The Giants have released former MLB hurlers Tyson Ross and Nick Vincent, KNBR’s Mark Sanchez reports on Twitter. Also cut loose was utilityman Jamie Westbrook.
Ross and Vincent are each 33-year-old righties who had inked minor-league deals in the offseason. The former is best known for his days in the Padres rotation. The latter, a reliever, was also once an effective hurler in San Diego as well as with the Mariners.
Though he struggled in limited big league action last year, and has never recovered from serious shoulder injuries, Ross has a lifetime 4.04 ERA in ten MLB campaigns. He didn’t have much hope of cracking the starting staff, but was perhaps a multi-inning relief candidate. Ross struggled in his three outings in camp before the pandemic paused the action.
As for Vincent, he struggled with the long ball during a stint with the Giants last year. But he turned in a strong 14-inning run to end the season — 1.93 ERA with 17:4 K/BB — with a Phillies team that was managed by new Giants skipper Gabe Kapler. Vincent had coughed up three homers and seven earned runs in four Spring Training frames.
Westbrook has yet to appear in the majors, having reached minor league free agency after seven seasons in the Diamondbacks system. He turned in 514 plate appearances of .281/.358/.451 hitting in the upper minors last year, but obviously didn’t show enough in camp for the Giants to keep him in their 60-man player pool.
What is the status of the Giants’ draft picks? They just signed one on an above slot deal. Should I be nervous?
The Giants need all the help they can get, right now there pegged for last in the West
That isn’t what should make you nervous if you’re a Giants fan. Practically everything else about this team takes precedent in terms of prioritizing what to worry about!
Why did they even sign Ross and every other scrub that rides the Farhan merry go round? How do you evaluate an acquisition that you never give a chance to? These dumpster dives haven’t really impressed me and it doesn’t build any confidence in Farhans talent evaluation skills when they get shipped out shortly after. The ones that have stuck are average at best.
What Giants fans should be asking themselves is what really is the strategy of Giants management? Payroll is lower than ever and all the chips are in on the prospects saving the day in 2-3 years? Seems like what the Marlins, Royals, Orioles, Blue Jays, White Sox, Mariners, Rangers, Pirates, Rockies, Padres, and Tigers are all doing.
None of those teams bring in half the revenue that the Giants do so why are they acting like a small market team? Another question is why go with the same strategy that half the league is already doing?
It isn’t creative, innovative, or clever its just cheap. Why can’t you rebuild AND sign a player worth buying a ticket to watch? Maybe Farhan doesn’t know how to spend money or attract big free agents. Seems like a pretty big flaw to me.
I agree wholeheartedly that the Giants 2020 record shouldn’t be what concerns fans.
What I disagree about is Zaidi’s approach. He elevated one of the worst farms into one that’s in the middle of the pack. His moves, like “buying” a 2019 first round pick for taking on Zack Cozart’s salary, have added talent to a talent-deprived minor league system. He inherited a team with 2-3 years of over the hill veterans, and it’s a lot to expect him to turn the team into a contender or a top minor league talent pool overnight.
I get the criticism of not trading Bumgarner and Smith, those are legitimate points (their July hot streak and pressure from ownership/fans aside). But he for real value (and shed millions in salary) for Mark Melancon, Drew Pomeranz, Sam Dyson, and Ray Black. I believe if he had compelling deals in place for Bumgarner, Smith, Belt, Samardzija, or anyone else, he would have traded them away too.
The one move I can’t digest is letting Bumgarner walk for $85M. The Giants have the money, he puts butts in seats, and they could use a quality veteran arm in the rotation to mentor the next generation. But aside from that, the Giants will be feckless in 2020-21 regardless of whether Zaidi dished out minor league deals for the likes of Tyson Ross, or whether he dished our tens of millions on decent veterans who won’t even be on the next competitive iteration of Giants baseball.
His dumpster diving has offered potential pieces in Yazstremski and Alex Dickerson, so I say let him find more potential value while he waits for the roster to shed it’s highly paid 30-something veterans.
Once the payroll is gutted, the farm is bountiful, and we understand who on the 2020 roster is for real, Zaidi and the Giants ownership will absolutely open their wallets to some degree. I believe a lot of teams could spend more on payroll than they admit, but this is one time where I don’t understand the calls to have the Giants spend money while they’re still reeling from years of flippantly handing out big contracts. Let’s wait a year or two before we go on a Zaidi witch hunt
Well said!
