Outfielder you probably forgot about may have SF Giants regretting letting him go

You may have missed it this offseason, but the SF Giants briefly had outfielder Joey Wiemer on the roster. They ended up cutting him loose, but he just had a great Opening Day performance that may have the Giants regretting that decision at least a little bit.

Wiemer is with the Washington Nationals now and he helped power the Nats to a 10-4 victory on Thursday against the Chicago Cubs. Wiemer went 3-for-3 at the plate and drew a walk while hitting a home run in the second inning off Matthew Boyd.

Wiemer is known for his success against left-handed pitching, slashing .264/.307/.509 against lefties in his career versus .181/.272/.292 against righties, so the Nationals were smart to have him in the lineup to go up against the left-handed Boyd.

Brief SF Giants pickup Joey Wiemer has a great Opening Day

I wonder if there was a team that could have used a guy with success against lefties in their first game of the regular season. Maybe a team playing on Netflix going up against the left-handed ace of the New York Yankees. Or maybe a team that only has four hits and zero runs through two regular season games. Hmm, I guess we'll never know.

It is just one game for Wiemer though, and over the course of a full season he will most likely come back down to his career numbers which are not all that impressive. He had a decent rookie season with the Milwaukee Brewers, hitting 13 home runs and driving in 42 runs but only had a .204 batting average. He put up decent numbers with the Miami Marlins last year but he is really known primarily for his speed and defense.

The Giants traded for Wiemer in the offseason, giving the Marlins some good old cash considerations in exchange for him. At the time, it seemed like Wiemer could end up being a solid depth player or potentially even a platoon bat.

Yet, he was acquired by San Francisco in late November and before Christmas Wiemer was DFA'd by the Giants to make room on the 40-man roster for relief pitcher Jason Foley. The Washington Nationals scooped Wiemer off waivers in January.

San Francisco did end up signing Harrison Bader though, and in all honesty Wiemer is sort of the poor man's Harrison Bader. Like Bader, he's got long, blonde hair and plays good defense but isn't a phenomenal hitter. Bader is just a better player overall which is why the Giants decided to fork up over $20 million to keep him around for two years.

Of course, if Bader ends up spending most of the year on the IL while Wiemer has a breakout year in Washington then the Giants will have egg on their face, but going off career performance Bader is the guy you want on your team over the course of 162 games.

Still, it is interesting to see Wiemer get off to such a hot start and allows us to reflect on some alternate universe in which he would have been in the lineup on Wednesday against Max Fried.