San Francisco Giants Officially Release Gold Glove Infielder

The San Francisco Giants made the call on their veteran infielder once he cleared waivers after he was designated for assignment.

Jul 5, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; San Francisco Giants shortstop Nick Ahmed (16) turns a double play in the first inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field. / David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

The Nick Ahmed experiment is over as the San Francisco Giants officially released the 34-year-old veteran on Saturday, per the MLB Transactions wire.

The Giants had earlier designated him for assignment, which exposed him to waivers for the rest of the league. But no one claimed. Once he cleared, the Giants had the opportunity to re-sign him to a minor-league deal. But, instead, he is now a free agent and can sign with another club.

Ahmed was in his first year with the Giants after he signed a minor-league deal with San Francisco after spending more than 10 years with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

In 52 games with the Giants he batted .232/.278/.303/.581 with six doubles, one triple, one home run and 15 RBI. He beat out Marco Luciano to be the Opening Day shortstop. But Ahmed hasn’t worked out as hoped and Luciano batted 9-for-24 in a short stretch with the Giants and is now back at Triple-A.

So, for now, the Giants are turning to Brett Wisely and Tyler Fitzgerald to share time at shortstop.

It’s hard to say what the market will be for Ahmed, who is a two-time Gold Glove winner but has seen his offensive numbers gradually decline the past couple of seasons. In fact, it was his bat that led the Diamondbacks to release him last September, just before the team made its run to the World Series.

He was batting .212/.257/.303/.560 with two home runs and 17 RBI in 72 games. The Diamondbacks designated him for assignment to make room for one of their top prospects, Jordan Lawler.

Ahmed was the first player in Diamondbacks history to play at least 10 years with the organization.

Drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the second round of the 2011 MLB Draft out of UConn, Ahmed was considered the fastest baserunner in minor league baseball in 2012 by Baseball America.  

At the start of 2013 he was included as part of a huge trade, as the Braves sent him with Martin Prado, Randall Delgado, Zeke Spruill, and Brandon Drury to Arizona to acquire Justin Upton and Chris Johnson.

By June of 2014 Ahmed was in the Majors and by the next season he was the D-backs’ Opening Day shortstop.

Once he overcame injuries in 2016 and 2017 he hit his stride, as he won his two Gold Gloves in 2018 and 2019. He also had his best offensive season in 2019 when he slashed .254/.316/.437/.753 with career highs in home runs (19) and RBI (82).