The Giants announced that they’ve designated right-hander Dan Winkler for assignment Thursday. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to lefty Sam Selman, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Sacramento. The Giants also placed outfielder Alex Dickerson on the 10-day injured list due to an oblique strain.
Winkler’s DFA comes less than 24 hours after the Giants acquired him in the trade that sent Mark Melancon to Atlanta. Jettisoning Winkler underscores that the move was largely one about finances for the Giants, who were stunningly able to unload the entirety of Melancon’s remaining $18.3MM on the Braves.
The 29-year-old Winkler has struggled in 2019, pitching to an ugly 4.98 ERA with a 22-to-11 K/BB ratio in 21 2/3 innings of relief this season. He’s had similar struggles in Triple-A (4.86 ERA, 20-to-18 K/BB in 16 2/3 innings) but is not far removed from a strong 2018 showing. Last season, Winkler pitched to a 3.43 earned run average (and a 2.76 FIP) with 10.3 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, 0.45 HR/9 and a 38.3 percent ground-ball rate. He has minor league options remaining beyond the 2019 season, making it somewhat surprising that the Giants apparently aren’t planning to take a look at him. Winkler can’t be traded to another organization under this season’s new trade structure but can be claimed on outright waivers.
Selman will be making his MLB debut as a 28-year-old rookie after posting some jaw-dropping numbers in the minors. After tossing seven shutout innings in Double-A, he moved up to the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and turned in 40 frames of 1.35 ERA ball with 65 strikeouts (14.6 K/9) against 13 walks (2.9 BB/9). He’s benefited from a minuscule .203 BABIP and an 86 percent strand rate, but Selman’s ability to miss bats and limit walks is intriguing.
As for Dickerson, he’s not expected to miss more than 10 days with his current ailment (Twitter link via Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News). The 29-year-old has been a godsend for the Giants and helped to fuel San Francisco’s surge back into the Wild Card picture, hitting .346/.402/.664 with six homers, 10 doubles and three triples in 117 plate appearances.
That level of output isn’t likely to be maintained, as Dickerson’s .413 average on balls in play is the fourth-highest of any hitter in baseball (min. 100 PAs). He’s also battled significant injury issues throughout his career. That said, he does have an outstanding Triple-A track record (.333/.398/.541 in 892 PAs) and enjoyed some big league success with the Padres back in 2016. He’s controlled three more seasons beyond 2019, making him an intriguing find for the Giants even if (or when) his bat regresses to some extent.
He’ll be claimed by someone, no doubt.
We shall see if the Giants can maintain their run of success while their Dick is broken…
Yankees have been able to do it all these years
Wow, that is so disrespectful. Shame on you snotrocket
Watch a Giants game or two, calling him “The Dick” has become a clubhouse slogan. All in good fun.
Lighten up, Francis.
Well they play in San Francisco so if they can’t pitch they can catch……
Snotrocket you have no class.
Grow up and talk baseball.
Considering the chant, that was funny. Lighten up.
Why would you trade for someone and then DFA him the next day?
It was a financial move
I understand it was a salary dump by the Giants. My question was why trade for him if you were going to DFA. Why not just trade for Beck? Did the Braves force the Giants to take Winkler?
They probably just clicked tbe “approve trade” button as soon as they saw the offer.
That would be my take on it. The Braves apparently didnt trade just for Melancon. They get two things by the Giants taking Winkler: a roster spot for Melancon so an option doesnt have to be used or someone DFA’d and the $1.6 million Winkler is owed paying down Melancons salary just a bit.
So you can pawn off 18M in salary for a guy who is basically been a 7th inning pitcher while in SF. Granted, he has been hurt and is finally looking better but his tenure with the Giants wasn’t great. Can use that money for Bum to extend him
Unfortunately they still have some bad contracts. $ 111 million before Madbum contract is already tied up. To bad Longoria and belt are still on the team.
True but they still were able to move a significant amount of money plus in reality the money the insurance money that is being paid on any player that sits on the dl all year like Cueato. Look it at that way and they found some money to be shredded this year. With no more trades being done except for minor leaguer trades it will be interesting how many guys on ending contracts get dfa’d this month
They have only 3 free agents next year. Madbum, Smith, and Pillar. Watson has a option that should be picked up. even if they resign all 3 that would leave them with about $20 million to spend on FA. after adding in arbitration cost. they should be able to sign a 2B and a OF with that money.
