San Francisco Giants: Time to end the Tyler Austin experiment

The San Francisco Giants will need to free up two spots on Sunday with the impending promotions of Conner Menez and Zach Green.

It’s time for more roster shuffling as the San Francisco Giants get set to welcome a pair of new faces to the MLB roster. The front office will need to free up two spots on the 25-man roster before Sunday’s game.

One of the moves will almost certainly be optioning Ty Blach back to Triple-A.

The other will be a tougher decision, but it shouldn’t be.

It’s time to end the Tyler Austin experiment.

The 27-year-old has simply not done enough to continue occupying a roster spot, even with his intriguing power and team control through 2023.

Entering play on Sunday, Austin is hitting .185/.281/.420 with eight home runs and 20 RBI in 135 plate appearances since he was acquired in an early season trade with the Minnesota Twins.

He has just two hits in the month of July and he’s batting a dismal .119/.224/.288 since the beginning of June while striking out in a staggering 40.3 percent of his plate appearances.

The biggest chip in his favor is his ability to hit left-handed pitching, and even those numbers don’t jump off the page. In 84 plate appearances against southpaws, he’s hitting .222 and striking out 35.7 percent of the time.

Meanwhile, the platoon splits for the aforementioned Green this season at Triple-A have been virtually non-existent:

• vs. RHP: 191 PA, .300/.408/.719, 17 HR
• vs. LHP: 73 PA, .308/.384/.646, 6 HR

He also brings the added ability to play third base, while Austin is limited to first base and corner outfield, two spots where the San Francisco Giants have no shortage of options.

Taking a chance on Austin made perfect sense at the time, and in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t cost anything of significance to acquire him.

However, at this point, there’s just no way to justify continuing to use a valuable 25-man roster spot on a player who isn’t providing any value.

We’ll find out later today how the San Francisco Giants plan on rearranging the roster.