The San Francisco Giants began to pick up players for the 2021 season picking up utilityman Jason Krizan and pitcher Sam Long to minor league deals.

Jason Krizan, 31, was an 8th round pick by the Detroit Tigers in the 2011 draft.  In his 10-year career, he has not yet made the Major Leagues, but has been on the cusp quite a bit.  In his last action, he hit .257/.335/.443 in the 2019 season at Double-A Binghamton, and a .365/.467/.603 line in 20 games at Triple-A Syracuse.  Over his career, he’s got a .271/.350/.399 in nine seasons of play, with 66 career home runs.

For 2020, he was picked by the Oakland Athletics in the Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 draft, and reportedly impressed the A’s during the spring.  He had been showing more power than he had in the past.  However, he didn’t get a chance to be a part of the Athletics in 2020 or play with the eliminated minor league season.

Defensively, Krizan splits time between the corner spots in the outfield and first base..  In 2019,  he played 61 games in the outfield, split between left and right field, 45 games at first.  He also played eight games at second.  As a left handed batter, he wouldn’t play well as a platoon player with Belt at first, but could add depth in the outfield.

Long, 25, is a left-handed pitcher who was drafted in the 18th round of the 2016 draft out of Sacramento State.  Long was released by the Rays on the last day of Spring Training, despite having posted a 2.27 ERA the previous season.  He did not play in 2018, and had prepared for a career outside of baseball, but signed with the Chicago White Sox organization for 2019.

In 2019, he posted a 3.06 ERA splitting 30 starts with 15 starts and 15 relief appearances at High-A Kannapolis.  He showed off renewed stuff with 112 strikeouts in 97 innings.  He’ll likely get his chance at Double-A for the 2021 season, or perhaps even back in Sacramento for Triple-A.