{"id":662962,"date":"2026-04-04T15:51:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/662962\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T15:51:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:51:18","slug":"the-giants-right-handed-bench-limits-their-pinch-hit-options-and-thats-ok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/662962\/","title":{"rendered":"The Giants\u2019 right-handed bench limits their pinch-hit options, and that\u2019s OK"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco Giants\u2019 bench did not factor into Friday night\u2019s 10-3 loss to the New York Mets. There wasn\u2019t a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner or defensive replacement involved. The Giants turned in a lineup card with nine batters before the game started, and they used only those nine batters. They\u2019ve used just one pinch-hitter through the first eight games of the season.<\/p>\n

This means it\u2019s the perfect time to talk about the composition of the Giants\u2019 bench. You don\u2019t want the topic to come up when emotions are high, after the best or worst pinch-hitting decision of your life. Here was a game where the all-righty bench didn\u2019t make a lick of difference. There will be more of them.<\/p>\n

There are two ways to get used to the idea of an all-right-handed bench. The first is to remember that it won\u2019t be like this all season. There will be injured list trips and reevaluations, slumps in the majors and torrid hot streaks in the minors. The left-handed hitting Grant McCray walked more than he struck out in the Cactus League, and he\u2019s doing similar things in Triple-A Sacramento right now. Think about how many problems a lefty-swinging, speedy center fielder could solve on his own if he could hit, even a little bit. That\u2019s just one of the players trying to mess with the all-righty bench, and one of them will eventually be successful. This is temporary.<\/p>\n

The second way to get used to the idea is to revisit what benches are for in the first place. And the best way to do that is by exploring one of my favorite fun facts in all of baseball history. There\u2019s a wide, wide, wide spectrum of how benches can be used, and the strategies don\u2019t correlate much with team success or failure.<\/p>\n

Start with the team that used more pinch-hitters than any other in baseball history<\/a>, the 2021 Giants. Oh, how they loved their pinch-hitters, setting an all-time record for pinch-hit home runs (18). The Giants\u2019 pinch-hitters didn\u2019t exactly rake, collectively hitting .199, but their timing was superb. The strategy clearly came down from the front office, as the Farhan Zaidi-led team from 2019 was the third-busiest pinch-hitting team of all time. Only the 1965 Mets were between the two.<\/p>\n

\"Darin<\/p>\n

\n Austin Slater and Darin Ruf were frequently employed as pinch-hitters in 2021, and both had memorable moments in that role. (Lachlan Cunningham \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

When it worked, the 2021 pinch-hitting strategy was delirious fun, with a they-can\u2019t-keep-getting-away-with-this feeling that lasted for the entire regular season. So there\u2019s one way to build an effective bench: matchups, matchups, matchups, with a manager who isn\u2019t afraid to hurt feelings by sending up a pinch-hitter with the bases loaded in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n

The \u201921 Giants being pinch-hitting maniacs is only half of the fun fact, though. You need the other end of the extreme for the full picture, and you find it with the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays. You might remember that team as the one that would have lost the World Series to the Giants if the Colorado Rockies could have won a single stinking game against the Atlanta Braves,<\/a> not that any of us are still thinking about these things 33 years later.<\/p>\n

Those Blue Jays were also memorable in another way, setting a record for the fewest pinch-hitters in major-league history<\/a>, using just 29 all season. In the 60-game 2020 season<\/a>, 29 pinch-hitters would have tied for the 12th-fewest used by a team. Even if you crammed all 162 games of their 1993 season into the pandemic-shortened season, the Blue Jays still would have avoided pinch-hitters more than the average team.<\/p>\n

The 1993 Blue Jays and 2021 Giants combine to make the fun fact, then. The team that used the fewest pinch-hitters of all-time? Wildly successful. They won the World Series, and we\u2019re still talking about them today. The team that used the most pinch-hitters of all-time? Wildly successful. They won the most games in franchise history, and we\u2019re still talking about them today.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lot of context for an obvious point: Pinch-hits are way, way down on the list of what makes or breaks a team\u2019s season. It\u2019s fun to play a Wild Draw Four on top of another manager\u2019s Reverse, but it\u2019s not what managers would prefer to do, given the choice. The \u201921 Giants used their bench to make up for what they didn\u2019t have. They had regulars who couldn\u2019t hit left-handed pitching (Mike Yastrzemski) and bench players who were designed in a laboratory to hit left-handed pitching (Austin Slater). They would have preferred to carry Barry Bonds, for example, who could hit lefties and righties. (He\u2019d occasionally hit them both at the same time<\/a>, you know.)<\/p>\n

The \u201993 Blue Jays didn\u2019t have this kind of dilemma. They had a lineup filled with Hall of Famers and Hall of Just Missers. The Hall of Famers included Paul Molitor, Rickey Henderson (acquired at the deadline) and Roberto Alomar. The Hall of Just Missers included Devon White, John Olerud and Tony Fern\u00e1ndez, three of the best to never get inducted. Manager Cito Gaston didn\u2019t pinch-hit for any of them. Heck, Gabe Kapler wouldn\u2019t have pinch-hit for any of them. Look at those names.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the kind of roster that every team wants, and it\u2019s the one the Giants are going for right now. They\u2019re turning their noses up at pinch-hitters. Let the teams without everyday players worry about that.<\/p>\n

