Finally Healthy, Giants’ Hunter Bishop Makes Up For Lost Time
Outfielder Hunter Bishop missed almost all of the 2021 season because of a shoulder injury. He missed all of last season because of elbow surgery.
The Giants’ 2019 first-rounder out of Arizona State hadn’t played above High-A until this year.
Bishop is trying to make up for all that lost time. The 26-year-old began 2024 with Double-A Richmond and was promoted to Triple-A Sacramento in mid May.
Though shaking off rust remained part of his process, Bishop hit .265/.356/.441 with four home runs through 36 games for the River Cats.
“It is promising,” Bishop said, “knowing that I still don’t feel like I’m even close to what I feel like I’m capable of, and I’m still putting up some pretty good numbers.”
Listed at 6-foot-3, 210 pounds, Bishop looked like a classic power-speed outfielder in his draft year. The lefthanded hitter drilled 22 homers, stole 12 bases and had a 1.226 OPS.
“He’s still got all the physical tools that made him that highly regarded—not just by us, but by the industry going into that draft in 2019,” Giants farm director Kyle Haines said.
Bishop flashed some of those tools with his first Triple-A home run, an inside-the-parker against Oklahoma City on May 15. He sliced a drive down the left-field line. Once the ball got past the left fielder, Bishop motored around the bases and scored easily.
Easy would not describe Bishop’s career path. “There have been some dark times,” he said. Missing nearly two full seasons would unnerve almost any player.
“It’s about having confidence,” Bishop said. “It’s about learning to channel those doubts and turning ’em into positive thoughts. It’s something I’ve been working on, but it’s going really good this year.”
Bishop attended Serra High in San Mateo, Calif., which is a little more than 20 miles from Oracle Park. His road to the big leagues has been circuitous, but he strongly believes he’ll reach San Francisco.
He referred to overcoming “all my doubts that might have creeped into my head at some point. ‘Can I still do this?’ And I definitely can still do this.”
