San Francisco Giants: Is Gorkys Hernandez a Savior?

Gorkys Hernandez has been the butt-end of jokes for San Francisco Giants fans for a few years now. His lack of power and general lack of skills were a perfect punching bag for a floundering Giants team. However, in 2018 Gorkys has shown us that maybe he’s better than we once thought.

Thus far, Gorkys has 6 home runs and is batting over .300. So what propelled this sudden boost in his bat?

A skeptic might suggest cork or even PEDs. I mean, c’mon, how does a guy who hit zero home-runs last year when he played in 128 games have six in the 40 some-odd games that he’s played this year?

Let’s start with what definitively changed from last year to this year. He changed numbers from 66 to 7, so that’s something. I thought this was sort of a thumb in the eye to Gregor Blanco who wore the number 7 when he was on the Giants his first time around, but perhaps Blanco’s mojo has transferred from Gregor to Gorkys.

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Speaking of mojo, I’d love to see another Austin Powers movie made, but with Gregor Blanco playing Austin Powers and Hernandez playing Doctor Evil. You know that’d be a hit at the box office.

Anyways, it’s been shocking the turnaround that Hernandez has had. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it, but I think we’re all questioning if he can keep it up.

Even if the power dips, the Giants will need him to keep producing hits and getting on base at the top of the order.

With their sluggish offense and injuries to key players, they’ll need all of the hits they can get. It will also be interesting to see how Hernandez’s playing time will be affected if/when Hunter Pence returns from the disabled list.

Even though Pence has earned another shot, it’s hard to imagine Bruce Bochy taking Gorkys’s hot bat out of the lineup anytime soon.