The San Francisco Giants are seven games into Spring Training and it’s time to look at some of the biggest contributors and players who have shined so far. Before getting into that, the Giants have a new player for 2021 – Jose Alvarez, a 31 year old left handed reliever, has been signed to a Major League contract. The deal is for one year at $1.15 million with a club option for a second year. In the meantime, Jordan Humphreys was claimed on waivers from the Padres – he just keeps coming and going.

Jose Alvarez had a sparkling ERA of 1.42 in 2020 but the bad news is it was in only 6 1/3rd innings of work, making it not as impressive. His season ended early by a line drive to the groin. Over his career, he hasn’t had an ERA over 4 since his rookie season in 2013. He’s got a low-90’s sinker that produces groundballs and a solid change to go with his fastball that showed more velocity in 2020 than any previous years. This is a solid signing to fortify the Giants bullpen, which already has a few nice names like Tyler Rogers, Jake McGee, Jarlin Garcia and Sam Selman.

As far as Spring Training goes, the Giants just completed an 8-inning 9-4 win over the Reds featuring an opposite field big fly from Steven Duggar and not one but two bombs from young prospect Heliot Ramos, who could make his debut in 2021. He was already 3 for 7 before this game and has just been barreling up everything. If Ramos starts doing big things in Triple-A, who knows how early we could see him. Giants have plenty of outfielders but with injuries and possible underperformance, Ramos could force his way into this lineup. It’s only a few Spring Training games, but he has really impressed.

Our other top prospect, Joey Bart, has also torn it up so far in Spring Training, which he does pretty much every year. Bart has torn it up on every level, except the big leagues last year. He’ll get another shot at some point in 2021, but it’s nice to see him swinging the bat well. The powerful Darin Ruf has gone deep already and been getting consistent hits. In 2020, Ruf hit .276 with 5 bombs in 87 at bats for San Francisco. Another guy who ha caught my eye has been Jason Vosler, who signed a Major League deal. He is just squaring up everything and should make his big league debut this year, maybe even on Opening Day the way he’s swinging the bat, although the Giants have a lot of infielders so he might just be a 40-man roster guy in Triple-A. Donovan Solano is hitting .333 as per his usual with a home run already.

Heliot Ramos - San Francisco Giants (1)* pic.twitter.com/JLuA3XHZf3
— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) March 7, 2021

As for the pitchers, Johnny Cueto looked awesome in his start, striking out 4 in 2 scoreless innings while Anthony DeSclafani looked sharp today against the Reds. The rest of the rotation hasn’t really thrown many innings but no red flags so far. Also shoutout to Luis Basabe for nice defensive plays and overall, I’m happy with what we’ve seen so far. As more relivers rack up more innings, we’ll have a better idea of who is looking good and who’s looking bad there as well. For now, the main guys I’m excited about are Vosler and of course, Heliot Ramos and Joey Bart, as expected. Shoutout to Joe McCarthy as well for hitting the first Giants home run of the Spring Training 2021. I know I gave him a hard time last year, but hey, he’s still here and went deep so you gotta give credit where credit is due.