SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When the Diamondbacks made their improbable run to the World Series last fall, the organization’s longest-tenured player entering the season was forced to watch from the couch.
After 10 years, primarily as Arizona’s everyday shortstop, Nick Ahmed was released last September, a month before the team clinched its first postseason berth since 2017, eventually making it all the way to the World Series, where the Diamondbacks were defeated by Bruce Bochy’s Texas Rangers.
Now, the newest addition to the San Francisco Giants’ spring clubhouse said Monday morning, he plans to use that as fuel.
“That was hard, honestly,” Ahmed said. “To be part of an organization for that long and help them grow and build and go through some lean years and get to the point where we’re good again and get let go at the end of the year, it was hard. Just being honest. Not something I enjoyed by any stretch of the imagination.
“But I’m excited to turn the page and be here and go beat the Diamondbacks now.”
The first hurdle for Ahmed will be making the Opening Day roster.
Brought into camp as a non-roster invitee on a minor-league deal that was made official Monday, the soon-to-be 34-year-old two-time Gold Glove winner fit the bill of what Farhan Zaidi had been shopping for all offseason as a veteran with an elite defensive profile to pair with top prospect Marco Luciano, who is expected to be the Opening Day shortstop.
If that sounds familiar, well, Brandon Crawford checks many the same boxes but from the left side of the plate and three years older. The agreement with Ahmed all but ending any chance of a reunion in San Francisco, Crawford’s market moved quickly and within hours had come to a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals.
In Ahmed’s first foray into free agency, he said he prioritized San Francisco because of its pitching staff, whose ability to generate contact on the ground also made him all the more attractive to the Giants. Their ace, Logan Webb, led the league with a 62.1% ground-ball rate, and the staff as a whole generated ground balls on 48.7% of balls in play, also the highest mark in the majors.
“We’ve talked about from early in the offseason since I’ve been here: Our infield defense needed to be shored up some,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He’s had some injuries. He’s fully healthy now. Looks great physically. And he’s a guy that can really defend, and I think that’s what kind of the objective was there.”
When Ahmed was released last Sept. 9, he was batting .212 with a .560 OPS — 47% below league average — the worst marks of his career over a full season. The previous year, he played only 17 games after undergoing season-ending surgery on his right shoulder in June.
But Ahmed said he is fully healthy and has addressed some “bad habits” in his swing that developed the past two years, namely his approach against left-handed pitchers and keeping his weight on his back foot. Melvin also noted that Ahmed is only five years removed from a 19-homer, 82-RBI season in 2019.
“So he’s at times been able to do it all,” Melvin said. “I know the shoulder was an issue for him; he got it taken care of. It seems like he’s physically fit.”
Ahmed has a number of teammates new and old in the Giants’ clubhouse, including new lefty Robbie Ray, who pitched in front of him in both of Ahmed’s Gold Glove seasons in 2018 and 2019 and called him “maybe one of the most surehanded guys at shortstop that I’ve ever played with.”
“He’s an amazing defender,” Ray said. “He made plays that weren’t routine look routine, so he’s really a special talent.”
The quality that stuck out most to Ray, though? His lead-by-example work ethic, which could prove valuable for the rookie Luciano.
Before he was released last season, Ahmed said he took pride in mentoring the Diamondbacks’ young core, including future Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll.
“He’s a great veteran voice,” Ray said. “He’s a very hard worker. I think he’s a very good example to younger guys in the clubhouse to show them what it takes to be in this league for as long as he’s been. He’s one of the hardest-working guys. He puts in the work day in and day out.”
At the outset of camp, Melvin said he wanted Luciano to win the job.
His only competition, until now, has come in the form of Casey Schmitt and Tyler Fitzgerald, two less-heralded prospects, and Otto Lopez, who was designated for assignment by his original organization, the Toronto Blue Jays.
But the addition of Ahmed to the infield mix has less to do with Luciano than rounding out one of their most glaring roster needs. Having played all but two of his 856 career games in the field at shortstop, he won’t compete for a utility role, Melvin said, adding “shortstop’s what he’s done and he’s done it very well.”
It’s insurance, too, as Luciano deals with a tight hamstring and is still “a few more days” from making his spring debut. Ahmed, who said the only thing he hasn’t done this offseason is face live pitching, will take a few days to get acclimated before he’s inserted into the lineup.
“I don’t think Luci needs any pushing,” Melvin said. “It’s just about adding depth to the position. I think the most important thing was finding a guy that defended really well.”
Crawford among first cuts
To add another player, the Giants needed to create space in the cramped home clubhouse, where all 69 players in camp have lockers.
That meant the first round of cuts came Monday, with two injured pitchers the first to be reassigned to minor-league camp.
Most notable was Reggie Crawford, the club’s first-round pick in 2022 who has decided to exclusively pursue pitching. Dealing with a lat strain, however, Crawford wasn’t able to take part in the baseball drills during camp but still remained involved, often spotted chatting behind the batting cage or offering to assist the coaches.
“Really, truly, he could’ve stayed in the training room, done his work and so forth. But he wanted to get out in the field and be around the guys,” Melvin said. “I think anytime you have that kind of experience it’s helpful for you. … To be able to be around a new coaching staff, the players, everybody knows who he is and what he means to this organization.”
Left-handed reliever Thomas Szapucki, who had thoracic outlet surgery last year, was also reassigned to minor-league camp.