When is it time to seriously take a hard look at 1B as well ? I don’t care how often he walks, a corner infielder slugging less than .400 is absurd.
Pillar isn’t a free agent. Watson has a player option he will decline 100 percent. Giants can afford a salary of 210+ if they wanted too. Their best options will be internal, though, as they don’t want to block kids coming through pipeline in 2021.
You are right about pillar but he projects out at $8 million a year. Panik will likely be released since he projects out to about $6 million. their infield in the minors is weak so most likely signing a 2B and relief help.
Pillar isn’t a FA until 2021. He still has 1 arb year left.
…and bats leadoff! Does Belt save enough games with his glove to compensate for the lack of offense?
While Belt can be frustrating with the SOs, I don’t get the amount of abuse he receives. He’s streaky, and when he’s not hitting fans act like that’s the real Brandon Belt. But even with his recent slump he has a 101 wRC+, so while unspectacular is still 1% better than MLB average. So it’s not like he provides zero offense. He did drive in 1 of the 2 runs the Giants have scored so far today, so there’s plenty of blame for the whole team in today’s performance.
And as to his glove, he’s also having a down year, but for his career he has a DRS of 54. So yes, his glove does compensate for his mediocre offense, especially for a team built on pitching and defense.
“…a corner infielder slugging less than .400 is absurd.”
Players have down years. This is the only season that Belt hasn’t slugged at least .400, and the season isn’t over yet. He’s a .397 now. He has a career .449 SLG. Lefties have a defensive advantage, and you’re going to have a hard time finding a LHH with a high SLG that plays half their games at Oracle.
Granted, he isn’t an offensive powerhouse, and the Giants know that. But what are you going to replace him with? They aren’t going to get a guy like Hoskins or Freeman. They could have gotten a guy like Matt Adams, but he’s had 4 seasons with a sub-.400 SLG. And guys like Adams are less than ideal for a team built on pitching and defense
Belt needs to change his swing, get his hands away from his body and quit golfing at the ball.
You can throw out all the numbers to justify keeping
Belt, but the guy is not Clutch.
When he hits home runs, no one is on base and if guys are on base he strikes out, pops up or hits a weak ground ball. The Giants have at least 8 guys that can play first base between the big club and AAA.
Maybe, I don’t profess to know why he isn’t better. I would say that of his 12 HRs most of those came hitting pitches down in the zone, and most of his swinging SOs were on high inside FBs. I would like to see him loosen his grip on the bat which would give him a freer swing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him lose the bat on a swing like Posey often does.
Clutch is a useless metric. Guys that are perceived to be clutch are simply good hitters. If a guy has around a .300 BA for his career, he’s going to hit around .300 in clutch situations. The result is it seems like the guy comes through in big situations, when in fact he’s just hitting like he always has. Belt has a career .263 BA. That’s about what can be expected from him in clutch situations.
Studies have been done on guys considered to have been clutch, and in clutch situations their numbers are pretty much in line with their career numbers. Tony Gwynn was thought to be clutch, but his numbers in the clutch are much like his career numbers.
Plus, the idea that a player can pick and choose when he gets his hits is absurd. Clutch situations might increase focus on the part of the hitter, but that surely applies to the pitcher as well.
marlins should put a claim in for him
I believe they are first up
Mets should be going after any reliever with a pulse.
Someone will get him quick. Wish he could come back on the braves for a minor league deal. I see a rebuilding team that needs a little hold me over picking him up and hoping he goes back to his norm. He’s still young enough
His days in Atlanta are over
No need to bring him back
On to bigger & better things
For all the whining & crying I did about the Braves going out & getting I am now glad AA didn’t. The whole beginning of the season I compared the Braves to the Astros as they were coming up and yesterday made me realize we are still a ways back than they were at the time of the Verlander trade.
It would have cost way to much in terms of prospects to get him and I was not anticipating the type of return Arizona actually got.
Folty has been looking good since his demotion and hopefully he can spark the rotation. I am good with what AA has done. The bullpen was the biggest need & I think he did the best he could.
