The Giants announced that outfielder Will Brennan went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Sacramento. He was designated for assignment a week ago.
The 28-year-old Brennan reached three years of big league service with the Giants this season, which technically gives him the right to reject his assignment in favor of free agency. However, Brennan signed a split major league contract with San Francisco this offseason after being non-tendered in Cleveland. That deal pays him at a $900K rate in the majors and a $400K rate in the minors. Rejecting an outright would mean forfeiting those rates of pay, so Brennan will almost certainly accept the assignment and stick with the Giants as depth.
Brennan appeared in 11 games for rookie skipper Tony Vitello’s club this season. He picked up 23 plate appearances and tallied only two hits — both of them singles. Brennan didn’t draw a walk but also only punched out three times. He posted a huge 93.9% contact rate, but despite the frequency of contact, Brennan didn’t hit the ball hard. He also popped up to the infield three times in that tiny sample.
It may only have been 23 plate appearances, but those 23 turns at the plate are a microcosm of Brennan’s broader career. He’s played parts of four seasons in the majors with the Guardians and showed a similar penchant for high contact rates but low impact when he puts the ball in the play (with a susceptibility to infield flies). Brennan is a career .263/.301/.365 hitter in 889 big league plate appearances. He’s only struck out at a 12.7% clip but sports just a 4.7% walk rate. The 2019 eighth-rounder has averaged a well below-average 85.9 mph off the bat in the majors and has just a 31% hard-hit rate.
Brennan is a solid right field defender with plus-bat-to-ball skills, above-average speed and a pair of minor league options remaining. His low-power, contact-driven approach dates back to the minors, evidenced by a career .324/.368/.464 line and 12.6% strikeout rate in 744 Triple-A plate appearances. The Giants have Harrison Bader, Heliot Ramos and Jared Oliva on the major league injured and Grant McCray on the minor league injured list. Casey Schmitt, Drew Gilbert and Jung Hoo Lee are getting frequent run in the outfield right now, but Brennan might only be one injury away from getting another look on the big league roster. For now, he’ll play regularly with the RiverCats and wait for another opportunity.
