Blake Sabol #21

Attended USC and spent three years with the Trojans before being drafted. Sabol hit .268 with eight doubles, three triples, three homers and 22 RBI in 55 games as a junior...Proposed to his college girlfriend, Sydney van Alphen, in January 2022. She was a tennis player at USC and has been a huge support to Blake through the minor leagues. Both were business majors. Blake would like to earn an MBA at USC. The couple lives in Orange, Calif., in the offseason and are scheduled to be wed this November...Blake attended Aliso Niguel High School. In 2015, Sabol was rated as the No. 64 player in the nation in his class and seventh-best catcher by Perfect Game...Sabol’s father, Rob, played baseball during his college days at Long Beach State. Rob was an outfielder...Won a gold medal at the Pan Am Games in Colombia with Team USA’s U15 squad in 2013. Also on that team were the White Sox Andrew Vaughn and former first overall pick Mickey Moniak...Sabol’s second cousin is former Trojan and Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu. Blake’s mom used to babysit Troy...Sabol is of Samoan heritage. His mother, Carmelita, is “straight from island,’’ Sabol says, by which he means Samoa, not American Samoa. (Father Rob is of Croatian descent.) As 50 percent Samoan, Sabol is considered an Afakasi, the term for part-European Samoans...Upon Sabol signing his contract after being drafted by the Pirates in 2019, he went out to dinner with one of his best friends from college, NFL wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster...Sabol has two brothers, Stefan and Jarrett. Stefan was drafted by the Mets in the 2012 draft out of Oregon and played five years in the minors, mainly as an outfielder. Jarrett is currently attending Aliso Niguel High School as a junior where he plays catcher and outfield. Jarrett is also committed to attend USC...Stefan and Michael Lorenzen are the same age and Blake was a bat boy on Lorenzen’s travel ball teams as a kid. Blake and Lorenzen have worked out together in the offseason.

2023

Made his first career Opening Day roster, with his MLB debut coming with a start in LF on Opening Day...became SF’s 17th straight different Opening Day left fielder dating to 2007...Was one of two Giants position players to remain on the active roster the entire season (other: IF/OF LaMonte Wade Jr.)...Was a Rule 5 pick of the Reds in December 2022 before being traded to the Giants hours later...stayed on SF’s active roster the entire season and is a full member of SF’s organization...Hit .368 (28x76) with RISP, which ranked second among rookies (min. 75 PA). Logged a .744 OPS with all 13 HRs vs. RHPs. (295 PA) compared to a .392 OPS vs. LHPs (49 PA)...Slashed .259/.319/.444 with 10 homers in 67 games before the All-Star break...slashed .190/.267/.295 with three homers in 43 games after the break...His 34.0% strikeout rate was in the bottom 2% of MLB, and his .198 XBA was in the bottom 1%...Hit .252 with 20 runs, five doubles, nine home runs, 26 RBI and a .755 OPS as a catcher compared to batting .217 with eight runs, three doubles, three home runs, 15 RBI and a .616 OPS in left field...Was the first Giant to hit home runs as a catcher and an outfielder in the same season since John Rabb in 1984...Hit his first career walk-off home run in the ninth inning on April 25 vs. STL’s Ryan Helsley, the first Giants catcher to hit a walk-off homer since Nick Hundley did so on Sept. 2, 2017 vs. STL. Per Sarah Langs, Sabol was the fifth Giants rookie to hit a walk-off home run in the Wild Card era, with OF Jaylin Davis being the last (Sept. 25, 2019)...Struck out in 23 consecutive games from April 2 to May 10, the fourth-longest streak in MLB in 2023...Recorded a career-best five RBI and two home runs on July 3 vs. SEA.

2022

Spent a majority of the season at Double-A Altoona in the Pirates organization before a late-season promotion to Triple-A Indianapolis...In 98 games with the Curve, Sabol slashed .281/.347/.486 with 23 doubles, five triples, 14 homers, 60 RBI, nine steals and an. .833 OPS...Had only one down month offensively at the plate (June when he slashed .213/.286/.400) but otherwise enjoyed a solid campaign in Double-A…he slashed .278/.337/.494 in 20 July games before going .329/.364/.544 in 21 August games with Altoona before his promotion to Triple-A...Played mostly catcher with the Curve, appearing in 58 games there…also saw action in left field (nine games), right field (one game) and DH (29 games)…His time defensively was more evenly split in Triple-A: eight games at catcher, 12 in left field and five at DH...Only caught 13.6 percent of base-stealers between Double and Triple-A last year (9-of-66)…After his promotion to Triple-A, Sabol put together a .296/.426/.543 slash line with nine extra-base hits, one steal and a .969 OPS in 25 games...Following the season he was selected by Cincinnati in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 draft on Dec. 8…was acquired by San Francisco hours later.