A lot has happened since Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker, Ryan Walker, and Sam Hentges protested the Giants’ Pride Night, and as with everything that’s happened in this country, it’s devolved into a circus. But rather than come at this from the responsible, community-driven angle that the Actually Good writers on this site have done already, I’ll stick to baseball, because I think there’s a sneaky weird problem for the team that has nothing to do with a good chunk of the fan base losing faith in and enthusiasm
for the team.
On Friday, Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred continued MLB’s slow walk towards banning Pride Nights by responding to Senator Josh Hawley‘s letter of “grave concern” over the league engaging in “a pattern of discrimination […] against baseball players who profess their Christian faith.” In the letter, he makes it clear that this terrible episode is the Giants’ fault, that the team’s “communication with players was inadequate and not clear.” This letter was sent the day after the DOJ opened an investigation into the league for the same sort of discrimination. Given all this, have Buster Posey’s hands been tied?
Does this open investigation into the league now prevent the team from doing anything “negative” with Roupp, Brubaker, Walker, or Hentges? They can’t option the optionable, cut the cuttable, or demote the demoteable? Now, before you go closing the window thinking I’m getting conspiratorial, here are some actual facts.
Hawley, who memorably stoked the (metaphorical) flames on January 6th, posted Manfred’s letter to his Musk Account but underneath this post:
@MLB Commissioner writes to me and admits they were wrong to threaten the Giants players over Bible verses and promises never to fine or discipline these players – or any players for their religious beliefs
Indeed, Manfred writes, “The players were neither fined nor disciplined, nor will they ever be.” Hawley characterizing it as a “promise” is a good play for his audience, as American discourse involving religion or politics rarely rises above childish thinking. Now, if the Giants want to option or DFA Ryan Walker after his next meltdown, Hawley can point to that and say, “Promise broken!”
Now, would a reasonable person conflate what happened with the players’ protests, the league’s uniform policy, and the team’s right to manage its roster? No, but a person can very easily be made unreasonable through propaganda, or simple repetition. Liberal, anti-Christian San Francisco is taking out their bad season on their good Christians. Fox News and the internet are the Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen of shaping reality.
A standard baseball transaction for a poor performance ought not to fall into the realm of “punishment,” but with the Department of Justice weaponized against them, it stands to reason that the league and the team will be extra careful in how they treat these players. What would that do to the Giants’ already pitiful roster?
Landen Roupp
Well, here’s the thing: the rest of the Giants’ season is an experiment, and so Roupp won’t lose his rotation spot no matter what. He’s rocking a 6.64 ERA / 3.94 FIP here in June, but these are the rough rapids teams must ride when trying to build up their inexperienced players. Roupp is still pretty inexperienced from an innings standpoint (237.1 IP over three seasons), and he’s just 26.1 innings away from last year’s total. Recall that Roupp’s injury track record has limited his playing time for his entire pro career. He’s been as valuable as Logan Webb this season (1.8 fWAR to 1.9), but he also has the 10th-highest walk rate (3.7 BB/9) of any qualified starter.
I’m sure most people (myself included) figured Roupp would be a part of the team’s plans long-term. The thing is, he’ll be 28 next season. Let’s see if he can reach even 130 innings this season. It’s not that he shouldn’t have been considered part of the next good Giants team, it’s just that his importance might be a bit overblown. As a developed prospect contributing to the big league roster, sure — he’s a narrative buster (the narrative being that the Giants have been bad at developing prospects since the championship era). But he’s not an ace, not the next Logan Webb. And as time goes on, he might wind up being a solid #3 or great #4.
But would moving him to the pen for a stretch or towards the end of the season just to keep his arm fresh trigger the DOJ? Maybe. The best thing to do then is to just let him pitch, and let the chips fall where they may.
Ryan Walker
He was extremely unpopular with the fan base before he protested the rainbow hat, but it looks like their hatred has only given him strength? He has allowed just 3 baserunners in 3.2 innings since being recalled on June 12th, but we’ve seen Walker’s performance act like a roller coaster before, including this season. A 5.40 ERA through his first 6 appearances, 1.29 through the next 6, then 7 earned in his next 3.1 innings which got him optioned to Triple-A. The next Ryan Walker Trainwreck is maybe only a couple of innings away. Are the Giants really going to hold a roster spot for him the rest of the season for fear of running into trouble with the league or “the law?”
Well, yeah, because Buster Posey and Zack Minasian haven’t really been able to get anyone better.
Sam Hentges
After missing all of 2025 it wouldn’t be a surprise if Hentges takes some innings to get on a roll or — and, perhaps, more likely — hit a wall just as the fatigue/workload catches up to him. Under those circumstances, a team might slow play him or phantom IL him. Might the Giants be too shy to try either option? He has another year of team control attached to his name, and so it might be in the best interest of the club — in a dreadful year — to preserve some talent they think can help next year’s team, if they think that one’s going to be any good.
Hentges’s 2.84 ERA in 12.2 innings is good, but his FIP has been rising all season thanks to those walks. It’s up to 4.44, which is quite a bit higher than his career average (3.33).
He’s out of options, though, and so the Giants really only have “phantom IL” and limiting playing time as their options should they want to hold on to the player. Relievers are supposed to be fungible, and relievers who walk a lot of batters especially so, but the DOJ might not even be the reason why they don’t mess with him too much. It’s simply the case that they need strikeout stuff in the bullpen, and he has it.
It’s also the case that he’s been lumped into this matter by Hawley and the evangelical rabble rousers when MLB only made contact with the three players who wrote on their hats. But now Hentges has an opportunity for special treatment if he ever feels jilted by the club like, say, Tom Murphy once did.
JT Brubaker
I never really understood the affection for the player. A mid-90s sinker that didn’t get a lot of outs paired with a 2,500+ rpm slider that did. His utility to the team — besides being able to write on his hat WITH REALLY BIG LETTERS — seems to be pitching multiple innings.
But he’s basically been fine this season, too. The majority of his appearances (19 out of 26) have been when the team is trailing. Only 6 times has he appeared with the lead and only once when it’s tied. He’s in spots that you might give to Adrian Houser following his move to the bullpen, but even that move is temporary until the Giants trade Robbie Ray and/or Tyler Mahle, so, we’re just not going to see Brubaker very much — unless Tony Vitello plans to line up all of these relievers after Roupp starts, as he did in Roupp’s last game.
But this is a role you could tag with all three of the relievers in this group: not for use in high leverage situations. They are not the best options out of the bullpen. In theory, that should make them the most replaceable, with the guys currently being asked to get key outs moving down the pecking order and bumping one of them should the Giants acquire more talented relievers. Which, would a team want to acquire any of these guys? Not because of the protest baggage, but because the DOJ might start scrutinizing them?
On the active roster, Erik Miller, Dylan Smith, and Tristan Beck are the other relievers with options and Trevor McDonald has one, too. It just seems a little wacky to hold three spots in the ‘pen for a trio who might not be on the active roster of any other team. On the other hand, the Giants don’t have anything more to lose by holding on to them. Can Ryan Walker turnaround his career? Can Sam Hentges regain his form? Will Brubaker simply out-pitch others who might seem like a better fit?
The Giants were committed to these guys before, during, and after their protest, so the league and the government coming along to tell them they’d better not try anything probably hasn’t added any tension to their plans, and as a thought experiment it seems pretty clear that except for maybe Ryan Walker the roster was setup to feature these guys in these specific roles long before Pride Night. And, as a bad season is really good at illustrating, even if the team wanted to improve, they don’t have any better options now or going forward.
