San Francisco Giants: Austin Slater for 2018 NL Rookie of the Year

With the Rookie of the Year award being revealed next week, we’ll make a case for Austin Slater winning the award for the San Francisco Giants next year.

I was trying to think of who could win this award for the Giants next year, and honestly there aren’t many options. Unless of course if the Giants sign Shohei Ohtani.

But one current Giants prospect who has a chance to win the award is Austin Slater.

The soon-to-be 25-year-old outfielder spent some time in the big leagues this past summer, but only registered 117 at-bats. You have to have more than 130 in order to not qualify for Rookie of the Year the following season.

In those major league at-bats he hit .282 with 15 runs scored, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 3 home runs, 16 RBI, 8 walks and 29 strikeouts. He also had a solid on-base-percentage of .339.

Slater missed some time with an injury or otherwise he probably wouldn’t qualify for Rookie of the Year in 2018.

The outfield prospect started 2017 in Triple-A where he had a .321 average and 5 home runs in 184 at-bats.

Between Double-A and Triple-A in 2016 he hit .305 with 18 home runs in 390 at-bats. That’s the type of production the Giants are hoping to get at the major league level.

In four minor league seasons and 1,150 at-bats he’s hit .308 with an on-base-percentage of .370. Even if those numbers dropped 20 points at the major league level he’d be a huge upgrade in the Giants outfield.

And if he can duplicate his home run totals from 2016 then we’re talking about a Rookie of the Year candidate.

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I don’t expect Slater to light up the world like Cody Bellinger did in 2017. By the way, I think Bellinger was exposed greatly in the postseason and is setup for a huge sophomore slump.

But I do think Slater can be a very solid outfielder all year for the Giants in 2018.

You know the front office would love to completely revamp the outfield. And while they may be able to fill two spots through trades or free agency, I think they leave one spot open for Slater.

I could see Slater hitting around .280 with 15-20 home runs next year. Those numbers don’t jump out at you, but as a rookie that could be good enough to win the award depending on who else is in the competition.

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Hopefully Slater will stay healthy in 2018 and put together a full season that I know he’s capable of putting together. If he does then I think he’ll definitely be a Rookie of the Year candidate in 2018.