How the San Francisco Giants Find the Next Derek Holland

Yangervis Solarte is the first player that strikes me as this type of player. He is a switch hitter who has played professional innings all over the diamond. Marwin Gonzalez might be out of the Giants price range at this point, but Yangervis Solarte is the closest you can come to being a “poor man’s version” of Gonzalez. Solarte’s last two seasons may have hurt his value, but in the past he had three consecutive seasons with an OPS+ over 100 and his versatility is something Farhan Zaidi seems to covet. Although Solarte’s offensive numbers have slumped, last season was the only season of his career where he had an OBP under .300.

Solarte is someone the Giants and Zaidi are familiar with from his days with the Padres, but his versatility and ability to be an above average slugger should have him on a lot of teams radars. And there is the problem. He is a switch hitting, multipositional player that for the better part of his career has shown he can slug and get on base.

Solarte is not a secret and there might be other teams out there ready to buy him right now, or outbid the competition. However, he is still available on the sales rack and he looks like he’d fit in pretty nicely with the Giants ensemble.

Solarte is appealing, and maybe you’re considering buying him, but you want to keep browsing. A few racks over, we find Wilmer Flores.