The Giants announced a series of roster moves Thursday, as they optioned outfielders Jaylin Davis and Joe McCarthy to their alternate training site, designated Rule 5 right-hander Dany Jimenez for assignment and recalled Steven Duggar. Meanwhile, corner infielders Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria were activated from the injured list.
Jimenez, 26, was selected out of the Blue Jays organization in December’s Rule 5 Draft, but his brief time with the Giants didn’t go particularly well. He allowed a run in 1 1/3 innings of work and walked three of the eight batters he faced. Jimenez threw only 37 pitches with the Giants, and fewer than half of those offerings were strikes. The righty was certainly impressive in the minors last year — albeit against younger competition. In 59 2/3 innings between Class-A Advanced and Double-A, Jimenez notched a 2.59 ERA with 14.2 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9.
Jimenez will be put through waivers now, and if he’s claimed by another club, he’d retain his Rule 5 status with the new team. If Jimenez goes unclaimed, he’ll be offered back to the Blue Jays. The two clubs could also work out a trade that’d allow the Giants to retain Jimenez’s rights as a non-roster player who’d no longer be tied to Rule 5 roster limitations.
It’s a bit of a surprise to see Davis sent down, as the Giants appear high on the 26-year-old slugger. Acquired from the Twins a year ago in the Sam Dyson swap that proved quite regrettable for Minnesota — Dyson had a shoulder injury he’d not disclosed to the Giants or Twins that required surgery — Davis has gotten out to a slow start. He’s appeared in four games and gone just 2-for-12 with a solo home run and six strikeouts. Today’s move notwithstanding, the Giants will surely want to take a longer look at Davis after he decimated minor league pitching to the tune of a .306/.397/.590 slash last year. It seems likely that he’ll be up again in the not-too-distant future, but for now he’ll work at the team’s alternate site while Duggar gets another go-around at the MLB level.
I wanted to see more Jaylin Davis. I guess clanking a routine pop fly was it?
I agree, I’d love to see Davis get some regular AB’s. But at this point, it’s a little crowded and I’d rather see Slater continue to play at the moment. With Longoria and Belt back, Wilmer will probably see more time at 2B, which pushes Dubon into CF more, which pushes Yaz more exclusively to a corner OF spot, etc etc… the outfield became more crowded with our infield back to health.
Hopefully there’ll be opportunity for Davis to get some consistent playing time if they make some trades or face some injuries. I’d love to see him get a month-plus of starts
Is Dubon a better center fielder than Yaz? The guy barely started playing outfield last off season.
I haven’t seen enough to feel strongly one way or the other, but I’m guessing part of why we’ve seen so little Dubon in CF is because Wilmer was covering 3B so far. With the infield intact, now we’ll see a bit more of the Dubon-CF experiment.
If the Giants believed Yaz was capable of manning CF every day, they probably wouldn’t have tested with Dubon. But who knows, maybe this experiment will falter and Yaz will end up the more appealing CF defender.
Yaz has looked just fine in CF so far.
@tedtheodorelogan Yes, but he needs more reps in CF , Dubon is a middle infielder. Those guys make terrific Center fielders. He has better foot speed and a better arm than Yaz and will cover more ground
Dubon looks lost out there. And he looks like he is about 17…
I’m assuming Duggar CF vs righties and Dubon CF vs lefties.
as much as I am not a fan of longoria I am really looking forward to haveng a real 3b @ 3b wilmer/solano have not been good defensively @ 3rd at all
I’m with your comment 100%.
Too much swing and miss with Davis. Needs to shorten his stroke.
even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile. Giants don’t need another outfielder with sub-.300 OBP…
Yup, that certainly didn’t help. But I think the strikeouts still seem to be his biggest problem. Hopefully more work will straighten that out.
So if Dany clears waivers, is he offered back to the Blue Jays or can the Giants send him down to the Alternate Site? I heard that the Rule 5 rules are kind of weird this year.
Good question. I have the same question.
offeres back. that’s what happened with Megill and Woods, they were just traded back after being returned.
Rule 5 hasn’t changed. The Giants and Blue Jays can work out a deal or the Giants will need to offer Jimenez back to the Jays.
i dont get why some teams are so quick to designate Rule 5 guys. why even carry them this long?
