The Giants have moved infielder Tommy La Stella to the 60-day injured list and claimed right-handed reliever Trevor Hildenberger from the Mets, Maria Guardado of MLB.com was among those to report. San Francisco subsequently optioned Hildenberger to Triple-A Sacramento.
La Stella went on the 10-day IL with a left hamstring strain on May 4, and Tuesday’s switch to the 60-day version means he won’t return until at least July. That’s obviously less-than-ideal news for him and the Giants, who signed La Stella to a three-year, $18.75MM contact in free agency. The 32-year-old hit a disappointing .235/.297/.353 with one home run in 75 plate appearances before suffering his injury. The Giants have relied on Wilmer Flores and Mauricio Dubon at the keystone in La Stella’s place, but they should soon reinstate Donovan Solano, who has been on the IL with a calf strain since April 22.
Hildenberger, 30, threw just 2 1/3 innings with the Mets this year before they designated him for assignment last weekend. Also a former Twin, Hildenberger has pitched to a 5.52 ERA (with a much more encouraging 3.60 SIERA) and recorded a 22.5 percent strikeout rate, a 7.1 percent walk rate and a 48.4 percent groundball rate over 133 2/3 frames in the bigs.
Hildenberger is a local kid from Mountain View, went to Cal. He could lower that ERA a lot…and still not be good.
But if he lowers it a whole lot, he’d be decent.
The locks are off the dumpster again
At this point I think Giants fans get giddy every time those locks pop off. They’ve found a lot of gold in not a lot of time.
Looks it up, see Giants have the best NL record.
And are 2nd in the MLB
That LaStella contract looks like a real waste. Not the end of the world, but a bad look for sure.
Hildenberger…? Never heard of him. Guess it’s just for depth and that LaStella’s roster spot will be used for something else. Hopefully additional relief corps, because there’s a big hole there.
Too early to judge the LaStella contract. He’ll be only 20% of the way through his contract when he gets back.
I guess, Andy. I haven’t seen much to endear me to LaStella so far. His tenure prior to the Giants looked like AAAA material to me. Not much has changed that assessment since.
Not true. Not a LeStella fan at all, but good numbers the last few years.
Then it’s clear you don’t know what a AAAA player looks like.
well the bullpen has been stinking up what has otherwise been an incredible run so far – the giants have the best record in the NL right now and you could add probably 4 more wins at least to it ith an average bullpen performance, 2 in the last week
Right, that was my point above, too. SFG needs a bonafide closer and someone other than Tyler Rogers to help lock down the later innings of relief.
I don’t think so. He be fresh in Aug. no telling what injuries they’ll have then.
Gotta assume he can’t be any worse than Wisler? I heard he has a kinda funky delivery. Maybe the Giants see in him what they saw in Tyler Rogers.
With LaStella out for that long, why not bring Vosler back? The kid can hit and is versatile enough to play second and third, thus giving the Giants a left-handed bat at that spot. And Dubon looks fantastic if Vosler can’t match up with lefties.
I think they’re waiting to see what they have in Duggar before making a move off the 26 for another infielder.
You may be right; I’m surprised they’ve held on to Duggar, but maybe they intend to include him in a trade. The only way to do that is for him to show he can hit major league pitching to give him some value.
Vosler, Dubon and Duggar would be lucky to hit their way out of a wet paper bag. The Giants should use the roster spot for a relief pitcher who can put fear into the hearts of an opposing lineup.
And who might this mysterious relief pitcher that can “put fear into the hearts of an opposing lineup” be?
@Sadler: Good point. There aren’t a ton of guys to call on at the moment. One guy, though, who might fit the bill is Tyler Beede. His future is ideally as a starter, but he has pitched well in the minors so far. But maybe the way the bullpen gets solved is by waiver claim or by hook and crook until the trade deadline.
You have more faith in Beede than I do. I’ve never been a fan, even when he was at Vanderbilt.
Dubon and Vosler can hit, but I’ll agree that the Giants need to find a reliable relief arm other than McGee, Rogers & Baragar. I thought Selman might help, but he hasn’t looked particularly sturdy.
I agree unfortunately Moronta got moved to the 60 day dl, and I can’t think of another reliever in the system that would as you say strike any sort of fear after being called up.
Dubon over .350 this month and very versatile. He’ll be a good utility piece, and fan are ok with that. Rooting for Vosler, but he hasn’t looked good. Duggar has no trade value, but has been decent fill in.
Unfortunate, LaStella always gets the most out of his talent. Hope for a speedy recovery.
Honestly asking – what talent? He has looked like crap with the Giants so far, and I have no idea why they chose him as the fellow to dole the longest contract to in the FZ era.
because he hardly strikes out and stretches out ABs, something FZ covets. in fact, he was the best in the league last year at not striking out (granted it was a shortened season). he’s going to be a great lead off hitter, he just had a slow start, like many others in the league
He’s already struck out more times than all of last year. I’m not impressed
Then you should be impressed how he has three seasons of more walks than strikeouts. Only something like 20 more strikeouts over walks in his entire career. Old school playa.
Lifetime .347 obp
You got no clue? Das why us guys sign on here while Farhan and Scott get paid big bucks to make the deals.
I say bring up Thairo Estrada.
This is why I thought SFG acquired Thairo Estrada in the first place. He will outplay both Donovan Solano and Mauicia Duban all around.
Calm down buddy, he’s done nothing in his short career to eclipse Solano and Dubon.
Dubon has looked real good the last couple weeks. I don’t know what team you’re watching, but I’ve been watching the one where Dubon plays some real slick defense at second and added about 150 points to his OPS.
You got no clue? Das why us guys sign on here while Farhan and Scott get paid big bucks to make the deals.
I was referring to a Vosler role for Estrada. He’s killing it in Sac. Dubon is playing great D and starting to hit. Estrada will not be replacing Solano/Dubon
@claude
With Wilmer coming out tonight with a tight hamstring, we may very well find out tomorrow what they do.
Sadler, what’s odd is that Estrada did not play tonight. Solano didn’t either. Sac is in Oklahoma city. I’m gonna guess something is transpiring
Solano has a silver slugger award, and third highest average in NL since 2019 all-star break. We should have him back within next week.
LaStella is not a starting player. Other than the shortened season he never played more than half his teams games not counting 93 games his rookie season. The time he exceeded 100 games as a Cubs player at least half were a pinch hitting appearance only. Not a start or much field time.
When tried as an everyday player in Chicago he faltered quickly. Not surprised by his production this season. Bad signing.
Lifetime .347 obp