David

Villar

Villar has proven to be a capable emergency stopgap option this season for San Francisco, but there isn’t really a role for him at the highest level after the Giants picked up Mark Canha at the trade deadline and also promoted former top prospect Marco Luciano.

Villar is 5-for-17 with a homer for the Giants this season. He’ll likely start against lefties until Wilmer Flores returns. Playing time versus righties should be hard to come by.

Villar heads back to the minors after a brief stint with the Giants where he batted .294 (5-for-17) with one homer and four RBI in 18 plate appearances over six games. The 27-year-old infielder figures to be back at some point later this summer, if needed due to injury.

The veteran was placed on the IL at the end of May and will have missed about four weeks. Wade has a tremendous on-base percentage and will return to an everyday role against right-handed pitching. That will send David Villar back to the bench.

Villar got a chance with the big league club after slugging 12 homers across 58 Triple-A games. He took Hayden Wesneski deep for a solo homer in the second inning for his first homer of the season. The 27-year-old first baseman will likely see sporadic playing time with too much of a volatile profile to garner any mixed-league relevance.

Villar returns to the big leagues for the first time this season after getting into 98 contests for San Francisco over the last two years. The 27-year-old infielder has compiled a strong .272/.352/.487 triple-slash line with 12 homers and two steals in 264 plate appearances over 58 games this season for Triple-A Sacramento.

Though he’d seem to be better defensively than Marco Luciano there, Schmitt wasn’t taken seriously as a shortstop candidate this spring, playing the position just twice. Most of his time came at third. He hit just .111/.258/.231 in 31 plate appearances, so it’s not like he was making a case anyway. Villar, who opened last year in the majors, was far better, coming in at .308/.400/.667, but even before the Matt Chapman signing, it didn’t look like he had a path to making the roster.

Villar was regarded as the Giants’ starting third baseman at this time a year ago, but he ended up playing in just 46 major league games and hitting .145/.236/315 in 140 plate appearances. He’s having a much better spring this time around, having come in at 12-for-34 with three homers in 15 games, but there wouldn’t seem to be a role for him on this Giants roster.

Remember when the Giants fully committed to Villar as their third baseman this spring, only to not start him on Opening Day? This is Villar’s fourth demotion since, and he’s hit just .145/.236/.315 in 140 PA for the major league club.

Davis reportedly looks visibly nauseous as he battles this illness, but there remains hope he could be available off of the bench. Whether he plays today or not, it seems likely that Davis should return sometime this weekend once he begins to feel better. David Villar will get his second straight start at third with Davis out.