The San Francisco Giants designated veteran first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. for assignment on Wednesday and signed former first-round pick Dominic Smith to a major league contract, among several moves.
In addition, catcher Sam Huff was also DFA’d and infielder Christian Koss was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento after Tuesday’s game.
In related moves, the Giants selected outfielder Daniel Johnson and catcher Andrew Knizner from Sacramento.
Wade, 31, was playing on a one-year deal worth $5 million. A .238 career batter, Wade was scuffling, hitting just .167 in 50 games with a homer and 15 RBIs. He was in his fifth season with the Giants, batting .240 with 52 HRs in 488 games.
He has a career .742 OPS with 54 home runs and 182 RBIs with the Minnesota Twins (2019-20) and Giants. He was selected in the ninth round of the 2015 draft by the Twins.
Smith, 29, opted out of his minor league deal with the New York Yankees on Sunday. He played in 93 games with the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds in 2024, batting .233 with six HRs and 34 RBIs.
He’s a career .246 batter with 64 HRs and 259 RBIS with four teams, most notably the New York Mets from 2017-22. He was selected No. 11 overall by the Mets in the 2013 draft.
Huff, 27, was batting .208 with two homers in 20 games this season, his first in San Francisco. He played in 78 games with the Texas Rangers over four seasons.
Koss, 27, made his major league debut on April 1 and is hitting .219 in 29 games.
Knizner, 30, has yet to appear in a major league game this season, batting .378 with 11 doubles and an OPS of 1.032 in 31 games at Triple-A Rochester and Sacramento. He was released by the Washington Nationals last month.
He’s batting .210 with 18 HRs in 290 big-league games with the St. Louis Cardinals (2019-23) and Texas Rangers (2024).
Johnson, 29, is batting .272 with six HRs in 26 games at Sacramento. He’s batting .200 with four HRs in 36 major league games, 35 of them with the Cleveland Guardians (2020-21).
–Field Level Media
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