San Francisco Giants: Austin Slater’s First 100 At-Bats in Big Leagues

With Austin Slater expected to rejoin the San Francisco Giants in the next week or so, we look at his first 100 at-bats in the big leagues.

Slater has been on the disabled list since July 6 with a torn abductor muscle. He was expected to miss 10 weeks and possibly be out for the season, but a recent report said he could start a rehab assignment next week. That means he could possibly be back early in September.

That would be great for Giants fans who saw Slater have some success in his first 100 at-bats.

When he was called up on June 2 he got a hit, an RBI, a run and a walk in his first major league game.

He went on to get a hit in 10 of his first 12 games in the big leagues.

He got his first home run in his fourth game.

On June 10 against the Minnesota Twins he had his first multi-hit game. That started a string of three straight multi-hit games, and four multi-hit games in five days.

On June 15 against the Colorado Rockies he had a 4-hit game. So in four straight games he had a 1-hit, 2-hit, 3-hit and 4-hit game.

At that point Slater was hitting .405 in his first 37 at-bats with 15 hits.

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Unfortunately, the rookie had just 14 hits over his next 63 at-bats (.222) before getting injured.

In the minor leagues he hit .308 in 1,140 at-bats over four seasons. We know this guy can hit, and we saw him do it at the major league level in a small sample size.

It looks like major league pitchers made an adjustment to him over his last 50 at-bats, so it’s time for him to adjust.

You never want to lose someone to injury, but hopefully Slater has used this time off to see what adjustments pitchers have made against him in the big leagues.

He should be able to use his rehab assignment to not only get healthy, but look to make those adjustments.

Next: San Francisco Giants: The Future is Bright for Heliot Ramos

If he can come back in early September, hopefully he will get another 80 at-bats to show he belongs in the San Francisco Giants outfield in 2018.