Well, it’s a pretty ignorant comment to say his days in atlanta are over and we should move on, go on to bigger better things when I simply said I would like him back on a minor league deal and hope he finds his form again. I mean, he was pretty solid at times and if he’s on a minor league deal it’s very low risk with some moderately high reward potential. Heck, he was considered to be our closer at times last year that’s how good he was. If he can return to form and be a 6th inning guy (assuming our bullpen is well built) then I’d be very happy.
It’s all a waste of time though, he’ll end up somewhere else.
How does Sam Fran’s rebuild go moving forward after this season ????
It’s looking like a savvy retooling instead
Go Farhan!
Excellent depth in A+ right now. AAA has given us quite a bit. AA has been weak. Realistically, won’t see biggest prospects til middle of 2021.
Bart will probably be up before then but yea, all the kids in A ball are all 17-19 years old, they won’t be up for a while.
I wouldn’t count on Bart next year. Catchers need to spend more in the minors than other positions. It doesn’t matter how well he hits, it’s about learning the position, and learning to handle a big league pitching staff. Posey spent less time in the minors than most catchers, and he was in there for 3 years.
Posey will undoubtedly spend the majority of time behind the plate next year. Bart would be wasted as back-up when he could be receiving valuable instruction at AAA. The minors are about learning the game, the majors are about producing. Let Bart develop. Rushing him would be a mistake.
Hey Dodgers, here is your bullpen help. Haha
Dodgers will be fine. Giants got stuck in the middle yesterday buying into the delousions of a hot streak.
They sold far more than they bought, and Gennett for a PTBNL is hardly a buy at that.
A PTBNL could be anyone not on your 40 man roster so it could be a halfway decent prospect. Gennett’s played poorly in limited action and he’s a rental so I’m guessing it wasn’t too much of a prospect but we don’t know. The Melancon deal shocked me that you got beck and all the money eaten. So you never really know if it was a prospect around that level. Would surprise me but the Melancon deal did as well.
No one knows who the PTBNL is, even the Giants and Reds. Plus it was either a PTBNL or cash considerations. The trade is conditional. The return will be based on what kind of production the Giants get from Gennett.
I’d say the Giants got the best of both worlds, and were able to dump salary at the same time.
It still doesn’t make any sense not to trade for someone you can actually keep on some minor league team.
Makes sense. Maybe they think that they could cut him and resign him to minor league contract at the league minimum.
Thomas, that makes no sense. They have to pay his salary if they release him. Why would you release him and then resign him? You still owe him the same amount of money.
I meant this off season.
It wasn’t purely for the money they took him as a small off set of salary from Atlanta
The Giants have a lot of pitching depth in the minors. That’s why they were able to trade 3 guys out of the pen, with the intent to continue to contend for a WC. If they think what they have in the minors is better than a 29 year-old making $1.6M+ there’s no point in holding on to him. Taking him in the trade was all about offsetting Melancon’s salary, even if it’s just a bit. For teams like the Braves even $1.6M is significant.
The SFG didn’t trade for “him” he was added to the deal by ATL as a condition of the trade. Winkler is on a $1.6M contract so they sent him and the balance of his contract + 40 ,man roster spot to the SFG.
Typical to the volatile nature of reliever performance, he was above ave last year, below this year. Any claiming team will have to pick up the contract and get 1 season of control in 2020 via arbitration + add him to their 40 man. My guess is unless someone thinks they can fix him for 2019, he clears. He’s a borderline non-tender guy otherwise
Braves needed his spot on the 40 man roster
Okay, so generally, if you DFA a guy, you have seven days to trade him or you waive him. If he goes unclaimed, you can reassign him off the 40-man. Since we’re past the trade deadline, it seems that being DFA is simply another way of saying “released”? Why don’t they just say “released”?
There is a procedure. He’s DFA’d to clear a 40-man roster spot. Since the Giants apparently aren’t interested in retaining him the next move will be to request release waivers. I think it’s just paper work that prevents them from just releasing him straight off. Everybody knows he’s being released, it just isn’t official yet.
Because he’s not released. You still control his rights If he goes unclaimed. If you request release waivers on a player he is released. If Winkler were to clear waivers and the giants opted to bring him back he would’ve never been released from his contract. Why would you say he was released if he was never released?