SAN DIEGO — Bob Melvin smiled when he found out the last time a Giants prospect got off to the kind of power-packed start that Grant McCray has over the last few weeks. Melvin didn’t need to be told about Jarrett Parker’s huge September in 2015. He lived it.
Melvin was in the other dugout when Parker hit three homers in one game at the Coliseum late in the 2015 season, stealing the show on a day meant to showcase Tim Hudson and Barry Zito. On Saturday, McCray joined Parker on that fascinating list.
With two loud homers in a 6-3 win over the San Diego Padres, McCray became the fifth Giant to hit at least five homers over his first 19 big league games. The two who did it before Parker were Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda.
So, who is McCray?
A future Hall of Famer or someone who won’t ever quite lock down an everyday big league job? Or, is he Dusty Rhodes, the fourth member of the group before Saturday. The outfielder had a solid career, playing seven years in the big leagues but appearing in more than 100 games just once.
This is where we pause so everyone can tap both feet on the brakes. The 23-year-old McCray has never been a top 100 prospect and had a much more modest 12 homers in the minors this season before a surprise promotion. In the big leagues, he has 27 strikeouts and three walks in 68 plate appearances, the kind of ratio that eventually catches up to you. It wasn’t long ago that similar expectations were being heaped on Luis Matos.
But it’s September and the Giants are waiting for the “E” to show up next to their name in the standings. They’re allowed to dream, and what McCray did Saturday was pretty incredible. After taking Padres ace Dylan Cease 417 feet in the second, he hit a 425-foot bomb off lefty reliever Yuki Matsui to put the game away in the ninth.
“There’s a ton of power there that you’ve seen,” Melvin said. “To hit the ground running as hard as he has and go through a bad game and come back and keep his wits about him, for a young guy, we never envisioned him being here this season. Maybe next year. Everybody likes him in (player) development but it’s been so impressive.”
Melvin likes that McCray brings a different dynamic with his elite athleticism. He’s a burner and as good as anybody the Giants have in center field, Jung Hoo Lee included. There’s a strong arm, too, and it’s easy to dream of him one day playing right field as Lee roams center. Remember Matt Cain’s perfect game? That’s what the Giants had that night in Angel Pagan and Gregor Blanco.
McCray views himself as a center fielder, but Lee is signed through 2029 and he came to San Francisco to play center. If McCray pans out, the Giants will have a nice problem on their hands, or maybe a solution to years of lagging behind in the athleticism department.
“I’ve told a lot of people before that if me and Jung Hoo are in the same outfield it’s going to be a bad day for everyone else coming to our ballpark or us going to them,” McCray said. “You’re going to want to hit a lot of groundballs.”
At the very least, McCray is a nice late-innings defensive option in 2025. But if he can cut down on the strikeouts the Giants might have another young player ready to lock down an everyday job. Melvin compared McCray to Heliot Ramos and Tyler Fitzgerald, both of whom will be starters next season.
McCray’s situation is more complicated. Ramos should start 2025 in left field, but the Giants have Mike Yastrzemski under team control for another season and the veteran has been an above-average hitter while providing elite defense in right field.
Maybe the solution is “all of them,” which Melvin seemed to hint at pregame when he talked of the Giants needing to look harder at “how games are played in our ballpark.” He was watching from the other side in San Diego when the Giants seemingly gave up on outfield defense for a while.
Without Lee, Melvin will keep running McCray out there in center the rest of the year, and the young outfielder said he’s trying to do what he can with every opportunity. On Saturday, that meant 842 feet worth of home runs for a young outfielder listed at 190 pounds.
Of McCray’s five homers, three have gone at least 415 feet. Where is all that power coming from?
“Shoot, I don’t know,” McCray said. “You tell me. I don’t know, man. I’ve never really been a power hitter until a couple of years ago. It’s all in the hips, all in the hips, I guess. The ball just jumps off, man.”
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