Is it too soon to be worried about veteran first baseman's production at the plate?

LaMonte Wade Jr. is off to a slow start for the SF Giants in 2025. Despite this, the club has a 9-3 record, but they will need Wade Jr.'s production at the plate sooner rather than later. Is it too soon to be concerned with his numbers?

Is it too soon to be worried about veteran first baseman's production at the plate?

The Giants have only played 12 games, so it is really too soon to put any weight into the statistics. Wade Jr. is slashing .105/.146/.289 (10 wRC+) with one home run, four RBI, and three runs in 42 plate appearances. The expected numbers paint a similarly bleak picture.

The left-handed bat's strength lies in his ability to reach base. However, he has only coaxed two walks in 2025, and he has an unusually high strikeout rate at 33.3 percent.

A 12-game sample in a 162-season is not going to reveal all that much about a player, but what if Wade Jr.'s slump at the plate is an extenstion of last season?

Through the first two months of 2024, the 31-year-old infielder looked like an All-Star but suffered a hamstring strain that put him on the shelf for a month.

When he returned on June 28, he was just not the same hitter. He slumped to a .213/.316/.351 (89 wRC+) with six home runs, 17 RBI, and 23 runs in 235 plate appearances. This includes a 12.3 percent walk rate, 23.4 percent strikeout rate, and .139 ISO.

This is a prolonged slump that spanned more than three months. First base is a position that needs to hit, and hit a lot, but he did not do that for over half the year. On a positive note, Wade Jr. worked a very solid walk rate but did not offer much else at the plate.

Interestingly, the lefty bat is putting up good exit velocity numbers while making contact on the barrel of the bat. However, he is not really doing both at the same time right now. There has also been a noticeable drop in his bat speed, declining from 72.4 MPH in 2024 to 70.5 MPH in 2025.

Again, these are observations based on a small sample. Given how he finished last season, the alarm bells might be ringing soon enough if he does not turn it around. While it is early in the year, the concern level is higher than normal at this point in the season.