San Francisco Giants Shortstop Makes Baseball History on Thursday Night

Rookie shortstop Casey Schmitt just keeps on hitting, and on Thursday night, he hit his way into the baseball record books.

San Francisco Giants rookie shortstop Casey Schmitt just keeps on hitting, and on Thursday night, he hit himself into the record books.

Per the Twitter account @OptaSTATS:

Casey Schmitt of the @SFGiants is the only shortstop in the modern era to begin his MLB career with 3 straight multi-hit games with an extra-base hit in each one.

Casey Schmitt of the @SFGiants is the only shortstop in the modern era to begin his MLB career with 3 straight multi-hit games with an extra-base hit in each one.

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) May 12, 2023

Since the modern era refers to anything after 1900, this certainly is notable. Schmitt is hitting a whopping .636 through 11 at-bats this season. He now has two home runs and three RBI and a 1.909 OPS.

The 24-year-old was a second-round pick in the 2020 draft out of San Diego State. He's currently the fourth-ranked prospect in the Giants system.

From his MLB.com profile:

After a broken nose and left wrist injury marred his 2021 pro debut, he hit .293/.365/.489 with 21 homers while advancing to Triple-A last year.

Schmitt showed more power with wood bats than metal bats as an amateur, and he began hitting balls harder and driving them more consistently in 2022. He showed a quicker right-handed swing than in the past and tapped into his solid raw power more easily by not swinging for the fences. He crushes fastballs but still has to prove he can handle quality offspeed pitches at the upper levels.

Though he's a below-average runner out of the batter's box, Schmitt moves well at third base and is a potential Gold Glover. He has range to both sides, reliable hands and a strong arm that produced fastballs up to 96 mph and some devastating mid-80s splitters when he closed games in college. His defensive tools translated into solid shortstop play when the Giants needed him to take over for an injured Marco Luciano at High-A Eugene last year.

His extra-base hit tonight was a two-run homer.

Follow Fastball on FanNation in social media

Continue to follow our Fastball on FanNation coverage on social media by LIKING us on Facebook and by following us on Twitter @FastballFN.

You can also subscribe to "The Payoff Pitch" podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.