Giants: Three free-agent infielders to avoid this offseason

Brian Dozier

Brian Dozier is a reliable tank who has averaged 150 games and 649 plate appearances over the last seven seasons.

He has power and speed, averaging 27 home runs and 14 steals per season during that same seven-year span of time.

The San Francisco Giants are looking for a dynamic bat. So why doesn’t Dozier fit the bill?

The issue here is fit.

Dozier is a second baseman. To get him playing time would require moving Dubon to shortstop, which is the only other position where he has spent significant time in his minor league career. Doing that means removing Crawford from the equation.

Can the Giants afford to bring on the 32-year-old Dozier on what could be a multi-year contract to replace Crawford?

If this were a younger player in the prime of their career, it would be a no-brainer.

However, the Giants have suffered through an inability to hit for average for several years now, ranking among the bottom eight teams in baseball each of the last three seasons.

Though Dozier had two monster seasons in 2016 and 2017 where he hit .269/.349/.522 with 76 HR, 192 RBI, and 34 steals, he has a career batting average of .245 and he hit just .225 over 1,114 plate appearances the last two seasons.

It’s also telling that the veteran has tallied just seven plate appearances during the postseason for a Washington Nationals team in the middle of the World Series.

The power and speed are attractive, but Dozier is not the same player he was in his prime, and another low batting average infielder on the wrong side of his prime is the last thing the team needs.