Giants acquire outfielder Pollock in deal with Mariners

SAN FRANCISCO -- With Mike Yastrzemski expected to miss two to three weeks with a left hamstring strain, the Giants made a move to bolster their outfield depth on Monday, acquiring AJ Pollock, infielder Mark Mathias and cash considerations from the Mariners in exchange for a player to be named or cash considerations.

Pollock, 35, has slashed .173/.225/.323 with five homers in 49 games for Seattle this season, but he’s a former All-Star and Gold Glove Award winner with a career .838 OPS against left-handed pitching.

TRADE DETAILS
Giants get: OF AJ Pollock, INF Mark Mathias, cash considerations
Mariners get: PTBN or cash considerations

Injuries to Mitch Haniger (right forearm fracture) and Thairo Estrada (left hand fracture) have left the Giants without two of their top right-handed bats, so Pollock should be able to step in and help fill that void in the interim.

An impending free agent, Pollock is on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain, but San Francisco believes he could be activated on Tuesday if all goes well during pregame drills.

“It fills a short-term need in the outfield with Yaz going down, but even as we get guys back, I think there’s a role for him to be part of our outfield rotation and help in that way,” Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said.

“In this case, I think it’s an instance of a player who hasn’t been fully healthy, hasn’t played a lot. But we still think he has a lot in the tank.”

Zaidi knows Pollock well, as the two share a background with the Dodgers. Zaidi said he had conversations with Pollock before the 12-year veteran signed a one-year, $7 million deal with the Mariners this past offseason, but there wasn’t a clear roster fit after the Giants added Haniger on a three-year, $43.5 million deal.

Pollock is poised to reunite with several former Dodgers teammates, including Joc Pederson, Alex Wood and Ross Stripling, which could help ease his transition to San Francisco.

“Obviously, he hasn’t had a great season in Seattle,” Zaidi said. “But we kind of look at sort of some of the underlying measures of plate discipline, of how he’s moving around the field. His sprint speeds are good. We just view him as a really good change of scenery candidate.

“He’s got a lot of relationships with people here, guys he’s played with before. I know all those guys are really excited to have him because he’s a great presence in the clubhouse.”

Seattle claimed the 28-year-old Mathias off waivers from the Pirates in early July. He appeared in 22 games with Pittsburgh this season, seeing time at second base and in the outfield.

The Giants optioned Mathias to Triple-A Sacramento, but the Santa Clara, Calif., native could potentially get some looks at second while Estrada continues to work his way back. The right-handed hitter was batting .299/.405/.427 with four home runs in 47 games at the Triple-A level this season.

“It’s possible we will see him up here at some point, especially as we’re going through a little bit of flux in the next week or so,” Zaidi said. “Obviously, we’ve got Thairo coming back. One of the things that’s concerned us about our lineup is we’re not getting the kind of quality at-bats that we’re getting from the top two-thirds of the order at the bottom third of the order.

[Mathias is] a guy who’s got really good plate discipline and has exhibited that even at the big league level. He can play a bunch of different positions, so he sort of fits how [manager Gabe Kapler] likes to manage the roster and use everybody. He’s got a good track record of hitting left-handed pitching, he’s done it at the big league level.

“I think the main thing is we like the at-bat quality with him. That’s a little bit of a different look than we’ve had over the last month.”