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The World Series champions have found an outfielder and it comes from the team they defeated in last year's World Series. According to Giants beat writer Hank Schulman, the 33-year-old Aoki has passed his physical and will be with the Giants on a one-year deal.
Aoki has passed his physical. News conference tomorrow. #SFGiants
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) January 20, 2015
The one-year contract has $4.7 million guaranteed and includes a club option that can vest into a mutual option. Performance bonuses are included into the contract. According to Schulman, the club option will become a $5.5 million mutual option if he reaches 550 plate appearances.
Aoki's $5.5m club option for 2016 becomes a mutual option if he reaches 550 PAs in 2015. #sfgiants — Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) January 20, 2015
Nori Aoki joins Gregor Blanco in left field where the it will be determined who starts and who will be the fourth outfielder. Both Aoki and Blanco provide a similar style of play. Either Aoki or Angel Pagan will lead off for the Giants.
Over the three years in the major leagues; Aoki has provided consistency in his batting average, always around .287 but power has never been noteworthy for the Japanese outfielder. His career-high 10 home runs came in 2012 with the Milwaukee Brewers and Giants fans should not expect power to show up in the spacious pitcher-friendly AT&T Park. Last year, Mike Morse manned left field and provided a powerful bat but it came at the price of some very poor defense. Aoki will bring very strong defense to the Giants outfield in Morse's place.
