Giants Release Jerry Blevins, Brandon Guyer

The Giants released left-hander Jerry Blevins and outfielder Brandon Guyer shortly before the league-wide roster freeze was implemented, per Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle. Both veterans had been in Major League camp as non-roster invitees this spring.

It was a rough spring for the 36-year-old Blevins, who was tagged for nine runs on 10 hits and a pair of walks with three strikeouts in just 3 2/3 innings of work. In all, the southpaw allowed 12 of the 23 hitters he faced to reach base.

That said, Blevins also had a quality showing for the Braves in 2019, tossing 32 1/3 innings of 3.90 ERA ball. He punched out 37 hitters against 16 walks in that time and held opposing lefties to a miserable .180/.261/.279 slash. Righties handled him much better, slashing .233/.347/.483, however. It’s been a similar story for Blevins throughout his career — .583 OPS from opposing lefties; .743 from righties — and it stands to reason that he’s the type of player whose skill set is largely undercut by MLB’s new three-batter minimum. If the season is able to be played out, it’s likely he’d need to latch on elsewhere on another nonguaranteed deal.

As for Guyer, the 34-year-old appeared in only five spring games with the Giants and went 1-for-7 in nine total plate appearances. (Yes, he was hit by a pitch in one of them.) Guyer hasn’t played in the Majors since 2018 after spending the bulk of the 2019 season on the injured list with the White Sox’ top minor league affiliate in Charlotte. He’s a career .250/.339/.388 hitter but is best used as a platoon piece, as evidenced by a lifetime .274/.376/.449 batting line against left-handed pitchers.