Good points, Cainer!
Letting go of Bum was a tough move. Keeping him only to have him flame out and decline would just give fuel to the notion of the Giants as a sentimental, backward-looking franchise rewarding over-the-hill veterans for previous accomplishments. Bum’s still young, but there are a lot of miles on that arm; I can understand why they let him walk in spite of whatever warm and fuzzies the fans might have for his return; Pence and Panda were much cheaper ways to placate the base while filling depth/veteran mentor holes.
To all the other points, we’re in agreement: Let the Giants ride out the stale contracts and the window of contention will be opening soon.
Madbum wanted to leave SF. He wanted to go to Arizona. The speed in which he signed and the lack of a bidding war for his services reflects that the Giants had zero chance of resigning him. He should have been traded.
I wouldn’t characterize Bumgarner’s departure as the Giants’ choice. They ticked him off a couple years earlier in contract discussions, and he has said Arizona was his top choice heading into free agency. Considering that Arizona probably got a slight discount when signing him, that certainly appears to be the case.
Bumgarner? Geez, unplug already. Bumgarner was clear in his press conference that ‘AZ was his first choice” and who can blame him. He wants to compete and play post season baseball. The Giants are 5 years away from that.
Also, he watched management do huge Multi-Million dollar extentions to mediocre players like Brandon Crawford and Belt. While he, being their undisputed WS hero , was left high and dry with a team friendly terrible deal that they failed to renegotiate.
Don’t blame Zaidi! Blame those buffoons Sabean / Evans
I disagree 100% – the roster churn and moves so far have netted a number of players even if it meant dumping a lot that didn’t work out – what they are doing isn’t rocket science, they are building a core of young talent – there is zero reason to spend money right now because it will be more like 2021 and beyond that it should even be thought of to spend and coincidentally that is when the payroll trends downward -also the time for your barts and ramoses to come up…. going and just spending a lot of money would just be dumb right now and is a recipe for ownership to be like wtf are you doing spending money not to win?
The Giants have set an expectation with their fans over the years that they will spend money and be competitive. It costs around $500 for a family of 4 to go to a game which was fine when Bonds was there, fine when they were winning, and would be fine again if there was a reason to watch. Superstars give fans a reason to spend $500 to go to a game.
Think of it this way. Say you had a kid and they got in to an Ivy league school that cost $50K a year. Would you be happy to find out that the majority of your child’s professors were actually part time JC college teachers? Would you be happy to know you are paying top dollar for the same instruction another family is paying $40 a credit for their kid to receive? The Giants ballpark says Harvard on the outside and the product is the Miami Marlins on the inside. Give me another example anywhere in life where you would be ok overpaying for a sub par product.
Pato, I’m having fun being your nemesis tonight 😉
There’s no correlation between how much the team spends and how much they win. As we’ve been over in previous posts, the Doggers have spent big and not won since ’89, though most people around the game would agree that they are making the right moves and have good odds of eventually taking a WS title.
There have been periods of non-contention before, and if you’re a real fan, you look for the good. It was great seeing Yaz hit that bomb at Fenway, and it was fun during that mania of the hot streak into last year’s deadline. Who knows, maybe Bart will turn into the next incantation of Posey, especially since he has the real thing as a mentor.
You don’t have to go spend $500 for four tickets. I got to several games last year for $25-50 a ticket and they weren’t bad seats. For me, going to the game is more about the experience than the win.
The analogy about the professors is silly and doesn’t apply here. The Giants aren’t selling you something they are not; you are free to not go or not watch the games if you choose not to.
Hard to take the family to a tuesday night game against the pirates just so you only have to pay $25 a ticket. If I’m going to go into the city to watch a game its going to be on a day where the “dynamic pricing” kicks in! Add parking or BART and a couple of crab sandwiches and craft beers plus a few Ghirardelli sundays and it all adds up. If I didn’t love the hell out of this team I wouldn’t care this mucha. I’ve tried to be patient for 2 years now and nothing has changed. I know it’s going to take 3 more years to finally see if this plan actually worked and it kinda feels like being in baseball jail. All I’m asking for is a little sign that money isn’t all this ownership group cares about. I feel like they are taking advantage of the fans loyalty by not spending the money they make off of us.
