Following last night’s game, the Giants designated third baseman Conor Gillaspie for assignment and optioned infielder Jae-gyun Hwang back to Triple-A Sacramento, as Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area writes. In their place, the Giants have recalled infield/outfield prospect Ryder Jones from Sacramento and activated outfielder Jarrett Parker from the disabled list.
Gillaspie, 30, returned to the Giants organization for a second stint in 2016 and hit ..262/.307/.440 in 205 regular-season plate appearance before emerging as a postseason hero and cementing himself in Giants lore. With the Giants and Mets locked into a scoreless Madison Bumgarner vs. Noah Syndergaard pitching duel, it was Gillaspie who eventually broke the deadlock with a dramatic one-out, three-run homer in the ninth inning against New York closer Jeurys Familia. Gillaspie would later have a 4-for-4 showing in the decisive Game 4 of the NLDS, though the Giants nonetheless dropped that game and series to the eventual World Champion Cubs.
This season, however, has been entirely different for Gillaspie. He’s spent roughly two months of the year on the disabled list due to ongoing back spasms and back discomfort, and when he’s been healthy enough to take the field, he’s been unproductive in a limited role. Through 87 plate appearances, he’s hitting .163/.218/.288 with a pair of homers.
Notably, Pavlovic suggests that Jones will get the opportunity to establish himself as an everyday player in the wake of Wednesday’s late-night moves. The 23-year-old former second-round pick (2013) has enjoyed an excellent season in Triple-A, hitting .312/.396/.574 with 13 homers, 19 doubles and a pair of triples through 273 plate appearances. He didn’t get a lengthy look in his initial audition with the Giants earlier in 2017, but it seems that San Francisco decision-makers are prepared to see what they have on their hands in Jones as they seek to evaluate their needs for the 2018 campaign.
Jones also has experience in the outfield corners and at first base, so he could settle in as a versatile semi-regular, even if Christian Arroyo returns in 2018 and lays claim to the third base role. However, Pavlovic explains that Arroyo, like fellow prospects Austin Slater and Tyler Beede, may not make it back to the field at all in 2017 due to injury. Arroyo suffered a fractured hand when he was hit by a pitch in Triple-A earlier this month.
Hasn’t been as good a hitter since he stopped wearing glasses.
There’s one. Now DFA Pence, Moore, Cain, Span, and the whole bullpen and things will be looking better for next year.
Don’t need to DFA Cain, he has a club option that they’ll decline and buyout at the end of the season. And what would be the point of DFA’ing Pence and Span? Do they have something better for the OF? I mean, they can’t even figure out LF, let alone an entire OF. They each have one year left on their contract, I don’t see them eating that much money to get rid of a couple players that COULD be productive (not saying they will be). As far as Moore goes…if Beede shows he’s ready to be a major league starter, I’m not fully against that move. No sense in jettisoning a veteran just to bring another one in. If they’re gonna DFA Moore, may as well let Beede and Blach be rotation pieces in 2018.
People on here have short memories and won’t accept the fact that players can be bad for a year or two then be good again. They want knee jerk reactions to adversity (accompanied by resounding success.)
Well, a river rarely reverses course. Cain just doesn’t have anything left. He’s on the Jered Weaver velocity path and for a guy that’s always been a fly-ball pitcher that’s not great. Everything in his profile is going in the wrong direction. Pence missed big chunks of the last two seasons with injury and, if he’s not injured now it would appear the injuries have caught up to him, offensively and especially in the field, where he’s no longer playable anywhere. Span is having a decent year offensively but his defense is terrible and he’s not young. Moore is harder to explain; the stuff has backed up a little, he’s had some bad luck, but it’s still pretty bad. At 9 million for next year SF might pick up the option, but he’s the only one of those four I could see recovering any value
I think Pence’s issues at the plate are not related to injury. For pretty much the whole year he hasn’t been picking up breaking balls away. Teams have been getting him out by throwing him sliders that break off the plate and he swings at them like they are a FB inside. His front shoulder flies open and he’s therefore not driving the ball the other way like he can.
It’ almost like you could tell him it’s coming and he still can’t hit it.
I don’t know why he hasn’t been able to correct this but if he could, then he would again be a decent hitter.
for cain there is no point in DFAing a guy who is at the end of his contract like that – might as well just put him on revocable waivers in case someone wants a body and you can hopefully swing a deal where you eat less than his option to give him away. Pence may be at the end of his baseball life, maybe span too but you have both for a year and at worst you keep one of them around next year as an expensive bench piece and dfa or trade the other in the offseason or later and you can try out some guys at the end of this season. I am hoping that evans doesn’t stand pat in the offseason because there do need to be some moves not because of skill or salary but because there needs to be an injection of life in the lineup whether it is bringing in a big guy via a signing or trade or whether it is swinging some trades for young guys that bring energy in the clubhouse.
