Angel Pagan is scheduled to return to the Giants this week from the disabled list, which means Gregor Blanco very likely will return to his appointed role as the club’s fourth outfielder.

But there is a growing line of thinking that sending Blanco back to the bench may not be such a wise idea. The diminutive outfielder is having his best season as a major leaguer at age 31. He’s hitting .292, but more important, his on-base percentage of .377 leads the team, and with Pagan hobbled much of the year with knee problems, Blanco has clearly become the better defensive option in center field.

Blanco has been even better as the leadoff man — a .349 batting average with a .432 on-base, albeit in just 21 starts at the top of the order. But regardless of where he has batted in the lineup, he has scored 15 more runs than Pagan despite 100 fewer plate appearances. He has 12 stolen bases to Pagan’s six.

Blanco has once again been a savior for the Giants in a season where all three projected starting outfielders — Pagan, Hunter Pence and Nori Aoki — have missed significant time because of injury. He has been pressed into 68 starts and played all three outfield spots.

“I hate to call him a fourth outfielder because he’s been more than that,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We don’t have the success we’ve had without Gregor, either this year or in the past. He’s been so valuable to us every year he’s been here because he’s just so reliable and versatile.”

In 2012, when left fielder Melky Cabrera — that season’s All-Star game MVP — was suspended Aug. 15 for 50 games for PED use, it was viewed as a catastrophic loss. But Blanco stepped in and not only helped the Giants sustain their playoff drive but also started every game in the postseason en route to a World Series title. Last year, when Pagan’s back gave out in mid-September, Blanco played savior again, taking over as the starting center fielder and the leadoff man and contributing mightily to the team’s third championship in five years.

What’s more, Matt Cain doesn’t have a perfect game without Blanco, who made a spectacular layout catch to preserve it during the 2012 season. In short, what he’s doing this year is nothing new. He’s just doing it even better than before.

“This year definitely has a lot of similarity to 2012 and 2014,” said Blanco. “So if it happened two times before, why not again?”

While an increasing number of fans may be pleading for Blanco to replace Pagan as an outfield starter the rest of the way, Blanco said that doesn’t matter to him. He comes to the ballpark each day with a simple mindset.

“I just want to play every day like it’s my last day in baseball,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether I play or not or where I play, I just want to be part of this great team, because I always appreciate what they did for me in 2012.”

In 2011, Blanco was in the Kansas City Royals organization and never got a real opportunity to show what he could do. A wrist injury severely hampered his ability to hit, and the Royals unceremoniously released him after a miserable year in Triple-A.

Blanco said he was so downcast that he nearly quit baseball. He had no idea what he was going to do, because from his days as a young boy growing up in Caracas, Venezuela, playing in the major leagues was all he wanted to do. Fortunately for him, the Giants signed him to a minor league contract a few weeks later, and he wound up making the club in 2012 out of spring training. He has been Bochy’s most trusted bench weapon ever since.

“You can put him anywhere in the outfield or in the lineup and he gives me another leadoff hitter if I need it,” Bochy said. “You can’t have a better swing guy as far as an outfielder in baseball. He really is underrated. You can play him every day, but he’s also so valuable coming off the bench, too, pinch-hitting and pinch-running. He can do so many things for you, and he never complains. Whatever role I put him in, he accepts it.”

Shortstop Brandon Crawford, who has developed a friendship with Blanco over the past four seasons, can’t say enough about his jack-of-all-trades teammate.

“You look around baseball, and I think he and (Gerardo) Parra came into the season as the best fourth outfielders in the game,” Crawford said. “That goes pretty underappreciated, but it opens some more eyes when we lose a guy and he steps in, plays every day and you see how solid he is. He gives you tough at-bats almost every time up and he plays great defense. So I definitely think he’s underappreciated — by the outside. Everyone in our clubhouse realizes how big a part of the team he is.”

Blanco is definitely a big part of the Giants’ core family, and as a devoted family man himself, that makes him very happy. He comes from a family of all boys and his wife, Mirna, has all brothers. They have a son, Gregor Jr., so the couple is very excited that Mirna is pregnant with a baby girl.

In a bit of ill timing, the baby is due in mid-to-late September or early October. But Blanco even sees a bright side to that.

“Playoffs baby,” he said.