The San Francisco Giants have now sent out 9 players from their 19 Spring Training invitees following today’s cuts of catcher Logan Porter, infielder Nate Furman, and lefty Nick Margevicius. They join Friday’s cuts of lefty reliever Juan Sanchez, righty Wilkin Ramos, and Will Bednar, Diego Cartaya and Thursday’s cuts of relievers Will Bednar and Trent Harris, catcher Diego Cartaya, and outfielder Bo Davidson.
If you’ve been following Brady’s research on the topic, it’s clear why all of these players
have been sent out from camp, as their performances have been okay in some instances against similar invitees, but none have stood out enough to warrant additional consideration just 9 days from Opening Night and with the return of players who were at the WBC. The 24-year old Furman highlights this point. As Alex Pavlovic notes, “he ended up getting a lot of plate appearances with Luis Arraez gone.” He wound up going 2-for-17 and hitless in his last 9 plate appearances.
I’d like to feel a little bit bad for Logan Porter because he seems like a guy who has been yo-yo’d by the organization. The Giants traded for him, released him, re-signed him after he was cut by the Mets, landed on the major league team last June for a grand total of 7 days before optioning him down to Triple-A Sacramento only to DFA him two and a half weeks later. They re-signed him when he cleared waivers and elected free agency, invited him to this year’s Spring Training, and now they’ve sent him back to Triple-A. On the other hand, he hasn’t forced the issue. He went 0-for-7 and didn’t get much of a look from Tony Vitello and his staff.
The pitching situation ought to be self-evident. A lot of roles ought to be up for grabs and not much of this group made a lot of noise. Will Bednar had another good camp velocity-wise, but it’s clear the organization wants him to improve against better competition as he didn’t face any MLB regulars and just 1 hitter on a 40-man roster in his 4 innings of work.
The 10 remaining NRIs: Outfielders Victor Bericoto and Jared Oliva; infielders Osleivis Basabe, Parks Harber, Jake Holton, and Buddy Kennedy; catcher Eric Haase; pitchers Michael Fulmer, Caleb Killian and Gregory Santos (and, if you want to throw late addition Joey Lucchesi onto the list, go right ahead).
Of this group, Fulmer and Santos would seem to be closest to getting roster spots, but even they don’t have a 100% clear path to become bullpenners. Still, all the position players are right-handed, which puts them squarely in competition with Luis Matos, Casey Schmitt, Tyler Fitzgerald, and Jerar Encarnacion. Grant McCray would seem to have the edge because of the handedness and the defense, which basically relegates all of these NRI hitters to roster filler until the exhibition season starts. Unless there really is a battle going on between Eric Haase and Daniel Susac for the role of Patrick Bailey’s backup.
