San Francisco Giants: Brett Pill Returns Stateside, Joins Tigers

The San Francisco Giants have had a few “where the heck are the now?” players come through over the last decade. The biggest two are Brian Wilson and Gary Brown. But one has made a return to the big-leagues.

Former San Francisco Giants first baseman Brett Pill has come back to the states after spending a few years in Japan. Pill will be in spring training with the Detroit Tigers, and another former Giants, Juan Perez.

Pill played in 111 games with the Giants from 2011 to 2013. The former first base prospect was a notable power hitter, blasting 9 bombs in limited appearances over the three seasons with the Giants. His big league career slashline reads .233/.279/.404/.683.

After 2013, Pill decided to head to the KBO, and suited up for the Kia Tigers from 2014-2016. Pill’s numbers in Korea are actually pretty decent. The KBO is noted for being a hitters league, but you can’t do much to diminish a .316/.366/.521/.887 line with 61 HRs and 253 RBI over three years.

Granted, it still is Korea. The level of competition between there and MLB is pretty big. Even compared to Japan, the KBO is definitely a hitter friendly league and full of hitter friendly parks. But still, it’s nice to see Pills name back within the MLB circuit.

Pill was drafted originally by the New York Yankees in 2005, but decided not to sign. He was then drafted by the Giants in the seventh round in 2006. His first game for the Giants was in 2011 against the San Diego Padres, and hit a home-run for his first career hit, in his first career AB.

The Giants do play the Tigers in July, and if he were to stick around the Tigers organization long enough, it would be really cool if he got a chance to suit up against a few of his old teammates. The same goes for Perez.

Perez spent a decent amount of time with the Giants, and his most notable plays off the top of my head have to be him hitting that big triple against the Royals in Game 5, along with the spiderman crawl/basket-catch home-run robbing play in St. Louis in 2015.

Next: A Month-By-Month Schedule Analysis of the Giants 2017 Schedule

Stay tuned to Around the Foghorn as we gear up for the 2017 season!