This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
DETROIT -- The Giants’ offense is desperate for a spark. They’re hoping they might get one from the impending return of Jerar Encarnacion.
Encarnacion restarted his rehab assignment with Triple-A Sacramento on Tuesday against El Paso and crushed an opposite-field home run in his first at-bat for the River Cats, putting him one step closer to rejoining the Giants, who have been held to only nine runs over the first five games of their 2-3 road trip through Washington and Detroit. Encarnacion ended the game 1-for-2 with a walk alongside his home run as the River Cats fell, 9-5.
San Francisco -- which hasn’t scored more than four runs in a game since May 16 -- mustered only six hits in a 3-1 loss to the MLB-best Tigers on Tuesday night at Comerica Park, underscoring the need for another impact bat like Encarnacion, who was the frontrunner to serve as the club’s regular designated hitter before breaking his left hand after diving for a ball during the final week of Spring Training.
Encarnacion began his initial ramp-up in the Minors on May 10, but he appeared in only two games with the River Cats before the Giants decided to hit pause on his rehab assignment to give him some more time to work through some soreness in his surgically repaired left hand. If he continues to progress as expected, Encarnacion could be in line to be activated off the 60-day injured list when the Giants return home on Monday to face the Padres.
“He says he feels a lot better,” manager Bob Melvin said. “These things can be pretty significant. It’s not uncommon to get a little bit of a setback. But he feels good now and we’ll see how he feels going forward.”
With Wilmer Flores supplying steady production out of the DH spot, Encarnacion could see more time at first base when he returns to the Majors, especially since the Giants have gotten an MLB-low .186 batting average and .322 slugging percentage out of the position this year.
The paltry numbers are largely the result of a prolonged slump from LaMonte Wade Jr., who is hitting only .161/.270/.263 with one home run over 47 games in 2025. Casey Schmitt got the start at first base over Wade against right-hander Jack Flaherty on Tuesday, which Melvin hoped would give Wade a bit of a mental reset amid his tough start to the year.
“Sometimes a day off is not a bad thing to ease the mind a little bit,” Melvin said. “But his at-bats are definitely better. He’s just not getting anything to show for it.”
Wade has long been known for his elite strike-zone awareness and logged a .380 on-base percentage last year -- the eighth-highest mark in the Majors among hitters with at least 400 plate appearances -- but that number has plunged to a career-low .270 this season. While his .202 BABIP suggests there’s been some bad luck involved (the league average is .290 in 2025), Wade has also been struggling to make quality contact, with his hard-hit rate falling from a career-best 44.1% in 2024 to 30.2% this year.
Bryce Eldridge (San Francisco’s No. 1 prospect and No. 21 overall, according to MLB Pipeline) is batting .292 with an .873 OPS and five home runs over 29 games at Double-A Richmond this year, but he remains a work in progress defensively, which will likely leave Encarnacion as the Giants’ best internal option to boost their production at first base for now.
Melvin is confident Wade can still turn it around at the plate, though it will be interesting to see how much more patience the Giants will have with the 31-year-old veteran, who will be eligible for free agency at the end of the season.
“Nobody works harder than LaMonte does in the cage,” Melvin said. “He’s always tinkering with trying to do things a little bit differently, whether it’s tracking the ball a little bit deeper and hitting the ball the other day. Trying to show his power sometimes. Trying to be more patient. You just kind of keep searching until something clicks.”