LOS ANGELES - Jonah Cox didn’t just surprise the Padres on Friday night. He showed the Giants exactly why they’ve started to see him as more than a short-term spark.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Mason Miller on the mound, Cox was asked to do one thing: reach base and keep the inning alive for Rafael Devers. Tony Vitello said the choice took guts.
Cox answered by squaring around against a triple-digit fastball and dropping down a perfect bunt. Manny Machado was deep at third, and Cox’s speed did the rest.
By the time Machado got to the ball, Cox was already safe at first.
The Giants lost the game, but the play fit the pattern Cox has been building in a hurry. At 25, the rookie outfielder has become one of the few bright spots in a rough season, and his case for an Opening Day roster spot next year is getting stronger by the week.
Hitting coach Hunter Mense didn’t hide how much he values the package Cox brings.
“Anybody that has the kind of toolset that he does is incredibly exciting to watch because you don’t know what the ceiling is going to be,” said hitting coach Hunter Mense. “You have no idea how high or how far he’s going to be able to take it. A lot of people get limited by what they can do based upon their physical capabilities or inabilities, but he has a lot of possessive traits that can take him to places that not a lot of guys can go to.”
That toolset starts with speed. Cox is in the 99th percentile in sprint speed, per Baseball Savant, and he’s one of only 10 qualified players in the majors averaging at least 30 feet per second. The Giants have leaned on that burst in every possible way, and Cox has delivered.
He has 13 steals in 17 attempts after a pair of swipes in Wednesday’s 6-5 win, which moved him past Jung Hoo Lee for the team lead despite Cox appearing in only 53 games. Baseball-Reference credits him with 1.4 WAR, tied with Drew Gilbert for the most among Giants outfielders. In a season short on positives, Cox has made his impact obvious.
The Giants haven’t had many players who paired elite speed with a real appetite to use it. Tyler Fitzgerald had the quickness but not the green light on the bases.
Thairo Estrada stole 20 bags in back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023, but didn’t have Cox’s top-end burst. Cox gives them both.
“The one thing we try to do as far as how do you accentuate a strength is make sure a guy understands what he can do to utilize those things, whether it’s an arm in the outfield, or things Jonah can do,” said manager Tony Vitello.
His legs show up everywhere. Last Wednesday against the Cardinals, Cox turned what should have been an inning-ending groundout into an RBI single that kept a comeback alive.
On Tuesday night against St. Louis, he ripped off home to first in 3.63 seconds on a bunt single, the second-fastest time by a right-handed hitter this year.
And the speed matters in the field, too. Entering Wednesday, Cox had +4 outs above average, tied with Gilbert for the most among Giants outfielders, even though Gilbert had logged nearly 600 more innings. Add in Cox’s ability to handle center field and even play a smooth second base, and the defensive upside is easy to see.
The bat didn’t come as smoothly at first. Cox was called up straight from Double-A Richmond in late May and went through a rough opening stretch, failing to draw a walk and striking out more than half the time - 51.7% - over his first 29 plate appearances.
A left oblique strain in early July interrupted his season, and after a few games with Triple-A Sacramento, he returned to the majors on Aug. 14.
The slump kept going: in his first six games back, he struck out 10 times in 17 plate appearances, including nine straight strikeouts.
That’s when Cox made some major changes. He altered his hand placement and went from a big kick stride to essentially no stride at all.
He said he felt he could “get away with some bigger moves” in the minors against left-handed pitchers, but the majors told a different story. Against hard-throwing lefties, he had gone 7-for-32 with 18 strikeouts in his first 33 plate appearances.
Before the trip to Boston, Cox and Mense talked about widening his base and removing the stride. When Cox tried it in the cage, Mense said he hit three straight line drives up the middle.
The new setup debuted on Aug. 23, and Cox immediately saw the payoff. In his first at-bat, he turned on a four-seam fastball from Red Sox left-hander Jake Bennett and launched it over the Green Monster.
“He’s really good at what he does, and I trusted him,” Cox said. “I kind of messed around with it for a day or two.
Then, I guess I got lucky and caught one over the plate. So, we’ve just been working daily, trying to refine it and kind of tweak it.
Hopefully, we keep it going.”
The adjustment stands out even more because Cox was already thriving in the minors. When the Giants brought him up from Double-A, he was hitting .400/.453/.644 in 44 games.
Including his short Sacramento stint, he has a .415 average in the minors this season. Even with that success, he was willing to make a real change to address a weakness.
Since the tweak, Cox has hit .329 with an .839 OPS. He has drawn six walks and cut his strikeout rate to 27.1 percent. For a player built around speed, getting on base is the key, because once Cox reaches, the chaos starts.
With nine games left, he has time to keep strengthening his case for next year. Cox and Gilbert could form a useful center field platoon, and Cox’s speed and defensive flexibility fit anywhere. And as Mense put it, the one tool that never goes cold is the one Cox already has in abundance.
“He’s got so many tools in the tool bag that he’d be doing himself a disservice if he only pigeonholed himself into being able to do one thing,” Mense said. “He can just do so many things, and there are so many weapons he has in the toolbox.”
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