These guys were given a chance (or at least Vincent was). Vincent had some moments prior to getting injured last year, but after a mediocre ST showing, it was time to cut bait. Ross was mostly the same: He had ups and downs in his career, and at this point, he’s a non-roster invitee. Some of those will make the cut; most won’t.
I know we’re not on the same page here, but I maintain that 2020 is a lost season…for everyone, pretty much. Look at the Dodgers who will have basically scrubbed Alex Verdugo and Jeter Downs for 50-60 games (max) of Mookie Betts. The Giants would have wasted a prime year of any big free agent they might have signed last offseason or this one. As a fan, I’m actually thanking my lucky stars that this rebuild is a little closer to being done and the window of contention is drawing nearer. If you want to remain in denial of that, I’m not sure what kind of a fan you are rather than a bandwagoner, which is a label a few folks have already pinned on you today.
I think that if you can remain patient, that there will be a meaningful move aimed at contention in the offseason of 2020. You CAN rebuild and bring in talent, and that will happen, but it really makes more sense for it to happen in 2021.
5 years is a long time to be patient. If you think that magically all the prospects in the Giants system are going to come up and be competitive in less than 3 years from now you are delusional. That is a bare minimum when you go through a cheap rebuild and the only guarantees you have after those 5 years is your payroll is going to be low. If that is the only point I make that you can actually understand then we are good. This is about money and nothing else. They want your money and they want to spend as little of theirs to get it.
I think that’s a cynical take, bud. I don’t think this rebuild is about “being cheap” for the sake of ripping off fans and I’m sorry if you do.
I don’t think it’s delusional to think that this could be a really good team in 3 years. They already have 5 prospects in the top 100, not counting Will Wilson or the guys they just added in this year’s draft.
I think the rationale is to start adding in big splash FA guys beginning with the 2021 offseason. By then, the last of the contracts (except maybe one year of Longo) will be cleared, and the team will have a good sense of who their prospects are and what they can do.
I think that strategy makes more sense than squandering money on a guy like a Bryce Harper or Mookie Betts when his talents will be stagnated by aged-out ex champion guys who are still owed tons of money.
Bryce would have been a mistake but what about Rendon? If you have the money why not bring in a superstar like that who fills a current and future hole and could be a steady leader in your clubhouse for the next 8 years? If you have the money and that’s all it’s going to cost why not?
Signing Rendon would have given us a middle of the order bat and he could have played 2B this year for us and 3rd after they get rid of Longo. Rendon is a Better player than Harper and one year after nearly spending over 300 million supposedly for Bryce they don’t even attempt to sign Rendon who ended up signing in California for much less than Bryce did.
This is why I am skeptical. Are they really going to spend on free agents in a year or two or will there be more convenient excuses like the player didn’t want to pay California taxes! Don’t you think they had a real good idea Bryce wasn’t going to come here for the same money he could get elsewhere?? Maybe they knew Rendon was willing and didn’t want to actually follow through with a big contract.
Look at where the White Sox are right now and that will be a best case scenario for the Giants in 3 years. Really intriguing lineup and spotty pitching. I hope I’m wrong but so far I’m not
Pay that much for Rendon then have him play 2nd fiddle to Longo??? Every team has down years and as a fan you have to accept they won’t be competitive every year you are alive.
And they’ve lost a year of prospect development because of covid-19 . So, the rebuild period is extended by an additional year. Zaidi isn’t going to go big on FAs until he has established a core group of homegrown players at the big league level. It’s basically the same plan Theo worked in Chicago. He didn’t go get Lester until he had Bryant, Rizzo, Baez, Schwarber, Russell all playing at the big league level ( Rizzo was acquired via trade )
@pato349 Rendon? Why. They’re not competitive. And they won’t be competitive for several more years. It’s idiotic to spend that kind of money to fortify a loser team
Zaidi is only in his 2nd year and he’s in the beginning stages of a massive 3-5 year organizational rebuild. Period. So, stop whining.
The Last move on the chessboard will be adding big ticket free agents. Not the first. He will not add like that until he has a homegrown working core that is performing at the big league level.
It’s only his 2nd year. And he loses this year of development because of covid 19 and no MiLB season. So, his 3-5 yr rebuild has been extended to 4-6 yrs
Ross never should have been left in that no hit bid.
Westbrook looked good in spring. I wonder if he’s headed overseas. if not I hope Klentak takes the guy for our bench.
Is that Tyson Ross?