SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Brandon Crawford made his St. Louis Cardinals spring training debut Saturday, getting a couple of at-bats in between former NL West rivals Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado. Across the country, the spring battle to replace Crawford as the Giants' Opening Day shortstop took another interesting turn.
Nick Ahmed started at shortstop against the Athletics and played six innings before giving way to Marco Luciano, who entered camp as the favorite to win the job. It also was notable that Ahmed got the nod Thursday night, when manager Bob Melvin used most of his starters after the first off day of the spring.
Melvin isn't tipping his hand, but there's no hiding at this point that Ahmed, the longtime Arizona Diamondback, has taken the lead.
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"Nothing is for sure here," Melvin said over the weekend, "Although Nick has looked really good and Marco got off to a late start. We're trying to get him some at-bats."
Luciano missed time early in camp with hamstring discomfort and has struggled to find his timing since returning, going 1-for-20 with 11 strikeouts. The injury provided extra runway for Ahmed, who didn't sign until Feb. 26 but got into his first Giants game on the same day that Luciano made his second spring appearance. Ahmed hit a couple of early homers and has five hits and four walks in 14 plate appearances.
The Giants finally signed Matt Chapman a few days after adding Ahmed, giving them a pair of Gold Glove options on the left side of the infield. It has been six years since Ahmed dethroned Crawford and won the first of back-to-back Gold Gloves, but he has continued to rate as above-average as he has entered his thirties and was worth six Outs Above Average in 72 games with the Diamondbacks last year.
There has never been any question about Ahmed's glove, and he has looked sharp thus far in camp, but the Giants will need to decide if they can get enough at the plate at a time when there are still doubts about whether a revamped lineup will produce enough. Ahmed's OPS dropped to .560 last season, although there's hope that better days are ahead now that he's further removed from shoulder surgery.
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Two years after the procedure, Ahmed landed in a clubhouse with plenty of young options at shortstop, but little certainty, a situation that made San Francisco appealing to the veteran. Luciano was splitting reps with Casey Schmitt and Tyler Fitzgerald early in camp, but at the moment it's Fitzgerald who appears the likeliest to be at Petco Park on March 28 thanks to his versatility and speed. Barring an injury, he'll likely be the only one of the young position players to start the season in the big leagues.
That would leave Luciano and Schmitt to form the left side of the infield in Sacramento, although Melvin cautioned that there's a long way to go. He made the lengthy trip to Peoria on Sunday to introduce leadoff hitter Jung Hoo Lee to former Seattle Mariners star Ichiro Suzuki, but said one other reason he wanted to manage the road game was to get a longer look at Luciano.
"We also want to see the bat, too. He hasn't had a great spring yet as far as offensively even though he hasn't had a ton of at-bats," Melvin said. "But actually, after the first play of the spring, defensively he's had a good spring so far. There's still a lot of time left."