SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — A brand-new BMW 5 series is a big-league car. In other words, the 2022 graphite gray sedan was an appropriate offseason splurge for the 26-year-old who enters his first big-league camp as the Giants’ incumbent third baseman.
That was the word — incumbent — that president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi used to describe David Villar’s status this spring. Despite a vast array of right-handed hitting corner infielders, the Giants have it made it clear: After 56 home runs over the past two seasons — including nine last year with the Giants — the third base job is Villar’s to lose.
“It’s really just an honor to be in this spot that I’m in, to have the front office and Gabe (Kapler) and all the staff behind me, believing in me and all the work I’ve put in to get to this point in my career, I’m lucky to be in this spot,” Villar said this week, as position players reported for spring training. “I’m excited to take this and just make the most of what I can.”
While the new ride is plenty sweet — it’s the first car Villar has ever owned, swapping out his dad’s 2006 Lexus — it might not have been his most important offseason purchase. That distinction belongs to a $150 Amazon order, not the $60,000 set of wheels.
As they do with all their players, Kapler and Zaidi met with Villar the end of last season to review the season and set in place an offseason plan. They gave him a clear message: your defense will determine your future. Not only is Villar expected to be their regular third baseman, the plan is also for him to play second base when Brandon Crawford needs a day off and Thairo Estrada shifts to shortstop.
There will be a lot on his plate.
So he put in the work this offseason.
Before he bought the car, he purchased something else: a Little Red Machine, the iconic contraption typically used for batting practice but that has been repurposed by Giants infield coach Kai Correa for fielding practice. By flipping the machine upside down, it generates the top spin to replicate gnarly grounders. It’s a daily fixture of the Giants’ pregame work.
And it became a daily fixture for Villar this offseason, too.
“You can get away with some stuff with a baseball. (Using the Little Red Machine), if you don’t catch it in that kill spot pocket every time, the ball’s going to ricochet out,” Villar said. “So (I was) just focusing on my kill spot and making sure that I was getting quicker laterally. Just that first step speed. I really focused on that this offseason. … I never would’ve thought of it had I not gotten up to the big leagues with the Giants and seen them using it. I just went out and bought it. Like, why not? I need to invest as much time and money into my career, whatever it takes to keep myself at this level, I’m willing to do. I think I’m in a really good spot.”
Asked to estimate the number of ground balls he fielded this offseason, Villar laughed.
“That’s way too big a number,” he said.
Most of his time was spent in Orlando, where he recently moved, working inside a training facility with a partner introduced to him by his old college coach at South Florida. But he made time for one visit to the Giants’ Papago Park facility here to train with Correa, and the report back was positive.
“His defensive metrics and our player development evaluation of him defensively give us a lot of optimism that we’re going to see better defense from him,” Zaidi said. “Villar has worked on his conditioning and looks great physically. We think he can handle the range demands at second base even in a post-shifting world.”
For the first time in his career, Villar had a reason to ship his own car to Arizona.
“It’s just a totally different feel being out here,” he said. “I was like, you know, I’ve never bought anything for myself – nothing big – other than shoes, that’s my dirty collection.”
It’s not the only reason camp feels different for Villar.
This time last year, Villar was merely another face in minor-league camp. Despite a 20-homer season in Double-A in 2021, he didn’t receive an invite to major-league spring training. Only after upping his numbers at Triple-A did the call come for Villar, who was leading the PCL in home runs (21) and OPS (1.042) at the time he was called up on July 4 and would later be named the league MVP.
It was his September with San Francisco that not only made the Giants comfortable moving on from Evan Longoria but prompted them to anoint him over other incumbents such as J.D. Davis and Wilmer Flores. His six home runs during the month were one shy of the Giants’ rookie record for September, and for good measure, Villar added two more blasts on the final day of the season, after the calendar had turned to October.
Yet, even Villar was surprised to hear the way he was being talked about by team brass.
“Nobody remembers what you did last year,” Villar said. “It’s cool to say, yeah, I had a good month. But the season is six months long. I’m coming into camp, and I’ve got to prove that I’m an everyday big league player. But also at the same time that I belong on this roster, whether it’s as a starter or a bench piece — whatever they ask of me.”