You might have spotted the obvious problem, here, which is that even in the most generous evaluation of the Giants\u2019 current lineup, they\u2019re probably three Hall of Famers short of the \u201993 Blue Jays. It\u2019s easy to send up only 29 pinch-hitters with a team like the \u201993 Blue Jays.<\/p>\n

Still, if the idea is that it\u2019s better to have nine regulars and a limited bench than five regulars, four platoon-hitters and a meticulously planned bench, the Giants might have those regulars. It\u2019s been something of a slow rollout for the unchanging perma-lineup, as Rafael Devers\u2019 hamstring has kept him from playing first base. The apparent plan, though, is for the same nine hitters to take most of the at-bats all season. It\u2019s a strategy that\u2019s worth a try in the first month of the season.<\/p>\n

The Giants can go back to the status quo if they don\u2019t like what they see. Maybe Harrison Bader shouldn\u2019t face as many right-handed pitchers, after all. Maybe Jung Hoo Lee will never be able to hit major-league lefties. Maybe Heliot Ramos\u2019 eventual future is as a lefty-terrorizing platoon bat, but even you can understand why the Giants don\u2019t want to assume that just yet. Lots of teams want to be the \u201993 Blue Jays. Lots of baseball writers want to get rich by writing about baseball. Eventually reality catches up, and maybe the pinch-hitters will start flowing when it\u2019s June and the lineup is festooned with hitters who struggle against same-side pitching.<\/p>\n

Maybe. But it\u2019s also possible that this aggregation of everyday players \u2026 plays every day. There will be injuries, and maybe the replacements will need to platoon. Barring that, though, it\u2019s hard to imagine the Giants pinch-hitting for Ramos in the ninth against a right-handed closer, just like it\u2019s hard to imagine them pinch-hitting for Lee against a left-handed specialist in the ninth inning. Those two are getting the Matt Chapman and Rafael Devers treatment, respectively. It\u2019s temporary and contingent on them hitting same-side pitching, but they\u2019re getting that kind of respect so far.<\/p>\n

The best teams shouldn\u2019t lean on their bench. MacGyver doesn\u2019t break out of jail with a paper clip and envelope adhesive because he thinks it\u2019s cool; he does it because he doesn\u2019t have the key. If he could just get the key, it would save everyone time, but he\u2019s forced to improvise. A perfect major-league team would have five bench players, and they would never pinch-hit:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Backup catcher<\/p>\n

\u2022 Backup infielder (who can play shortstop)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Extra outfielder (who can play center field)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Guy who can hit a ball 500 feet<\/p>\n

\u2022 Guy who can steal a base<\/p>\n

Handedness? Beside the point. That\u2019s the platonic ideal for a bench on a team with nine everyday players. And sometimes the guy who can hit a ball 500 feet is the extra center fielder, or the guy who can steal a base is also the backup infielder, et cetera, which frees up bench spots to play with. Sometimes you get Daulton Varsho, and he can do all of the above, give or take. Every bench should have all of the above covered, though. The 2026 Giants are currently in compliance, even if the reserves are all right-handed.<\/p>\n

The biggest downside to an all-righty strategy is that it cedes the advantage to the funkiest of the funky right-handers, pitchers like Tyler Rogers, Adam Ottavino, Chad Bradford and others. Against submariners and other weirdos, it would be nice to send a left-hander up to pinch-hit. Those kinds of pitchers are rare, though. It would be a much bigger problem with an all-lefty bench, with every bullpen having at least one oddball left-handed release point.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m skeptical the Giants actually have the personnel to maintain this strategy all season, but the reward is worth the risk early in the season. Worry less about handedness and more about what each player on the roster can or can\u2019t do. This year\u2019s team is the anti-2021 Giants, for better or for worse. If that doesn\u2019t sound promising, then they\u2019re the anti-2021, 2022 and 2023 Giants, who had to duct-tape players together because they were forced to. They didn\u2019t want to do it. They had to.<\/p>\n

This team doesn\u2019t feel like they have to. They\u2019re gambling that the continuity and consistent reps are worth more than the occasional late-inning platoon advantage. The odds are against it working all season, but it\u2019s a dream worth chasing. The \u201993 Blue Jays might not have been a match for Bill Swift and smilin\u2019 Trevor Wilson, but they\u2019re a baseball anomaly for all the right reasons. They\u2019re what every baseball team, Giants included, are always attempting to build.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco Giants\u2019 bench did not factor into Friday night\u2019s 10-3 loss to the New York Mets.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342],"class_list":{"0":"post-662962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-giants","13":"tag-sanfrancisco","14":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-giants","17":"tag-sfgiants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116347240864631230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}