The Giants placed outfielder Alex Dickerson on release waivers this week, per John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link). Dickerson was designated for assignment Monday when the team needed to open a 40-man roster spot to finalize the re-signing of Anthony DeSclafani.
Traded from San Diego to San Francisco in June 2019, the now-31-year-old Dickerson immediately endeared himself to Giants fans with a six-RBI showing in his team debut. He proved to be a godsend for the 2019 and 2020 Giants, hitting at a combined .294/.361/.552 clip with 16 homers, 23 doubles and four triples through 341 plate appearances from the time of that June acquisition through the conclusion of the shortened 2020 campaign.
Unfortunately for both the Giants and Dickerson, the 2021 season was marred by three stints on the injured list. Dickerson missed 10 days with a shoulder issue in May, two weeks with a back strain in June and nearly three weeks with a hamstring strain in September. The extent to which those physical ailments impacted Dickerson’s production can’t be known with certainty, but this year’s .233/.304/.420 slash (312 plate appearances) was a far cry from that 2019-20 output.
The 2021 season was hardly the lone injury-plagued year of Dickerson’s career. After turning in what looked like a breakout campaign as a late-blooming, 26-year-old rookie in 2016, Dickerson missed the entire 2017 season due to a back injury that required surgery, and his 2018 season was lost to Tommy John surgery after he suffered a ligament damage in his throwing elbow. He also missed time in 2019 due to wrist and oblique strains that necessitated separate trips to the injured list.
Dickerson had been projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $3M in arbitration, but if he goes unclaimed he’ll be free to sign with a new club for any amount. Though he has five-plus years of Major League service time, Dickerson has only appeared in 326 games and tallied just 965 plate appearances thanks to those repeated injuries. For the most part, he’s been plenty productive when healthy enough to take the field — evidenced by a career .260/.330/.470 slash at the Major League level (113 wRC+).
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