Giants' Big Offseason Acquistion Questionable For Opening Day

The San Francisco Giants' biggest offseason investment just might not be ready to pay dividends come Opening Day. MRI results have shown that slugger Mitch Haniger has a Grade 1 oblique strain. It happened on a non-game swing, according to manager Gabe Kapler.

Hopefully, Mitch Haniger is able to return relatively quickly, but oblique strains can linger as well.

The Giants accepted high injury risk when adding Haniger, so this won’t do anything to quell anyone’s concerns. https://t.co/XY4LRofROC

— Jeff Young (@BaseballJeff1) March 11, 2023

For now, the plan is to rest for the next 5-7 days, at which point Haniger will be re-evaluated to see if he can resume baseball activity. As noted by Giants reporter Jeff Young, there was a risk in signing the oft-injured Haniger, so hopefully this won't be anything that lingers (which oblique injuries have a tendency to do). 

“Obliques are challenging,” Kapler said. “Sometimes they feel like they’re 100% healed and they’re not always 100% healed.”

For the record, Kapler is still confident that Haniger can make it back for Opening Day, less than three weeks away. “I think anything’s possible at this point."

Haniger signed a three-year, $43.5M deal with San Francisco over the winter. The Giants need his thunder in the lineup. He blasted 39 homers in his last healthy season with the Seattle Mariners in 2021.

 Photo: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports