The Giants have outrighted outfielder Gregor Blanco to Triple-A Sacramento, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area was among those to report. Blanco accepted the assignment and will report to Sacramento on Tuesday. His roster spot in San Francisco will go to fellow veteran outfielder Hunter Pence, whom the team activated from the disabled list.
The 34-year-old Blanco could have elected free agency after clearing waivers, but he’ll remain in the Giants organization as depth. Blanco’s in his second stint with the Giants, with whom he was a successful role player at times from 2012-16 – a stretch in which they won two championships.
After spending last season with the NL West rival Diamondbacks, Blanco returned to the Giants over the winter on a minor league pact. Blanco did enough in camp to win a season-opening spot in San Francisco, but he ended up struggling to a .242/.289/.350 line in 129 plate appearances before the club removed him from its 40-man roster.
This is good. Jackson needs to be replaced with Slater as well.
Really unlike SF to do this. They tend to give these guys a long leash but I think Gorkys playing well made this an easy decision. He’ll be back when someone gets injured.
The Giants/Blanco love affair is eternal. He gladly accepts the assignment knowing full well he’ll be recalled soon when SF has the inevitable spate of OF injuries. Don’t even clean out your locker, Gregor – there’s no need.
I agree @Solaris601. Given that SF don’t have a lot of players that they can move up and down with options (given that they seem reluctant to bring up Duggar etc right away) it’s useful to have a player like Blanco who can come up. Also I suspect Gorky’s will regress.
I was one of many who was expecting Gorkys to regress, but after learning that gained 20 lbs in muscle and made changes to his swing and approach over the offseason, I think the giants have a legit everyday center fielder. I think he could hit 270 with 15 bombs and above average defense.
I hope you’re right. @baseball1600!
And to think Blanco was just seen two nights ago donning a Warriors cap/shirt at Game 1 of the Finals. Life was good then.
All he has to do is check his account balance and life is good again
He will be back with the Giants in a week. Why even say this?
This is good!we are deeper, Slater doesn’t play Center
….Or should say not a real CF
This was the only move they could make since they would have had six outfielders and Blanco can’t fake playing center field anymore. Jackson really can’t center anymore either but he has a two year contract. Both Blanco and Jackson have been below replacement level players this year
The Jackson project has been a resounding failure in every way. Though he’s on a 2-year deal the base salary is digestible enough that the Giants can just eat it and cut him loose after the season. Until then, though, he’s gonna be fairly useless.
i would eat Jackson contract i think he is getting only 4 million a year. He SOs way too much for a slap hitter. Blanco will be back up soon