Hunter Pence Has a Deal With the San Francisco Giants
Hunter Pence has agreed to a deal with the San Francisco Giants. Jon Heyman announced on Twitter the Giants and Pence are in agreement on a contract. No other details are known. The deal is pending a physical.
Hunter Pence has deal with #SFGiants
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 7, 2020
Hunter’s Career
Hunter Pence will be 37 years old this April and will be entering his 14th major league season. Pence’s career slash line is .280/.335/.462 with 242 HR and 936 RBI. Pence has played for four teams during his career. His career started with the Houston Astros in 2007. The Astros traded Pence to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2012.
Pence signed with the Giants in 2013 and spent six seasons in the Bay City. Pence was a big part of the Giants 2014 World Championship team. In 2015 Pence’s production started to decline. After the 2018 season Pence became a free agent and signed with the Texas Rangers.
In his one season as a Ranger Pence had his best season since 2016. His slash line was .297/.358/.552 with 18 HR and 59 RBI. It is worth noting that Pence played in 83 games last year. However, only 23 times did he play the outfield. The rest was as the DH. The National League does not have the DH. It will be interesting to see how much Pence can play.
Giants Outlook
This is a strange move for the Giants. They are in the midst of rebuilding and already have several players on the wrong side of 30. The Los Angeles Dodgers still rule the division. The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks have made several moves greatly improving their teams. The Giants do not have any chance of competing this season.
Key players such as Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith were not re-signed. Veteran players such as Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Evan Longoria, and Brandon Crawford are not only clogging young players from getting a chance but they also are eating up a sizable amount of the Giants payroll. Pence won’t make much money but he is occupying a roster spot that should go to a younger player.
