Giants designate former All-Star for assignment

The Giants designated infielder Tommy La Stella for assignment, reports Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. The move opens a roster spot for reliever Taylor Rogers.

La Stella, 34 in January, had an up-and-down career before coming to the Giants. After a couple of subpar seasons with the Braves and Cubs in 2014 and 2015, he seemed to find a good groove after that. Still with the Cubs in 2016 and 2017, he walked in 11.9% of his plate appearances and produced an overall batting line of .278/.372/.436. That production was 16% above league average, as evidenced by his 116 wRC+.

He had a swoon in 2018, as he hit just a single home run in 123 games and his walk rate dipped to 8.9%, leading to a batting line of .266/.340/.331 and a wRC+ of 87. However, he seemed to take a big step forward in 2019, hitting 16 home runs, more than his total over the previous five seasons. His walk rate dipped again, but he only struck out in 8.7% of his plate appearances. 2019 was the “juiced ball” season, but he was still well above-average at the plate. His .295/.346/.486 amounted to a wRC+ of 119, indicating he was 19% better than average that year, with wRC+ controlling for the offensive environment around the league.

In the shortened 2020 campaign, he added another five home runs and dropped his strikeout rate even farther to just 5.3%. He parlayed that into a three-year, $18.75M deal with the Giants going into 2021. Unfortunately, La Stella’s seesaw career has been pointing straight down since that deal was signed. He made multiple trips to the injured list in 2021, getting into 76 games and hitting just .250/.308/.405 for a wRC+ of 93. He underwent achilles surgery in October, which was originally reported as occurring on his left achilles but was reported almost a year later to have been on both of them, per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic.

In 2022, things got worse, as he continued to make frequent trips to the IL. He only played 60 games in the most recent season and took the field for just 76 innings on the year. When in the lineup, he produced a slash line of just .239/.282/.350 for a wRC+ of 78. Though there’s still another year left on his contract, it seems the Giants have decided it’s time to move on.

La Stella’s deal was heavily backloaded, as he made just $2M in 2021, $5.25M this year and is set for a salary of $11.5M next year. The Giants will now have one week to trade La Stella or pass him through waivers, though a trade will be difficult to accomplish. Given the past two years have seen him struggle both in terms of health and performance, there will be little appetite from other teams to take on that $11.5M salary. On the defensive side of things, La Stella has previously been able to serve as a utility player, splitting his time between second, third and first base. However, he hasn’t been rated as especially strong at any of them and barely donned a glove in 2022.

Assuming he clears waivers, he has more than five years of MLB service time, which gives him the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while retaining that salary. At that point, any club in the league could sign him and pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount being subtracted from what the Giants pay.