The Giants’ season has been hard enough on its own. Watching former players break out somewhere else has only turned up the sting.
Kyle Harrison with the Milwaukee Brewers. Otto Lopez with the Miami Marlins. And now Tristan Peters, the outfielder the Giants once moved on from for almost nothing, is turning heads with the Chicago White Sox in a way that sounds like it came from another era.
Peters has made the American League All-Star team, and a recent White Sox graphic put his latest stretch into eye-opening company. Over a five-game span, he became just the second player in MLB history to do all of the following: collect 10 hits or more, homer in every game, post multiple doubles and walks, and steal a base. The only other player to pull that off was Babe Ruth in 1921.
It’s a stat built with a little bit of cherry-picking, sure. But it still says plenty about the kind of run Peters is on. If your name is getting mentioned alongside Ruth, you’ve done something worth noticing.
The 26-year-old is hitting .282/.345/.472 with 12 home runs and 52 runs batted in, and he also grades out as one of the best defensive center fielders in MLB.
For the Giants, the frustrating part is how little they got back in the deal. They gave Peters up for Brett Wisely. Wisely did give San Francisco a respectable utility bat and even delivered a memorable walk-off home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but it’s still the kind of move the Giants would love a second chance to undo.
And the strangest part is that San Francisco had Peters before anyone else did. The Giants acquired him from the Milwaukee Brewers for Trevor Rosenthal, a pitcher who never threw a pitch for the team.
Peters didn’t light up the minors with the Giants, which helps explain why they felt fine sending him out for Wisely, who is currently in Triple-A with the Atlanta Braves.
That’s been the story of the Giants’ year: the team struggles, and the players they let go off go out and do wild things somewhere else. The silver lining is that San Francisco does have some promising young center field options ahead. Still, looking at Peters right now, it’s hard not to wonder what might have been.
In Other News...
Jeff Kent Made Barry Bonds Part Of An Emotional Giants Night
The Giants turned a long-awaited afternoon into a franchise celebration when they retired Jeff Kents No. 21 before the second half of a doubleheader against the Diamondbacks. Kents day carried the kind of emotion that comes with seeing his place in team history recognized, and it also brought Barry Bonds back into the ballpark, a notable presence given how infrequently he has been around Oracle Park this season.
Kent made clear that the relationship between the two former stars was built on competition as much as it was on respect, which gave the ceremony an extra layer for Giants fans who remember that era so vividly. He also nodded to Bonds still-open case for Hall of Fame consideration, even as this years Contemporary Baseball Era ballot did not go far enough to keep Bonds in the conversation there. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Infield Prospect Is Making His Return Feel Very Different
Jeff Kents return to Oracle Park for his number retirement ceremony brought back a familiar Giants name, but the story around the franchises infield future has shifted to the next generation. His son, Kaeden Kent, was activated from the injured list by the Eugene Emeralds and wasted little time showing why the organization is paying attention, putting together a strong recent game with multiple hits and home runs.
The Emeralds also got another jolt from Cam Maldonado, whose bat has been one of the louder ones in the Giants minor league system this season. Maldonado has already shown real power with a three-homer game and earned a promotion to Eugene, giving San Franciscos player-development pipeline a different kind of buzz as the club keeps looking for the next infield bat to emerge. [Read more 🡒]
Tyler Mahles Turnaround Just Put The Giants On The Spot
Tyler Mahles move from San Francisco to Atlanta has quickly turned into one of those transactions the Giants cannot help but monitor from a distance. After struggling to find his footing in orange and black, he has looked far more like himself with the Braves, and the contrast has been stark enough to turn his stint in San Francisco into an uncomfortable comparison point for a club that has long tried to sell itself on pitching development.
The larger issue is not just Mahle. Atlanta pitching coach JP Martinez, who previously worked with the Giants, appears to have helped unlock something, and Mahle is hardly the only arm to flourish after leaving San Francisco. Kyle Harrison and Erik Miller have also found success with new teams, which only deepens the question hanging over the Giants: if these pitchers can take a step forward elsewhere, what exactly is being missed here? [Read more 🡒]