Norichika Aoki is on the Giants now, signing a one-year, $4.7 million deal with incentives. This isn't the pure molten sex of offseason that we were all expecting, but the Giants roster is still better with Aoki. An explanation:
First, thank goodness for the Braves. After trading Evan Gattis and Justin Upton, the Braves are projected to hit six home runs next year. This means when the Giants hit seven, everyone here can point at the Braves and laugh and laugh. "Can you imagine? Six home runs! Just like us, but without the Guillermo Quiroz inside-the-parker. What a world."
Still, I'm more than a little concerned by the Giants' lack of power. They made the postseason because they hit dingers for the first two months, then they won the World Series because they hit dingers at the right time, but the team as currently constructed is a serious contender to finish the season with fewer than 100 home runs for the first time since 2008. Aoki doesn't help that.
I am a bigger Norichika Aoki fan than you are. I can prove it. Can you match this fandom? An outfield with Aoki in left and Hunter Pence in right is the dream of any discerning baseball blogger, especially one who likes to make Vines that are scrubbed from existence after a week. They will collide at least once in the outfield, despite neither one ever logging an inning in center field.
So that's intriguing. Except Aoki hit a home run last year. As in, exactly one. His skill set is to get on base at an above-average clip, get thrown out trying to steal every third time, and play an occasionally confounding outfield. He's Gregor Blanco, then. I'm not even going to use the "rich man's Blanco" construction because if he's the rich man's Blanco, we're talking about the rich guy having, like, an extra $200 in savings bonds over the normal guy.
That's not to suggest he's useless to the Giants. When he starts over Blanco in 2015, that means a deeper bench. It means there's a ready emergency plan in the event of full Angel Pagan reactor failure, and while it's the same emergency play as last year, it's an effective one. An Aoki/Pagan/Pence outfield will be swell, and an Aoki/Blanco/Pence outfield would be better than the one with which they won the World Series.
Still. To go from Pablo Sandoval/Michael Morse to Casey McGehee/Aoki is an instant drop of 20 or 30 homers. This was going to be a segue into my love for Dexter Fowler, complete with skepticism at those nasty defensive numbers, except that guy doesn't hit dingers, either. To get dingers, the Giants would have had to get a deeply flawed player (like Jonny Gomes) or make a surprising, big-time trade (for someone like Jay Bruce). Even then, Jose Bautista wasn't getting out of that cab, everyone. The dinger fairy was never leaving anything under our pillow. Dinger Claus was never filling our stocking. The dinger leprechauns have a pot, but it's filled with rusty buffalo nickels.
Dinger Krampus is on our side, though. Ol' Dinger Krampus, it's been too long.
So the Aoki signing doesn't scratch our dinger itch, which is why I've pooh-poohed the rumor every time it came up. Except here's an inalienable truth: The Giants are a better team with Aoki on the roster.
The Giants are a better team with Aoki on the roster.
Make a list of the best outfielders who were under contract with the Giants.
- Hunter Pence
- Angel Pagan
- Gregor Blanco
- Juan Perez
- Justin Maxwell?
- Gary Brown
- Wait, do we count Travis Ishikawa?
- Jarrett Parker
- Chris Dominguez
- Brett Jackson
- Javier Herrera
- Daniel Carbonell
- Okay, I'll stop
Pick five. Those were the outfielders on the roster. If Aoki is better than the fifth-best one, the roster is better. It isn't that much of an upgrade over Blanco in the starting lineup, but Aoki makes the Giants a better, deeper team.
Now take away Pagan. It's good news that Pagan was talking about playing 162 games this year, that he's feeling healthy and ready. But even if he didn't miss the second half last year, I would still assume that he's going to miss a chunk of games. Add in the back injury, and you've left Port Optimism and are sailing through the Sea of Icy Realism and Vertebrae. There will be a need for a good fourth outfielder at some point. The Giants are a better team with Aoki on the roster.
Let's look for the last team to succeed with fewer than 100 home runs and okay that was quick looks like it was the Royals last year. They had Aoki. He was kind of an adventure in right, especially when compared to the rest of the Royals' magic outfielders, but he's still a pretty good player. He helps, even if he's the cherry on top of the offseason's eh? sundae.
Goodbye, dingers. We'll always have Paris.
Update: There's a club option! Well played, Giants.
Confirming: Aoki to #SFGiants, one year, $4.7M, including buyout on club option. First reported: @JohnSheaHey and @JonHeymanCBS.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 16, 2015