Young SF Giants corner infielder still making a case to break camp with the club

Young SF Giants infielder Casey Schmitt blasted his third home run of the spring on Sunday, tying him with Mike Yastrzemski for second on the team in that category. He is putting together a solid spring and still in the running for the utility infielder role.

Young SF Giants corner infielder still making a case to break camp with the club

Schmitt's primary competition is Brett Wisely. Wisely has also been one of the Giants' better hitters in camp. There is a strong case to make that Wisely is a better fit for the roster at this point in time.

He is a left-handed-hitting infielder with the ability to play shortstop surprisingly well. Perhaps, he is the only other shortstop on the 40-man roster besides Willy Adames.

The Giants may not need a ton of coverage on the left side of the infield with Adames and Matt Chapman. Both have proven to be some of the more durable players in baseball. There just might not be many innings available. That said, players still need days off, and that is where the utility infielder comes into play.

The fact that Wisely hits from the left side is another stripe on his belt. The Giants' current infield alignment leans heavily on right-handed hitters with Chapman, Adames, Wilmer Flores, and Tyler Fitzgerald. LaMonte Wade Jr. is the only other left-handed-hitting infielder and he is limited to first base. The Giants want to have a little more balance from this standpoint.

While Wisely offers capable versatility, he does not provide much with the bat. If he is able to even be a league-average hitter, he could carve out a role in the majors. Wisely is still on the younger side at 25 and showed some nice improvement at the plate from 2023 to 2024.

On the other hand, Schmitt brings quite a bit more power potential to the table. He is showing it in the Cactus League. So far, he has tallied seven hits in 27 at-bats, six of which have gone for extra bases. His stat line also highlights a glaring weakness as he has no walks.

Schmitt is an aggressive hitter and likely always will be. His ability to reach base will be strogly correlated to his batting average. He has made modest strides in terms of plate discipline. Despite the aggressiveness, he will not normally record high strikeout rates, thanks in large part to above-average in-zone contact skills. He gets into trouble when he expands the zone and chases.

The right-handed bat probably does not have a clear path to making the Opening Day roster. The Giants already have too many spots spoken for, leaving very few openings besides what they absolutely need.

This is not a bad thing either. The Giants pretty clearly called Schmitt up prematurely in 2023 and that likely stalled his development to some degree. He still has a lot of work to do in terms of refining his approach at the plate and Triple-A is a better spot for that.

Nevertheless, Schmitt is making a case to break camp with the club. While that feels unlikely regardless of how he performs, there could be a role later this season if Tyler Fitzgerald struggles right out of the gates.