DFAing Cain would be making a jerk move just for the sake of being a jerk. And they’re not going to eat the money on Pence and Span AND crest two holes in the outfield which they have very few options to fill. It’s been a long season, no doubt. But these kinds of moves would not be productive.
*Pence, not crest. Autospell …
*Create, not crest?
Yes, damn. Haven’t had coffee yet.
Cain is the longest tenured Giant and what he has given to and accomplished for the team is immense. They’re definitely not going to pull a jerk move on him like that: they’re going to give him a microphone during the last home series of the season and send him off with all the respect and appreciation he deserves.
Nah, Decline Cain’s option, give Moore a shot in April. If it doesn’t work, DFA. Keep Span for LF and see if Slater can play Center. See who looks better between Pence and Ryder Jones in RF. Or just have Pence in RF and a competition between Jones and Arroyo for 3B.
Um, didn’t mean to comment twice.
They’ll have to decide on Moore’s option well before April.
It is amazing how bad the Giants went overnight. I had forgotten they were in the NLCS just last season. There doesn’t seem to be a quick fix – the starting staff besides Bumgarner isn’t very good, although Samardzija has pitched better than his numbers. That outfield defense though…it is truly abysmal. Pence is just awful now, at the plate and in the field. and when he plays as poorly as he does, his schtick gets tired. Assuming the Giants don’t pick up the options on Cain and Moore, they’ll be paying those two, plus Pence and Span, 43 million dollars in 2018. That’s a fairly large chunk of payroll to put into four players who aren’t very useful. Rebuilding seems like a tough proposition too, because the team’s two most valuable assets aren’t going anywhere, and nobody else on the team is worth much. Bleak times indeed.
Blach is actually alright in the rotation. Just had a couple disastrous starts
not sure about moore – he is a lottery ticket but I would be very surprised if they picked up cain’s option. I also wouldn’t be surprised if span moved in the offseason if the giants eat some of his contract. Pence is the bigger issue – if he can turn it around he is an amazing player but I think in reality the giants need to think about a batting instructor, if for no other time then at least in the spring that can work with pence and others to get under the ball. If Pence was hitting a lot of deep flies in the outfield but just not getting all of it you wouldn’t be as worried as the fact that he all year, as posey was at the end of last year and beginning of this year has been beating the ball into the ground – having a ball coming off the bat at 105+mph doesn’t do much for you if it slows to half that by the time it gets to an infielder – the ball needs to elevate off his bat.
Agreed. It boggles the mind how Bam Bam Meulens still has a job. During the championship runs the Giants hitters were able to scrape together enough clutch hits, but guys like Pence unable to make adjustments, it’s long past time to make that change.
They only made the NLDS last season, though were only 3 outs away from taking the Cubs to Game 5.
This season, everything that could go wrong, did. The only player meeting or exceeding expectations is Buster Posey, and maybe Tyler Blach. Everyone else has severely underperformed or gotten injured. Even the prospects who were supposed to step up — Parker, Williamson, Arroyo, Slater, Jones, Beede, etc. — have had injury problems. It’s been a perfect storm of terrible.
Geez, what happened to Moore? That deal seemed team friendly when it was signed. Now he probably won’t be picked up, right? I remember his post season start against Rangers.
That’s right, I totally forgot he has club options on his contract. Honestly I could see them picking up the option this year. It’s only $9 mil and he has the potential to be a very solid pitcher. You don’t find pitchers with his ability for that price. I think they take the chance on him for one more year and see if he can turn it around.
Agreed, Moore will likely be back. With Cain gone for sure, and potentially Cueto as well, a third spot in the rotation would be hard to fill adequately given their financial situation. Internal options might only be Suarez and Beede.
yeah I mean I think they have to pick it up because if he does perform and you can work him out he could be trade-able and you are going to probably spend more than that to replace him.
White Sox fans can only hope that Conor Gillaspie does not join his recently acquired younger brother in the organization any time soon. Once was enough with their former third baseman.
I like Gillaspie
How much longer before Panda is called up? Is he that much of a mess that the Giants can’t use him on the big club yet? Will they wait until September?
Given what a jerk he was, I think it would be a mistake for SF to bring up Sandoval unless he tears it up in AAA. Bringing up a player who is hitting poorly in AAA would annoy teammates who just lost Gillaspie (who I think is liked in the clubhouse, even though he looks like a miserable ) for a Sandoval unless he was adding value.