11:29am: The Giants have announced the move, adding that lefty Andrew Suarez has also been recalled from Triple-A. San Francisco’s 40-man roster is now full.
11:21am: The Giants will select the contract of right-hander Kyle Barraclough prior to today’s game against the Cardinals, tweets Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News. The veteran right-hander is already with the club in St. Louis, he notes. San Francisco has an open spot on its 40-man roster at the moment, so a 40-man move to accommodate Barraclough’s promotion isn’t a strict necessity.
It’s been less than a month since the Giants claimed Barraclough, 29, off waivers from the Nationals. Barraclough briefly served as the Marlins closer in 2018 and was a steady setup piece in the Miami bullpen from 2015-18, but he had a season to forget following last October’s trade to Washington.
In 25 2/3 innings with the Nats this year, Barraclough turned in a disastrous 6.66 ERA — due largely to the fact that he surrendered as many homers (eight) in that short sample as he did in 55 2/3 innings a year ago. In fact, heading into the 2019 season, Barraclough had only yielded a total of 15 home runs in 218 2/3 innings. Home runs are up throughout the league, of course, but Barraclough’s increase was among the most stark in the game.
With the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, Barraclough was blasted for seven runs in his first two-thirds of an inning. Those continued struggles may have aided the Giants in successfully passing Barraclough through outright waivers, but he’s righted the ship since that alarming system debut. He’s pitched five straight appearances without yielding an earned run, collecting nine strikeouts against three walks across five innings in that time.
Entering the 2019 season, Barraclough had pitched to a 3.21 ERA with 11.5 K/9 and 5.5 BB/9 in 218 2/3 innings at the big league level. If he’s able to continue his recent momentum and convince his new organization that he can a future piece in the ’pen, the Giants will be able to control him for another two years via arbitration. If he’s ultimately removed from the 40-man roster a second time, he’ll have the requisite service time to elect free agency at season’s end.
Expecting Moronta and Pablo to head to the 60-day. That’ll allow for Cueto to be activated and then for a Jaylin Davis callup after the River Cats win the PCL title.
Hopefully the Giants can fix him. Trevor Gott was a very similar case coming into spring training and he was effective for a while before getting blown up in his last couple appearances which in turn blew up his ERA. Giants bullpen should be good for years to come if Farhan continues to make these smart signings.
Totally agree
Amazing that Suarez hasn’t been a DFA’d yet.
Agree