SAN FRANCISCO — On Tuesday afternoon, Buster Posey stood against a wall in the home clubhouse at Oracle Park and said the Giants were examining both internal and external options to provide a spark for the historically-cold offense. On Wednesday, the shakeup arrived.
The Giants DFA’d struggling first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. and backup catcher Sam Huff and also optioned backup infielder Christian Koss. The new first baseman will be veteran Dominic Smith, who was signed to a big-league deal a few days after opting out of his minor-league deal with the New York Yankees. Outfielder Daniel Johnson and catcher Andrew Knizner were selected from Triple-A to fill out the roster.
In one series of moves, Posey and general manager Zack Minasian cleared out nearly a quarter of their active position players. The most notable move was with Wade, who was one of Farhan Zaidi’s greatest finds but has slumped for nearly a calendar year. Wade was hitting .167 with just one homer and had started to lose playing time against right-handed pitchers to Casey Schmitt.
The Giants are coming off back-to-back brutal losses, both of which can be placed just about squarely on their lineup. They might have the best top-to-bottom pitching staff in baseball, but they lost 1-0 on Monday night and 3-2 on Tuesday.
The lineup has gone 16 consecutive games without scoring more than four runs, the longest streak since 1965. Posey said Tuesday that the group is better than it has shown over the last two and a half weeks, but also indicated changes were coming.
“We’re not satisfied with the production,” he said. “We’re trying to exhaust all options.”
The only external addition, at least for now, is Smith, who opted out over the weekend. The veteran had a .782 OPS and eight homers in Triple-A and was a little below league-average last year with the Red Sox and Reds, but right now, league-average might hit cleanup for this lineup.
