Thairo Estrada

BIOGRAPHY

Thairo Estrada was born February 22, 1996, in Bejuma, Venezuela. He is a second baseman in the MLB.

Estrada signed with the New York Yankees as an international free agent in August 2012. He made his professional debut in 2013 with the Gulf Coast Yankees and spent the whole season there, batting .278 with two home runs and 17 RBIs in 50 games. He played 2014 with the Gulf Coast Yankees and Staten Island Yankees where he compiled a combined .272 batting average in 23 games, 2015 with Staten Island where he slashed .267/.338/.360 with two home runs and 23 RBIs in 63 games, and 2016 for the Charleston RiverDogs and Tampa Yankees where he posted a .290 batting average with eight home runs, 49 RBIs, and 18 stolen bases in 118 total games between the two teams.

On April 11, 2021, the Yankees traded Estrada to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for cash considerations. Estrada played first for the Class AAA Sacramento River Cats of the Triple-A West, and batted .385(4th in the league at the time of his call-up)/.448(9th)/.609 with 12 doubles (10th) in 156 at-bats, while striking out only 14% of the time. He played 26 games at shortstop, 7 at second base, 2 at third base, and one in left field.

He was called up to the Giants on June 6, following an injury to third baseman Evan Longoria who had collided with shortstop Brandon Crawford. In Estrada's debut with the Giants on July 2 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, he went 3-5 with 5 RBIs, a double, and a grand slam. Crawford's oblique injury in July shifted Estrada to start at shortstop in his place.

In the 2021 regular season for the Giants, Estrada batted .273/.333/.479 with 7 home runs and 22 RBIs in 121 at-bats. He played 19 games at shortstop, 16 games at second base, 4 games at third base, 4 games in left field, and one game in right field. At AAA Sacramento, he batted .333/.399/.538 with 9 home runs and 40 RBIs in 210 at-bats.

In 2022 Estrada batted .260/.322/.402 with 71 runs, 14 home runs, 62 RBIs, 21 stolen bases (7th in the NL) in 27 attempts, 5.5 at bats per strikeout (8th), and 14 hit by pitch (7th), and had the fastest sprint speed of all Giants players, at 28.3 feet per second. On defense he had a range factor/9Inn at 2B of 4.22 (3rd). On January 13, 2023, Estrada agreed to a one-year, $2.25 million contract with the Giants for the 2023 season, avoiding salary arbitration.

Following the 2023 season, Estrada signed a one-year deal with the San Francisco Giants for 2024.