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SF Giants’ Michael Conforto exits early from series finale vs. Dodgers
Evan Webeck
3–4 minutes

SAN FRANCISCO — Before the top of the fourth Wednesday night against the
Dodgers, Giants manager Gabe Kapler conferred with home plate umpire
Alex Tosi. It was too early for a defensive substitution, and there were
no pinch-hitters from the previous inning to re-arrange in the field.

But Kapler had an unexpected change to make: outfielder Michael Conforto
was taken out of the game after three innings. The Giants later
announced that it was left calf tightness that forced Conforto from the
game. He was replaced by Bryce Johnson, but an inning later, Johnson had
left the game, too.

In the span of an inning, the Giants doubled their number of injured
outfielders, as Johnson almost immediately put his body on the line with
a leaping catch sure to land on highlight reels but that also forced him
out of the game. After crashing into the center field wall and being
replaced by LaMonte Wade Jr., Johnson was being evaluated for a
concussion, the club announced.

CATCH OF THE YEAR 😱 pic.twitter.com/Vh9Fx3LgAh

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 13, 2023

Conforto missed all of 2022 after undergoing shoulder surgery but had
returned to full health and had started 11 of the Giants’ first 12
games. An injury to Conforto, who signed a two-year, $36 million
free-agent contract this winter, would be a serious blow to an outfield
that is already shorthanded.

Fellow outfielders Mitch Haniger (oblique) and Austin Slater (hamstring)
have yet to appear in game this season, and neither is expected to
return before the end of the Giants’ upcoming road trip through Detroit
and Miami.

On Wednesday, Conforto scored the Giants’ second run after reaching on a
fielder’s choice, hustling home from first base on a first-inning double
from Darin Ruf, but remained in the game to take one more at-bat and
played two more innings in right field. Mike Yastrzemski, who started in
center, shifted over into Conforto’s position, while Johnson took over
in center.

Almost immediately, Johnson put his body on the line, too, while
preserving the Giants’ lead and robbing Freddie Freeman of extra bases.

With two runs already home in the fourth and runners on second and
third, Freeman sent a deep shot to center. Johnson put on his wheels to
track it down, making a leaping catch to end the inning, but crashed
hard into the center field wall in the process. Johnson was slow to get
up and eventually walked off with the Giants’ training staff.

Check back for updates.

Author

Evan Webeck is the San Francisco Giants beat writer for the Bay Area
News Group. A Pacific Northwest native and graduate of Arizona State
University, Evan previously covered the Philadelphia Phillies for
MLB.com and a variety of topics for his hometown newspaper, The Seattle
Times, before joining BANG, where he has also chronicled a pandemic, the
prep sports scene and the Golden State Warriors 2021-22 championship season.

2023 30 SFG NL 10 47 38 8 9 0 0 3 6 1 0 8 15 .237 .383 .474 .857 130 18
1 1 0 0 0 *9

Jarred Kelenic

Since he was the Mariners’ prize in the deal that sent Edwin Diaz and
Robinson Cano to the New York Mets, Kelenic’s struggle to launch has
made him a point of intrigue on both coasts. His batting lines have been
truly bad in two partial MLB seasons — 93 games with a 74 wRC+ in 2021,
54 games with a 55 wRC+ in 2022 — but no 23-year-old should be written
off over that. And certainly not 23-year-olds capable of belting home
runs 482 feet.

Jarred Kelenic just went 482 to dead center at Wrigley. The breakout
is finally happening. pic.twitter.com/F1u6Muc658

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 12, 2023

Plate discipline: Kelenic’s sky-high MLB strikeout rates have been
particularly confounding because he didn’t have the same issues in the
high minors. The difference seems to be an inability to handle
big-league breaking and offspeed stuff. So, like Mateo trying to lay off
pitches in his cold zones, Kelenic has cut down on swings at
non-fastballs — from a 47.3% swing rate in 2022 to 38.5% in 2023.
Meanwhile, and perhaps more importantly, he’s taking more cuts at
fastballs in advantageous counts, despite swinging less overall. That’s
a positive, self-aware move, even if his continued ineffectiveness when
he does have to hit a breaking ball raises some concerns about how
pitchers might adjust.

Quality of contact: Perhaps caught in between or trying to hit for too
much power, Kelenic popped up an alarming 15.5% of balls with which he
made contact in 2022, which amounted to automatic outs on top of the
high strikeout rate. This season, his mix is much healthier and more in
line with what prospect evaluators expected. He’s lacing line drives and
hard fly balls regularly.

Again, there’s a disparity between fastballs and everything else.
Kelenic's average exit velocity against heaters is a terrific 95 mph.
Against everything else, he’s at 85.3 mph. If he can keep his approach
humming to where there are enough fastballs in his diet to get hits and
reach his power potential, he’s going to be a great hitter (if less
otherworldly than he has been this month). Even if he starts facing more
breaking ball challenges, his rhythm against fastballs looks like enough
to keep him afloat as an average or better hitter. That said, there's
still an element of risk involved in his apparent weakness and in the
knowledge that it has brought him down before.
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