It’s sad to see Davis get optioned, especially with Pence being 0-17. I love Pence and his energy but he seriously needs to get heated up otherwise he’s just clogging a roster spot that could be given to Davis.
Baseball 1600. You have spoken the unspeakable. However, you are right. This team is going nowhere. Let the kids play.
you can’t say the team is going nowhere – they certainly aren’t projected to go far but a .500 right now isn’t horrible – there should though be a sense of urgency in playing a hot hand with a shortened season so pence does need to pick it up
I don’t see a path to .500 for this team. The talent gap between this group and the rest of the team in the realigned schedule is too large.
I’ll be happy if they win 20 games.
I agree. We already saw Pence hit like this in 2017-18, I don’t need to see much more. It would be nice if he got hot and could be a lefty-masher at DH who comes off the bench against righties, but not at the expense of developing Davis or anyone they think could be a part of the next contending Giants roster.
It’s not like we can expect a robust trade market for a month of mid-30’s DH with three months of good production over the last three years. At this point, I’d rather give the time to Ruf, who at least has a few years of club control beyond 2020.
I like Ruf a lot. And I agree that this looks like the 2017-18 Pence, lunging and often not even touching the ball. I hope I’m wrong, but with Craw doing his usual bounce out to second base act, the Giants can ill-afford another hole in the lineup.
I would love to see HP become the Giants’ manager in the future. Kapler makes my skin crawl.
What about Hensley Meulens?
what about him?
Well one thing is certain, Muelens HAS TO be able to manage better than he can coach batters
Solano needs to play every day. He needs to play 2B against righties and SS against lefties with Flores at 2B. This pushes Dubon to CF with Yaz and Dickinson at the corners against lefties. Hunter looks overmatched. This is 2018 all over again. How did he do it last year in Texas?
Hopefully he’s just off to a slow start or feeling pressure now that he is a Giant again. Time will tell.
I agree, Yaz, Solano, Dickerson and Slater need to be playing everyday and batting near the top of the order
I was hoping Bochy leaving would mean the end of these weird lineups and lack of playing time for Slater…I mean panda batting second? WTF
I know Davis has not had a lot of ABs in the majors, but the swing and miss issue he has reminds me of so many other AAAA player the Giants have had over the years that we all wanted to see succeed and they just didn’t have what it took to be a Major Leaguer though they were very good Minor Leaguers. I hope Davis can figure it out for his own sake, but he doesn’t provide you with much confidence, and unfortunately another like that is Duggar who all of us were hoping a couple of seasons ago would be the future Brett Butler, just using him as an eg. as he or Pagan have pretty much been the best lead off hitters the Giants have had in the last 40 years.
Dodgers fan here but I watch every Giants game also. I cannot understand why Solano isn’t playing every day. He played just over 80 games last season and ended with a .330 average. In this (very young) season he’s just under .500, and considering some of the other yawner bats (cough, Crawford, Pence, ..) dude needs to be at LEAST dh’ing
Quick hook for Davis after just 12 at-bats. This abbreviated season is an excellent opportunity to look at young players. Isn’t working with younger guys supposed to be Kapler’s forte?
Also, I’m wondering what Giants fans think of Duggar. Since he hasn’t shown much with the bat, it’s hard to see where he fits in.
I’m thinking that they must value Duggar’s defense more than Davis’ offense.
If Hunter Pence doesn’t start getting hot, Davis will be back up for his spot.
I think this is Duggar’s last chance, and unfortunately, I’m not optimistic that he can hit Major League pitching. Like many others have said, I’d rather see Davis get more ABs.
Duggar has convincingly demonstrated he can’t hit major league pitching. let’s move on….
Don’t count out Solano…..he is the best PURE hitter on the team….his glove is decent
@ azcrook: Why has he been relegated to part time duties? Does he have a hole in his swing to where he needs to be platooned?
Talk to Zaidi. All players must platoon or die.
Oh joy, more up and down crap from Zaidi.
I think Jaylin is worth the extended look
I cant see extending abs to Pence as an option for much longer here