Major League Baseball

San Francisco Giants: Is There Hope with Mac Williamson?

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:39 p.m. ET

Fansided, Jake Mastroianni/FanSided via Around the Foghorn

Jul 16, 2016; San Diego, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants right fielder Mac Williamson (51) hits a solo home run during the sixth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

It looks like the San Francisco Giants are comfortable starting the season with Mac Williamson as their primary left fielder. We’ll look at whether or not that’s a wise choice.

Ever since joining Around the Foghorn I’ve noticed a certain love and affection from San Francisco Giants fans towards Mac Williamson.

As I’ve written a couple of articles on how the San Francisco Giants should look to make an upgrade in left field, I’ve been peppered with comments about how Williamson is the guy.

Looking at the numbers, it’s hard to make the argument that Williamson has what it takes to be an everyday outfielder in the big leagues.

In 144 at-bats at the major league level over the past two seasons he’s hit just .222 with a .298 on-base-percentage. He’s also scored 16 runs, hit 6 home runs and picked up 16 RBIs. Williamson is also striking out in nearly 30 percent of his at-bats with 13 walks and 43 strikeouts.

Then if you go and look at Williamson’s splits in the big leagues, he’s hitting .258 against righties and just .195 against lefties as a right-handed hitter, and that’s with more at-bats against lefties than righties.

So I continue to ask myself, why are Giants fans so in love with this guy?

Jul 23, 2016; Bronx, NY, USA; San Francisco Giants right fielder Mac Williamson (51) hits a single against the New York Yankees in the first inning at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

A Closer Look at Mac Williamson

I went back and watched some games of Williamson from last year to see if maybe there is something I’m missing.

He’s an imposing player in the batter’s box at 6-foot-4, 240 pounds. Williamson starts with his knees bent and a bit of an open stance, but he’s able to step straight towards the pitcher when he swings.

His swings creates kind of a diving effect, which allows him to generate a lot of power on pitches down-and-in. That rings true according to FanGraphs as it shows his contact rate is much higher on pitches down-and-in.

However, as a result of that diving-type swing, he’s obviously vulnerable to pitches on the outer half of the plate. Part of that is because his hips fly open way too early and he’s not able to adjust to pitches away from him. If he can learn to keep his weight back a tick longer it might help him reach some of those pitches on the outside, or at least foul them off.

Being so tall, his swing is naturally kind of long, but he should also have good reach on the outside if he can wait back. That kind of reminds me of Brandon Belt who is also tall, but has learned to wait back and foul off those tough pitches away – him being a left-handed hitter obviously. That’s what has helped Belt’s on-base-percentage shoot up the past two years.

The reason I think Giants fans love this guy so much is because of the power potential he brings with his bat, which is backed up by his minor league numbers.

Jun 8, 2016; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants left fielder Mac Williamson (51) rounds the bases on a solo home run against the Boston Red Sox during the eighth inning at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Minor Leagues

The San Francisco Giants drafted Mac Williamson in the third round of the 2012 draft out of Wake Forest University. In his last year at Wake Forest he hit .286 with 17 home runs, 52 RBIs and stole 12 bases.

He was sent straight to the San Francisco Giants High-A team in 2012 where he hit .342 with 7 home runs in 114 at-bats. Then he played in the Arizona Fall League later that year, but hit just .176 with 2 home runs in only 17 at-bats.

He spent all of 2013 at High-A where he hit .292 with 25 home runs, 89 RBIs and 94 runs, which definitely raised some eyebrows. Williamson then started the 2014 season at High-A again, but his season ended after just 23 games to have Tommy John Surgery.

In 2015 he started the year in Double-A hitting .293 with 5 home runs in 259 at-bats, and then moved up to Triple-A where he hit .249 with 8 home runs in 189 at-bats. The San Francisco Giants called him up in September and gave him 32 at-bats. Williamson hit .219 with 8 strikeouts and zero walks during that limited playing time.

Last year he bounced back-and-forth between Triple-A and the big leagues. At Sacramento he hit .269 with 11 home runs in 208 at-bats. At the big league level he hit .223 with 6 home runs in 112 at-bats.

Jun 8, 2016; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy (15) claps in left fielder Mac Williamson (51) after Williamson’s solo home run against the Boston Red Sox during the eighth inning at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

What Can We Expect at the Big League Level?

First of all, Mac is 26 years old and will be 27 this July, so he’s no spring chicken. Being that he spent four years in college, you hope those guys make it to the big leagues within a year or two, and that would have been the case had he not needed Tommy John Surgery.

This year will be crucial for Williamson as it almost seems like it’s now or never. I would like to see him get some regular playing time just to see what he’s capable of.

@ShortStopBall @RoundTheFoghorn Yes I do. To me the upside is right here, during his only run of regular AB's. Low BABIP too. pic.twitter.com/0Wmu3TigWO

— Cove Chatter (@CoveChatter) January 11, 2017

As you can see by the Twitter conversation above with @CoveChatter, Williamson hit .260 with 5 home runs, 13 walks and 19 strikeouts from June 10 to July 31 when he was receiving regular playing time.

However, you could take a one month period of just about anyone’s major league career and make them look like a Hall of Famer.

But @CoveChatter does make a good point, and part of me wants to see what he does with regular playing time.

Based on what I’ve seen at the major league level and his track record in the minors, I think we could expect a .250 average and .315 on-base-percentage with 18-23 home runs and close to 150 strikeouts.