Giants: Will these three young players regress or improve in 2020?

The San Francisco Giants have several young players who showed promise in 2019. Will these players regress or step forward in 2020?

Farhan Zaidi has made it clear since he took over as president of baseball operations that he wants to make the San Francisco Giants a younger baseball team.

With an aging and declining core, it is a reasonable goal, but with a number of bloated contracts that will be tough to unload on the trade market, the team may not get younger as quick as he would like.

Veterans Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Buster Posey, and Evan Longoria are all under contract for at least two more years, so unless the team is able to pull off an unlikely trade or does the unthinkable and releases one of them, they will be stuck hoping for bounce-back years out of that group.

However, the team discovered that they already have some promising young talent in 2019 in the form of players like Mike Yastrzemski, Mauricio Dubon, and Logan Webb.

All three proved that they have the potential to be solid big league contributors, even if it was a smaller sample size in the case of Webb and Dubon.

Of course, we learned from Dereck Rodriguez that it’s wise not to rush to assume that a solid rookie performance means sustained success going forward.

Each of these players still has to develop in a number of ways, and in the case of Dubon and Webb, their spot as a starter in 2020 is not 100 percent assured.

They will have to prove themselves in spring training next year to show new manager Gabe Kapler that their 2019 performances were not just a fluke.

Yastrzemski is almost certainly assured of a starting spot in the 2020 outfield, but he no doubt wants to break away from his grandfather’s shadow and become a player who can stand on his own merits.

So without further ado, let’s take a closer look at these three players to examine if they are bound to regress or progress.

San Francisco Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski

It feels strange calling Mike Yastrzemski a young player considering he turned 29 in August, but nonetheless, his rookie campaign was one to remember.

Yaz toiled in the minor leagues for years before he finally got his chance in the bigs in 2019, and he took full advantage of it.

After getting called up in late May, he hit .272/.334/.518 with 21 home runs and 55 RBI in 2017 games. He was a welcome addition to an offense that sputtered along for most of the first two months. Now the question is if he can build upon his performance from last year or if he will regress.

Baseball-Reference.com projects him hitting .264/.329/.489 with 19 home runs and 53 RBI next season, indicating a slight regression.

It makes sense that they would not expect him to match his 2019 numbers. Opposing teams now have more film on him and know where he struggles and what part of the zone he prefers. They will adjust to them, and he will need to adjust in turn.

That said, I think that Yaz could very well improve upon his 2020 numbers if he uses that chip on his shoulder from endlessly being compared to his grandfather to propel him forward.

There is something about an athlete with something to prove that seems to bring out the best in them, i.e. Tom Brady. I think Yaz hits closer to .300 than .250 with another 20-homer season to boot.

San Francisco Giants infielder Mauricio Dubon

In his short time in the majors, Mauricio Dubon impressed both with his bat and his glove.

In 28 games with the Giants, he hit .279/.312/.442 with five doubles and four home runs in 111 plate appearances.

He is not a guaranteed starter like Yaz, but it is safe to assume that the second base job is his to lose headed into spring training. Unlike Yaz, he is a more traditional prospect age, as he turned 25 years old in July.

Baseball-Reference.com projects a line of .262/.322/.451 with 10 home runs and 29 RBI. These numbers may be a little off and predicated too much on the 2019 numbers, but the lower RBI total makes sense considering he will likely be hitting near the top of the lineup with his speed and setting the table for the bigger hitters.

His 19-to-5 strikeout-to walk-ratio is partly a cause for concern, but in an age when strikeouts are so common, it probably doesn’t foretell a massive drop-off in production.

While it’s clear that his bat is the biggest question mark in terms of his long-term outlook, his defensive skills up the middle and his speed on the base paths will make him an asset next year no matter what.

I think over the course of the whole year he will hit in the .270-.280 range and will have 5-10 homers as well, but for what he lacks in the batting department, he will make up for with web gems and speed.