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Giants second basemen were among the least-productive in all of baseball in 2025, hitting a combined .217\/.273\/.343. The resulting 73 wRC+ (indicating they were 27% worse than average at the plate) ranked 27th in the majors, leading only the Angels, A\u2019s and Rockies. Tyler Fitzgerald<\/a><\/strong> led San Francisco with 233 plate appearances as the team\u2019s second baseman, followed by Casey Schmitt<\/a><\/strong> (193), Christian Koss<\/a><\/strong> (137) and Brett Wisely<\/a><\/strong> (43). All four posted well below-average numbers with the bat while playing second base (though Schmitt hit better while playing other positions and was close to league-average with the bat overall).<\/p>\n Either Donovan or Hoerner would stand as a major upgrade. Both will play next season at 29 years old. Both are established contact hitters with defensive versatility, although the presence of Matt Chapman<\/a><\/strong> and Willy Adames<\/a><\/strong> on the left side of the infield would lessen the Giants\u2019 need to take advantage of that positional flexibility. Donovan, who agreed to a one-year deal worth $5.8MM to avoid arbitration last week, is controlled through the 2027 season. Hoerner is owed $12MM in the final season of his three-year, $35MM contract this season.<\/p>\n Donovan figures to be the more readily available of the two in trade talks. The Cardinals are in the early stages of a multiyear rebuilding effort under new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom. They\u2019ve already shipped out Sonny Gray<\/a><\/strong> and Willson Contreras<\/a><\/strong> in separate trades to the Red Sox, and they\u2019ve been fielding interest in lefty JoJo Romero<\/a><\/strong> while also working to find a taker for Nolan Arenado<\/a><\/strong>. Donovan\u2019s remaining two years of club control don\u2019t align with a realistic path to contention in St. Louis, and of all the team\u2019s offseason trade assets, he stands as the one most likely to net a significant return.<\/p>\n Since making his MLB debut four years ago, Donovan has done nothing but hit. He carries a lifetime .282\/.361\/.411 slash in the batter\u2019s box (119 wRC+) and has regularly proven to be one of the game\u2019s toughest strikeouts. He drew a walk in 8.2% of his plate appearances in 2025 (9.1% career) and fanned at only a 13% clip (13.5% career). Donovan\u2019s power is below average \u2014 he\u2019s never topped 14 homers in a season \u2014 but he\u2019s a former All-Star and Gold Glove winner who can also handle third base and the outfield corners (and perhaps some shortstop, in a pinch).<\/p>\n Hoerner is statistically one of Donovan\u2019s most comparable hitters. Over the past five seasons, his .285\/.342\/.388 line (106 wRC+) closely resembles Donovan\u2019s production. Hoerner runs far more often (131 steals to Donovan\u2019s 15) and would be a plus defender at shortstop if not for the fact that he slid over to second base in deference to Dansby Swanson<\/a><\/strong> at shortstop.<\/p>\n Unlike the Cardinals, however, the Cubs are in clear win-now mode. Trading Hoerner just days after agreeing to a five-year deal<\/a> with Alex Bregman<\/a><\/strong> would offset much of the good brought about by that Bregman signing. Given that, it seems quite likely that the Cubs would seek immediate MLB talent in any trade involving Hoerner, and the cost of acquisition would be fairly steep. Chicago could always move former top prospect Matt Shaw<\/a><\/strong> to second base \u2014 he might be the heir-apparent there now anyhow \u2014 but the Cubs could also simply keep all three infielders for the 2026 season and use Shaw in a utility role before handing second base to him full-time in 2027.<\/p>\n More to come.<\/em>\n<\/div>\n That the Giants are in the market for help at second base is well known at this point, but ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan reports that San Francisco has been particularly \u201caggressive\u201d in its pursuit of late, with recent talks regarding a pair of NL Central standouts: Nico Hoerner of the Cubs and Brendan Donovan of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Giants-Aggressively-Pursuing-Second-Base-Upgrade.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16819,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16817\/revisions\/16819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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