San Francisco Giants: Is Hernan Perez worth a waiver claim?

The San Francisco Giants have played the waiver wire aggressively all season. Will Milwaukee Brewers cast-off Hernan Perez be their next waiver claim?

If nothing else, Farhan Zaidi has shown a willingness to rummage through the scrapheap since taking over as team president of the San Francisco Giants.

It’s a strategy that paid dividends during his time in the Los Angeles Dodgers front office with guys like Justin Turner and Max Muncy both plucked from the reject pile and developed into key contributors.

He’s already had some success in that department during his time with the Giants.

Reliever Sam Dyson has been an excellent find. Slugger Tyler Austin has some intriguing long-term potential. Outfielder Alex Dickerson has debuted with a bang since coming over in a minor trade with the San Diego Padres.

Don’t expect the roster shuffling to stop anytime soon, and there’s no reason not to keep searching for that diamond in the rough during what amounts to a lost season.

That brings us to Hernan Perez.

The 28-year-old is not having a great season, hitting .235/.277/.383 for a 68 OPS+ with seven doubles and five home runs in 160 plate appearances. As a result, he was designated for assignment on Thursday.

However, he has been one of the most productive super-utility players in baseball the past few seasons.

During the three-year span from 2016 to 2018, he posted an 84 OPS+ while averaging 16 doubles, 12 home runs, 19 steals and 1.3 WAR in 407 plate appearances.

He played at least 20 games at second base, shortstop, third base, left field, center field, and right field during that stretch, and he’s a capable defender at all of those positions.

Perez was earning just $2.5 million this season and he has another year of arbitration remaining, so he’s controllable through next season for whoever decides to roll the dice.

The Giants could very well be that team.

Veteran Donovan Solano has held his own in the backup infielder role since getting the call from Triple-A, hitting .298/.339/.333 with two extra-base hits and six RBI in 62 plate appearances.

That said, Perez offers considerably more upside, and there’s a good chance the Giants would be able to sneak Solano through waivers and back to Triple-A if they decided to go that route.

Someone will almost certainly put in a claim in the coming days, and it’s a situation worth monitoring for San Francisco Giants fans.