2023 Willie Mac Award winner among trio of SF Giants players from 2024 season to elect free agency

The offseason roster landscaping has begun. On Tuesday, a trio of SF Giants players elected free agency including Thairo Estrada, Andrew Knapp, and Jakson Reetz according to the team's transaction log.

2023 Willie Mac Award winner among trio of SF Giants players from 2024 season to elect free agency

There are going to be more players from the Giants organization to join this group. For starters, players from the 2018 draft class have reached six years of service time, meaning that they are now eligible to become free agents.

If a player is not on the 40-man roster, they will become free agents. For the Giants, this should include minor leaguers such as Blake Rivera, Matt Frisbee, and Clay Helvey.

Among the three players to reach free agency, Estrada is the most notable name. The middle infielder became a popular Giants player while taking home the 2023 Willie Mac Award. He was even a part of the group that helped recruit Jorge Soler to sign with the Giants.

Estrada has generally provided a modest source of power with good contact skills while playing above-average defense at second base. When you ball those qualities up, it turns into a relatively productive player.

However, the right-handed bat sustained hand and wrist injuries over the past couple of years that likely sapped him of much of his power. This led to a surprisingly poor performance at the plate in 2024 where he registered a .217/.247/.343 line (64 wRC+) with nine home runs, 47 RBI, and 43 runs in 381 plate appearances.

The Giants made an unpopular choice right before September by outrighting Estrada off of the 40-man roster. They knew that they were going to non-tender him in the offseason and they could have waited until then to make a move. Instead, he finished the year in Sacramento.

On a different note, if you were an eagled-eyed observer of the 2024 Giants season, you may remember the brief cameos from both Jakson Reetz and Andrew Knapp this season. At various points this season, the Giants pretty much ran out of catching depth and decided to add Reetz and Knapp to the 40-man roster.

Reetz recorded two hits, including his first career home run, in 14 at-bats with the Giants this year. On the other hand, Knapp tallied six hitless at-bats. Both players finished the year in Sacramento after being outrighted off of the 40-man roster.