David Villar

After mashing 36 home runs between Triple-A Sacramento and the big leagues in 2022, Villar came into 2023 with a clear path to regular at-bats between third base and second base. Unfortunately, he got off to a wretched start, putting up a .558 OPS with a 33 percent strikeout rate through his first 30 games, at which point he was sent back to the minors. Villar never recovered and played sparingly with the Giants the rest of the way. He slugged again last year at Sacramento, but as a 26-year-old in the Pacific Coast League, that should be taken with a grain of salt. At the major-league level, the now-27-year-old has a .683 OPS, a 32.1 percent strikeout rate and a 34.6 percent hard-hit rate. Villar might not figure very prominently in the Giants' plans for 2024.

Villar wasn't a highly-touted prospect when he received his first big-league call-up last July at the age of 25, but he spent most of the remainder of the season in the majors and finished with a .231/.331/.445 slash line (good for a 124 wRC+), homering nine times in 54 games. While that performance suggests he may have been unfairly overlooked, a closer investigation of his numbers raises skepticism. Statcast suggests he got quite lucky, giving him a .189 xBA, with his 32.0 K% the primary culprit. While his contact was infrequent, however, it was at least of fairly good quality, as his 9.1% barrel rate was above-average. He also has a track record of success in the minors, posting a .943 OPS across the two highest levels since the start of 2021. There's at least something there for Villar at the plate, but the total package might not amount to a big-league regular, as he doesn't offer anything on the basepaths and doesn't have a strong defensive reputation.