The Giants have placed left-handed pitcher Tony Watson on the 60-day injured list and have promoted right-hander Enderson Franco in his place. Watson suffered a small fracture in his left wrist in early September.
With Watson’s season effectively over, he may well have played his last game in a Giants uniform. He holds a $2.5MM player option that comes with a $500K buyout. It seems that the likeliest course of action for the 34-year-old southpaw will be to opt for the buyout and test the free agent waters. While 2019 was the worst season of his career, he is still the owner of an impressive track record and there should be ample demand for veteran lefties, making it a decent bet that he’ll be able to eclipse the value of his player option.
He finishes the season with a 4.33 ERA in 54 innings of work. His strikeout numbers were the lowest they’ve been since 2013; that, coupled with a heightened susceptibility to the home run (he conceded 1.5 HR per nine innings), contributed to a 4.81 FIP. For his career, his ERA sits at a solid 2.83 in 573 Major League innings.
Meanwhile, the 26-year-old Franco will join the big league team in line to make his Major League debut. He’s been toiling away in the minor leagues since 2010, when he was signed as a 17-year-old international amateur. After brief stints at Triple-A in the previous two seasons, he got his first extended look at the level this year. His numbers haven’t been overly impressive, but evidently it’s enough to earn him a crack at the next level. In 113 innings at Triple-A, he owns a 5.97 ERA while striking out 7.8 batters per nine innings.
Thank You Watson. . . You were a fine Giant.
Franco’s promotion was based on his solid relief work during the playoffs for Sacramento. He supposedly throws much harder out of the bullpen. Low- risk audition. The Giants’ bullpen is a mess now, and it will be worse with the potential free agent losses of Will Smith, Watson, and Abad.
They’re not winning anytime soon so the bullpen situation really doesn’t matter right now
The SF Giants have to be one of the most mismanaged franchises of recent times. They had an opportunity to replenish their farm and the trade deadline and did absolutely nothing. The mirage of competitiveness quickly vanished and once again they held onto players TOO long. Any SF fans out there care to explain the logic?
Yet, somehow they mismanaged their team into 3 World Series championships.
Why not create an opportunity for more?
Wrong for a variety of reasons. First, if teams weren’t going to offer something in the range of what the Giants could get in a comp pick, why make the trade? If they lose Wil Smith and MadBum they’ll do it gaining extra picks (and more importantly, draft pool money). Afterall, they still may resign MadBum to help keep rotation staedy. Rebuilding a program takes mulitple seasons. Farm system had theee teams make the playoffs, and AAA just won a championship. We have three potential outfield starters, Dubon as our futire at second, and the money to sign free agent players. The international talent in single A has is on track to compete again in 2021. As for trading the Brandons, you can’t trade what no one will take. Not even for free.
Thanks
You think they are going to QO Smith? I wouldn’t be surprised if he took it. Probably going to be close to 19MM.
There is no way he accepts it. We saw RPs easily clear that mark on 2 year 3 year deals. Even those that are in a lesser tier as Smith. Especially as a RP, with his previous injuries, he’s going to sign that security type contract. It’s also been suggested the mark is going to be close to 18M.
If he takes it, he’ll risk missing out on a larger payday. If he rejects it, he’ll risk no one wanting to sign him, giving the Giants a chance to get him at a better rate for longer. See Moustakas and his deal with the Royals.
Anti belt . Perfectly said. I’m going to copy and paste this and post it everywhere (and give you no credit!). You are spot on.
The Giants were not silent at the deadline. They traded Dyson, Pomeranz, Black, Melancon, amid other minor league moves.
I’m so sick of this type of thinking. At the time of the deadline, the Giants were above .500, 3 games out of the wildcard, and were the hottest team in baseball. Granted, the probability never looked that great, but I’d have been so disheartened as a fan to see them waive the white flag. Look at the Diamondbacks. Where are they if they hadn’t traded Greinke? You can’t blame a franchise for trying to win. I’d rather watch my team at least attempt to win; rather than watch them tear it down and slog through 3 miserable rebuilding seasons.
…we’ve all read money ball…there’s more than one way to put a competitive product on the field.
You don’t pay much attention to the Giants do you? They have a lot of new young talented players to their farm system.
Exactly
GREED. Not wanting to really reboot but give idiot fans the idea they are staying competitive.
I agree, I was surprised as well that Zaidi didn’t just clean house completely. Perhaps by next season he’ll go for it.
I’m pretty sure his player option is valued well over $2.5MM
It always irritates me when the writers don’t do their homework. Watson has escalators in his contract that can pay him almost 8 million. Doubt anyone will match that. Giants beat writers already expect him to exercise it.
Giants are finna scuggle for a grip. Maybe 2025 they can compete for a WC spot. But we’ll see. Pipe dreams ol pipe dreams..
Buster might hit 4 tators next year and ground into 18 double plays. Belt might get to . 750ops. Crawford might get to . 650 ops. But once again pipe dreams fellas
teams been over .500 since the beginning of june. you might want to check the facts before hopping on the “giants will be bad forever” band wagon
Giants have been great in one run and extra inning games. The pitching has been way above expectations. Would not be surprising if next year the pitching falters and the record will reflect their overall talent more so than this year. Team should be 10 games down from current record.
I agree about the finna scufggle part