San Francisco Giants: Who is trade pickup Alex Dickerson?

The San Francisco Giants made a minor move on Monday to acquire outfielder Alex Dickerson.

At this point, it seems like there’s a 50/50 chance that any player that hits the waiver wire wind up joining the San Francisco Giants organization.

The transaction carousel continued spinning on Monday when Alex Dickerson was acquired in a minor trade with the San Diego Padres.

So who is Alex Dickerson?

The 29-year-old was a third-round pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011, before he joined the Padres organization via trade prior to the 2014 campaign.

He hit .307/.374/.503 with 36 doubles, 12 home runs and 71 RBI at Triple-A during the 2015 season and he made his MLB debut on Aug. 6 that year.

The following season he saw extended action in the big leagues and made some noise at the plate, posting a 112 OPS+ while hitting .257/.333/.455 with 16 doubles, 10 home runs and 285 plate appearances en route to 1.2 WAR.

Before he had a chance to fully establish himself at the MLB level, injuries derailed his career. A back injury sidelined him in 2017 and he spent 2018 recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Back healthy this year, he returned to a crowded outfield situation in San Diego, and he was officially designated for assignment last week.

It’s a reasonable roll of the dice for the Giants, who will see if a clean bill of health and a change of scenery can help him return to his 2016 level of production.

Going the other way in the deal is reliever Franklin Van Gurp.

The right-hander was a 25th-round pick in 2017 and he has posted impressive strikeout numbers throughout his pro career, punching out 174 batters in 128.2 innings.

The 23-year-old has a 4.54 ERA and 1.10 WHIP with a 49-to-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 33.2 innings on the year.

The Padres get an interesting bullpen piece who won’t occupy a spot on the 40-man roster, while the Giants get another new potential outfield option who has enjoyed MLB success in the past.

With Dickerson reporting to Triple-A, he will now need to hit his way onto the MLB roster.

It’s a low-risk move and exactly what we’ve come to expect from this front office. Time will tell if it pays dividends.