This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat e-newsletter. To learn the total e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it repeatedly in your inbox.
ATLANTA — Reflecting on his seven-year tenure with the Giants brings again loads of good reminiscences for Mike Yastrzemski.
He made his Main League debut in San Francisco as a 28-year-old rookie in 2019 and established himself as a mainstay within the outfield, rising as a key piece of the Giants’ franchise-record 107-win workforce in ‘21. He loved his share of private highlights, too, delivering a walk-off splash hit in opposition to the Reds final season and an exhilarating walk-off grand slam in opposition to the Brewers in 2022.
However the 35-year-old veteran additionally got here to cherish one other sudden a part of the San Francisco expertise: Studying to grasp proper area at Oracle Park.
“Actually, I do know this will likely sound loopy, however I genuinely miss the problem of taking part in proper area,” Yastrzemski stated. “I actually took delight in taking part in proper area on the market and having a lot enjoyable making an attempt to determine each little nook and cranny, each bounce off the wall. Determining why every flag was blowing in a distinct course, though they’re proper subsequent to one another. There have been positively little nuances that I missed rather a lot.”
Yastrzemski was again in proper area on Tuesday evening, although this time it was for the Braves, whom he joined on a two-year, $23 million deal over the offseason. It marked the primary time Yastrzemski has performed in opposition to the Giants since they traded him to the Royals in alternate for pitching prospect Yunior Marte ultimately yr’s Commerce Deadline.
Whereas he’s almost a yr faraway from donning the orange and black, Yastrzemski stated he nonetheless retains in contact with lots of his former teammates and has continued to observe the Giants from afar.
“The town, the workforce will at all times have a spot in my coronary heart,” Yastrzemski stated. “It was the primary place I ever performed within the huge leagues. I am at all times holding tabs, checking in on how guys are doing, how the employees’s doing, whether or not it’s textual content, calls, studying up on it. It’s one thing that I am in all probability by no means going to lose, it doesn’t matter what.”
The Giants-Braves ties don’t finish with Yastrzemski; super-utility man Mauricio Dubón and first baseman Dominic Smith are additionally with Atlanta, together with former San Francisco coaches J.P. Martinez and Antoan Richardson. Pete Putila, who served because the Giants’ normal supervisor underneath Farhan Zaidi, and Michael Schwartze, the membership’s former director of baseball analytics, ended up touchdown new roles with the Braves, as properly.
The connections led to many on-field reunions earlier than Tuesday’s rain-suspended collection opener at Truist Park. Yastrzemski took a while to meet up with a number of of his outdated associates, together with fellow outfielder Jung Hoo Lee, who has taken over because the Giants’ beginning proper fielder in 2026.
Lee, who performed heart area earlier than ceding the spot to newcomer Harrison Bader this season, stated he reached out to Yastrzemski at first of the yr for some tips about taking part in proper area at Oracle Park.
Lee has settled in properly on the spot, as evidenced by the unbelievable catch he made on the wall to rob Michael Busch and assist right-hander Logan Webb get by way of eight innings in opposition to the Cubs on Sunday. Except for his improved protection, Lee has been having fun with a breakthrough yr on the plate, the place he’s batting .331 — second within the Majors behind the Marlins’ Otto Lopez — with an .809 OPS over 64 video games (together with Tuesday’s plate look, a sacrifice fly).
“I am completely satisfied for him,” Yastrzemski stated. “He is taking part in so properly proper now. I talked to him a bit bit at first of the yr, and he was type of struggling a bit bit. It was good to see it paying off for him as a result of he works his tail off.”
Yastrzemski will see loads of the Giants this month, because the Braves will head to San Francisco to play a collection at Oracle Park from June 26-28, giving him an opportunity to return to his outdated stomping grounds as a visiting participant for the primary time.
“To play there was an honor, truthfully,” Yastrzemski stated. “It’s such a historic franchise. It’s one thing I am going to always remember, my children will always remember, [my wife] Paige will always remember. It will be actually cool to only have a bit little bit of reminiscence come again proper now, but in addition after we come on the market in per week.”
