SF Giants manager immediately pours cold water on idea of platoon at shortstop

The SF Giants have had a bit of a carousel at the shortstop position so far this season. Nick Ahmed appears to be on his way back from injury, but manager Bob Melvin poured cold water on the idea of a platoon with how hot Brett Wisely has been.

SF Giants manager immediately pours cold water on idea of platoon at shortstop

It makes sense that the future at the shortstop position would be unclear for the Giants. After Brandon Crawford was the undisputed starter at the position for over a decade, it should not come as a surprise that there has not been a seamless transition to a new undisputed everyday shortstop.

In the offseason, it seemed like the hope was that there would be a seamless transition to Marco Luciano. The Giants were hoping that he was ready to make the leap to the big leagues, but a rough spring followed by his defensive woes in the majors and his eventual injury have thrown his status as the future shortstop for the team into doubt.

Luciano's struggles in Spring Training prompted the Giants to sign veteran Nick Ahmed as an insurance policy. Ahmed is great defensively but limited offensively. His injury meant a few other players would get an opportunity.

Casey Schmitt has seen time at shortstop. He has the arm of a shortstop, but he can be prone to errors at time and his bat has not been consistent enough at the big-league level to warrant everyday play.

In comes the man with the hot hand: Brett Wisely. Thought of as a glove-first utility man who did not have a ton of upside at the plate, Wisely has provided the Giants with the best play at shortstop this year both offensively and defensively.

In 60 at-bats, Wisely is currently slashing .317/.333/.467 with 2 home runs and 8 RBI. Plus, in 105 and 1/3 innings at shortstop, he has only made one error. He is playing the position like he is a natural shortstop right now which is a very pleasant surprise.

The presumption was that Ahmed would become the starting shortstop again once he got healthy, but that seems less clear after Wisely's recent play. After yesterday's victory against the Astros in which Wisely got two more hits, manager Bob Melvin was asked about the prospect of a platoon at shortstop with Ahmed going against lefties and Wisely against righties once Ahmed returns from injury. Melvin poured cold water on this idea immediately:

"[Ahmed] has to get back here first. All I know is that Brett [Wisely] has done a great job and he has gotten really good at-bats against lefties as well...having really good at-bats across the board and if you look at some of his numbers in the past, he has hit lefties pretty well. He is playing the position like he belongs there. I think that is the most impressive thing right now, how well he is playing shortstop."

Bob Melvin on Brett Wisely

That does not sound like a manager who is going to immediately defer to a veteran player when he returns from injury. It seems like Melvin is more than happy to ride Wisely's hot hand until it cools off.

It is possible that we could see Wisely cool off considerably the same way we saw Schmitt cool off after a red-hot start when he was called up last season. But if Wisely is able to keep playing like this for an extended period of time, then perhaps the Giants will view him as the future shortstop of the team.