right now. That’s where a lot of their most interesting young prospects are and the Giants just so happen to have two former playoff legends training what San Francisco hopes will be the next crop of promising young talent in the organization.

Per a recent article by Andrew Baggarly in The Athletic, Travis Ishikawa, who delivered a blast Giants fans will never forget back in 2014, is now working with hitters in the Arizona Complex League. Infielder Joe Panik, whose five and flip in Game 7 will be talked about for decades, is also working with young players in the ACL.

Josuar Gonzalez and Luis Hernandez are the two best prospects in San Francisco’s organization according to MLB Pipeline. They are 18 and 17 years old respectively so who knows how these guys will turn out, but it’s reassuring knowing they have experienced hands like Panik and Ishikawa helping them with the fundamentals of the game.

The whole article is well worth a read but there are some great nuggets like when Hernandez made an impressive sliding play in the infield and former-Giant Shawon Dunston said, “Panik taught him that.”

Both of these guys have been around the organization since retiring from baseball. Ishikawa has been a hitting coach for the Single-A San Jose Giants and Panik has been a presence in spring training helping young infielders with their form.

Giants have kept former players in the fold under Posey

President of baseball operations Buster Posey has not been afraid to lean on his old teammates, bringing guys like Javier Lopez and Curt Casali into the front office while also making sure that there are a steady stream of former Giants showing up in Scottsdale for spring training.

This is definitely a shift from the previous regime where some ex-Giants didn’t feel quite so welcomed with open arms but Posey has at least made sure to get ex-players involved in a meaningful way.

It makes for a nice sort of bridge for Giants fans who remember the championship years fondly but also want to see the team return to those glory years eventually. It’s hard to see them being true contenders in the next few years with the way things are going, but maybe a few years down the road when guys like Gonzalez and Hernandez are, one can only hope, knocking on the door of the big leagues and recent draft picks like Jackson Flora are potentially in the rotation we can see a young core develop for San Francisco.

There are no guarantees with prospects and Ishikawa is as good of an example as any that a player’s path to success can be anything but linear. Still, it’s cool to see these guys who will be forever loved by Giants fans remaining so involved in the organization and try to pass on what they have learned to what everyone hopes will be the next generation of Giants playoff heroes. 

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