It wasn’t long into September before we all noticed that the San Francisco Giants had a looming numbers bomb waiting for them five days after the conclusion of the World Series. While the team wound up using a record 71 players this season, they had 55 players for 40 spots thanks to those still on the roster via in the injured list. We are now about 15 hours since the conclusion of the World Series (congrats, Brewers!) and the number is down to 52, thanks to the following moves:
- LHP Matt Gage was waived, cleared waivers, and outrighted to Triple-A.
- IF Osleivis Basabe was waived, cleared waivers, and outrighted to Triple-A.
- RHP Jason Foley was waived, cleared waivers, and outrighted to Triple-A.
- Mariners claimed OF Grant McCray off waivers.
- Nationals claimed RHP Braxton Roxby off waivers.
A month and a half
ago, I attempted to clear the brush as a thought exercise and just tracking that, I missed out on two of these: Foley and Roxby. Pretty easy guys to lose, even in the moment, but I thought Foley’s remaining MLB option and Roxby being a recent acquisition might be factors for keeping them. Not so.
As Andrew Baggarly points out in his writeup, Foley’s stuff just wasn’t there in his 26 innings — just 15 strikeouts. If the Giants are committed to adding more stuff to their pitching staff, then yeah, phasing out these pitch to contact relievers supercharges the process. Foley’s career K/9 is just 6.58. Roxby’s has been 11+ per 9 in his MiLB career, but losing a 27-year old reliever with just 5.1 MLB innings to waivers is just the cost of doing business. He’d have been good enough to keep around if they could hold on to him, but they couldn’t and so that just creates a new opportunity for the next guy.
Speaking of, it seems like Grant McCray has been “the next guy” for the last few years. He just hasn’t been able to take advantage. But, he’ll be just 26 next season and he still has an MiLB option. Plenty of dudes have figured it out at this phase of their lives/careers.
The Giants need to deal with at least 12 more players in the next four and a half days. They’ll have a little more time after (November 17th) to figure out who to add to the 40-man to protect in the Rule 5. Right now, we can figure these following players are locks through these next four and a half days: Logan Webb, Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, Daniel Susac, Randy Rodriguez, Adrian Houser, Jung Hoo Lee, Harrison Bader, Bryce Eldridge, Marcelo Mayer, Bo Davidson, Matt Wilkinson, Cesar Perdomo, Jonah Cox, Victor Bericoto, Drew Gilbert, Anthony Molina, and Landen Roupp.
19 players for 40 spots. So, really, the choices involve this soup of 33 players:
Catchers
Drew Cavanaugh
Andrew Knizner
Zach Morgan
Jesus Rodriguez
Infielders
Nate Furman
Brett Harris
Christian Koss
Shay Whitcomb
Outfielders
Scott Bandura
Turner Hill
Pitchers
Tristan Beck
Hayden Birdsong
Jose Butto
Duncan Davitt
Camilo Doval
Trent Harris
Sam Hentges
Joel Kuhnel
Seth Lonsway
Yunior Marte
Trevor McDonald
Miguel Mendez
Joel Peguero
Reiver Sanmartin
Carson Seymour
Dylan Smith
Blade Tidwell
Ryan Walker
Carson Whisenhunt
Rowan Wick
Keaton Winn
