Why SF Giants’ Kapler plays ‘athletic’ Yermín Mercedes in left field

PHOENIX — Yermín Mercedes is in his 12th year of playing professional baseball, and in those dozen trips around the sun leading up to Sunday had logged exactly 12 games in left field. Yet, there he was, in the outfield grass of Dodger Stadium, racing toward a fly ball that was outrunning him to the left-field corner.

The ball, off the bat of first baseman Freddie Freeman, had an expected batting average of .100. Mercedes, with a sprint speed that ranks in the 17th percentile league-wide, wasn’t able to close the ground lost to a poor jump. Instead of the second out of the seventh inning, the ball fell to the warning track, and Freeman eventually scored the first of three deciding runs in the Giants’ final loss of a four-game sweep in Los Angeles.

Of Mercedes’ now 13 career games in left, eight have come in the past three weeks with the San Francisco Giants.

“Mercedes has worked his ass off out there in the outfield,” manager Gabe Kapler said before the 7-4 loss. “He’s an athletic dude. He’s not a burner. But he’s athletic enough to make this work.”

When Mercedes files his taxes, he can write “Professional Athlete” as his occupation but maybe “athletic” isn’t the first adjective that comes to mind relative to others in his profession. But since San Francisco claimed his waivers from the White Sox last month, Kapler has repeatedly returned to that particular adjective.

So, what do you mean, Gabe?

“I think one way to think about athleticism is good hand-eye coordination. It’s twitchiness, right? It’s explosiveness,” Kapler said. “There’s no question that Mercedes has both of those things in spades.”

The outfield isn’t the only place they’re trying Mercedes. He’s already entered as an emergency catcher, and he’s taking ground balls at second and third base (in addition to his traditional position at first).

“When you play a lot of positions, you have more opportunities to get in the lineup,” said Mercedes, who in 69 games with the White Sox was the designated hitter in 62 of them. “When they give me the opportunity, no matter what base they put me, I just need to do the best I can do. I’m feeling comfortable. … I like every position. I just want to work hard and stay in the lineup every day.”

The Giants believe Mercedes’ right-handed bat is valuable enough that it merits getting him in the lineup as much as possible. A month ago, he wasn’t in the organization; now he’s batting third. To his credit, Mercedes has proven the Giants right with the wood, posting a batting line of .262/.367/.452 (a 129 OPS+) in his first 49 plate appearances and clubbed two of their best-hit balls Sunday off Clayton Kershaw for a pair of doubles.

On Sunday, the Giants were particularly hamstrung, partially because of Evan Longoria’s hamstring (which forced another right-handed bat out of the lineup against Kershaw) and Mike Yastrzemski’s calf (which was too sore from a crash into the right-field wall the night before to play defense or run the bases).

Mercedes likely finds himself on the roster in the first place because their power-hitting right-handed outfield prospect, 22-year-old Heliot Ramos, hasn’t hit much of anything at Triple-A this year. While the Giants didn’t quite hold a roster spot open for Ramos, Austin Slater is the platoon-oriented club’s only other right-handed-hitting outfielder.

Darin Ruf has appeared plenty in the outfield over the past two seasons, but the Giants went with Mercedes over him in left and stuck Ruf at first base. Together with Joc Pederson, the Giants’ left field defense this season has not only been the worst in baseball, according to FanGraphs, but 69% worse than the No. 29 team.

“These guys are going to work as hard as they can to be ready for the moment. Sometimes a ball’s going to beat them and that’s part of the equation here,” Kapler said. “Sometimes they’re going to make good throws. Mercedes has a great arm. … Is he going to be a great, Gold Glove defender out there? I don’t think he is. I don’t think that’s the case with Ruf either. … We’ll keep grinding through it.”