San Francisco Giants: Not Calling Chris Shaw Up is Root of their Problem

The San Francisco Giants are reportedly mulling over the idea of calling up Chris Shaw, and according to Alex Pavlovic, are leaning against it. That type of thinking is the root of their problem.

Most San Francisco Giants fans are disappointed at the fact that Chris Shaw is very unlikely to be included in their September call-ups. NBCSports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic reported today that the Giants front office likely won’t be calling up many when it comes to the roster expansion date in September. Among those likely to not be called up is top power hitting prospect, Chris Shaw.

Shaw isn’t going to develop much more in AAA. He has almost 50 homers in the last two season in the minors, with 700+ AB’s at the AAA level. His AAA slashline is  .273/.318/.515/.833 with 80 homers. That’s a good enough sample size. Guess what. That’s about as good as it’s going to get. So it’s time to get him up here.

More from Around the Foghorn

• Atlanta claims SF Giants C Chadwick Tromp off waivers
• SF Giants: Could Johnny Cueto help down the stretch?
• SF Giants: Does Thairo Estrada have a role in 2022?
• SF Giants activate Alex Wood, option Sammy Long, and DFA Chadwick Tromp
• SF Giants: Hard-throwing reliever could be key in playoffs

But of course, the Giants as usual are going to run out guys like Gorkys Hernandez, Hunter Pence and of course the guy they gave virtually zero at-bats to earlier in the season, Austin Slater. Their reliance on veterans to do all the work out there is why they’re in the position that they are in.

Teams who want to build for their future, and understand when their season is in “wash” mode, call up their prospects who have nothing left to prove in the minors.

The Oakland A’s did it with Matt Chapman and Matt Olson in their respective years. Olson didn’t put up numbers the equivalent of Shaw’s until he repeated AAA, and Chapman didn’t ever put numbers up the level that Shaw has.

As much as you might want to believe, the ending to the 2018 season for the San Francisco Giants is already written. They won’t make the postseason and they’ll be lucky to be at .500.

They need to trade Andrew McCutchen for whatever they can potentially get back (go with the best/youngest prospect you can get and be done), and then call up Shaw.

Shaw has a bright future, but the Giants seem to be determined to treat him like every other outfield prospect they’ve ever had. We all know how that will end up panning out. So it’s time to buck their own miserable trend, get Shaw up, and get him some at-bats. Otherwise, another promising power prospect will be ruined, and go to waste.