Why Bob Melvin has changed SF Giants’ leadoff hitter 6 times in less than a month
PHOENIX — With more everyday players and a new manager pulling the strings, the 2024 Giants have featured more lineup stability than they have in the past few years. As injuries have piled up, naturally, that hasn’t been as much the case more recently.
The first 38 games Bob Melvin filled out his lineup card, it featured two players in the leadoff spot. Jung Hoo Lee batted first 30 times, and Austin Slater filled the role in the other eight games.
On Monday night, Brett Wisely became the Giants’ seventh different leadoff man in their past 23 games since losing their two primary tablesetters to collisions with the outfield wall in the span of a week.
While Slater (concussion) is nearing the end of his rehab assignment, Lee was set to undergo season-ending surgery Tuesday in Los Angeles, and since he separated his shoulder crashing into the center field fence last month, the Giants have missed his never-ending motor, his effervescent personality and his presence on the field.
One quality, though, has proven particularly difficult to replicate.
“We’re trying to get some more guys up top with more on-base percentage than we’ve had recently,” Melvin said, offering a similar explanation for why he rotated Heliot Ramos into pole position the previous day. “We were a little behind as far as that went for a couple weeks there.”
If there is one duty above all else asked of the top of the batting order, it is to put themselves in position to be driven in by the big bats in the middle of the lineup, and the Giants’ leadoff men in Lee’s absence have been worse at that than all but one team in the majors.
Since Lee’s last game May 12, the top spot in the Giants’ batting order has gotten on base at a .253 clip, ahead of only the Nationals (.228). That includes the production Luis Matos provided in 10 games batting leadoff while earning National League player of the week honors before cooling off, prompting Melvin to shake up the top of the order.
The combination of Lee and Slater, by comparison, had an on-base percentage of .312, still below the league average .329 mark from leadoff hitters but a marked improvement from their replacements.
The issue has only been magnified by the absence of LaMonte Wade Jr., the Giants’ most common No. 2 hitter, who possessed the majors’ top on-base percentage when he strained his hamstring last week. In six games without Wade, who is expected to miss a month, the Giants’ team-wide .259 on-base rate ranks third-worst in the majors, ahead of only the Angels and White Sox.
Melvin’s recent shakeups have worked out well enough, with Wisely and Ramos each reaching base multiple times the past two games. Before their call-ups last month, Wisely was running a .404 on-base percentage for Triple-A Sacramento, and Ramos owned a .361 OBP.
With a pair of lefties on the mound for the Diamondbacks in the final two games of their series, there is a strong chance that Ramos returns to the leadoff spot. That is, unless Slater is activated from his rehab assignment with Sacramento, where he is 3-for-13 in four games.