The Giants announced they’ve reinstated infielder Tommy La Stella from the 60-day injured list (via Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle). Starter Anthony DeSclafani is going on the 10-day IL, retroactive to August 3, with right shoulder fatigue. To open 40-man roster space for La Stella, reliever Conner Menez was designated for assignment.
La Stella returns after a three month absence. He initially landed on the IL with a left hamstring strain and then suffered a right hand fracture while rehabbing. It’s been a tough first season in San Francisco for La Stella, who has thus far been limited to 75 plate appearances of .235/.297/.353 hitting. That’s far off the quietly excellent .289/.356/.471 line the lefty-swinging La Stella put up with the Angels and A’s between 2019-20.
Despite the slow start, the Giants are surely happy to have La Stella back in the lineup. San Francisco signed the 32-year-old to a three-year, $18.75MM contract over the winter. There’s little question the front office believes in his ability to return to his prior form. La Stella figures to rotate between second and third base, at least until Evan Longoria returns from his own lengthy IL stint. That’ll free up Kris Bryant to see more time in the outfield and offer manager Gabe Kapler a quality left-handed bat to mix in with the right-handed hitting Donovan Solano and Wilmer Flores at those positions.
In addition to La Stella, San Francisco figures to bring back Longoria and Brandon Belt in the not too distant future. They’ll be welcome reinforcements for the 67-40 Giants, who hold MLB’s best record and lead the Dodgers by 3.5 games in the National League West.
It doesn’t seem there’s much cause for alarm with DeSclafani despite the ominous-sounding diagnosis. Kapler told reporters (including Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic) the expectation is that he’ll miss just one start. The righty struggled in 2020 — his final season with the Reds — but has had a bounceback campaign in the Bay Area. DeSclafani has tossed 126 1/3 innings of 3.28 ERA/4.03 SIERA ball with average or better strikeout (23.3%), walk (6.5%) and groundball (45.0%) rates. He’s already thrown nearly 100 more innings than he did in Cincinnati last season, so the Giants are surely keeping a close eye on his workload to keep him healthy for the stretch run.
Menez is something of a surprising cut, as the southpaw has pitched quite well in his big league time this season. He’s tossed 14 innings with a 3.86 ERA, punching out a decent 24.2% of opposing hitters with a massive 59.1% grounder rate. However, he’s struggled mightily in 22 frames with Triple-A Sacramento, managing just a 6.95 ERA and walking an alarming 15.9% of opposing hitters in the minors.
Triple-A struggles aside, it wouldn’t be surprising to see another team add Menez off waivers. The 26-year-old has a fine 4.04 ERA/4.34 SIERA over parts of three major league seasons and can still be optioned for the remainder of this year.
I wonder who takes DeScalfini’s next turn in the rotation.
Probably Aaron Sanchez.
The roster crunch begins. Will be interesting the decisions the team makes when Belt and Longoria return.
Plenty of guys on the fringe of being true 40 man roster players. They’ll DFA two guys and they’ll probably both end up staying with the team on a minors deal.
I’d say Vosler & Slater will be the candidates, definitely Vosler.
It would really surprise me if Slater is DFA’d. I’d have to think, Zaidi will do what he can to keep him.
Vosler was sent down Sunday when we got Bryant. Those with options left – Wade, Dick, Duggar, Estrada, Slater, Jackson. My guess is Estrada and Jackson but if he wants to keep pitching then Slater. instead of Jackson. I would think Wade and Dick are good but never know.
Thanks, it’s good to see all those with options, but having options left isn’t going to help if there’s a 40-man roster crunch. I would think if it came down to Slater or Dickerson, Dick might be the guy that’s out. Slater, despite his numbers being down this season, has a lot more flexibility.
There’s a real possibility we don’t see Longoria again this season. If he isn’t looking good before an actual rehab assignment then they simply don’t give him one. With Bryant onboard Longo could just sit out the rest of the season thereby forgoing a further 40 man roster casualty.
I didn’t know Dickerson still had options. If s,o he’s the guy that should go down. I don’t understand batting him fourth on a regular basis.
La Stella seems to be a spark, Giants will need that spark when LA throws everything but the kitchen sink at them.
Still miss La Stella on the Angels. He’d be better than Mayfield, for sure…
They just got another lefty. I think Dodgers plan to throw Buehler and all the lefties they got. Duffy, kershaw, Urias, Hamel, and Price. Bum just mowed down the Giants handed lineup yesterday minus Posey. Looking like the Dodgers have a plan for the Giants.
Getting Longo back will help with that. His OPS is over .1200 against lefties this season
Tough day to be an Italian Giant
Menez will get snatched up like a cookie. Tough loss but Giants must believe in their minors pitching depth.
I was wondering about that.. he had 6 of 8 good games this year, and one of those other two weren’t his fault..
I agree, Menez was an odd choice to DFA. Maybe they are thinking that his poor AAA results so far this year will scare teams off. He’s pitched quite well in the brief time he’s spent in MLB in 2020 & 2021 though.
I guess its because he’ll be out of options next year, so they don’t see him in their long terms plan after this season anyway and there are other guys they do.
I’d have to think Zaidi knew he was going to need a roster spot, and probably tried to trade Menez before the deadline. I could be wrong, quite likely, actually, but since he didn’t, I assume no other team was interested. That probably tells us about Menez and his future with the Giants.
I think Reyes Moronta will be back soon. He’s rehabbing in sactown
I really don’t understand how WAR is calculated. Menez has pitched in 8 games so far this season at the major league level. His ERA is 3.86, his K/9 is 9.4 while his BB/9 is 1.9 and his WHIP is 1.36. His ERA+ is 109 and his FIP is 3.52, but his WAR is -0.3. The only stats that jump out as negative are his Hits per 9 (10.2) and HR9 (1.4), but that is skewed due to only 14 IP. I don’t see how these stats lead him to be classified as being worse than an average replacement pitcher. Can someone explain this? I wonder if his AAA performance this year somehow factors into WAR (his AAA stats are awful for 2021).
RA/9
Yeah, as DarkSide alluded to, BRef WAR looks at a pitcher’s overall runs allowed per nine, as opposed to bucketing by ERA. (It adjusts for team defense more generally but doesn’t distinguish between earned and unearned runs specifically). So it’s docking Menez for allowing 10 runs in 14 innings — as opposed to 6 earned runs in 14 innings, which looks more respectable.
His Triple-A performance is not part of that calculation.
His bWAR is -.3, but his fWAR is .2. A half “win” difference for 8 appearances is a lot.
That difference is probably just the different weight each institution gives relievers. Or how they relate to win and loss in the actual game. I’m impressed with the information given mine is purely speculative. Completely agree .5 war difference in 8 games is significant.
Do we have enough pitching….. Starters are showing a little fatigue….
Not unless you are comfortable with Aaron Sanchez, Sammy Long, Tyler Beede, and maybe Scott Kazmir as depth. I think Farhan should have done something on that front at the deadline.
I do agree with you on that. If the Giants come up short I think starting pitching will be the culprit
Have to agree. I thought a reliable starting pitcher was necessary but everyone was looking for that arm. The prices were probably too high for FZ. I think—but hope I’m wrong—that starting pitching will be the Giants issue down the stretch. The depth of this roster, offensively, is remarkable.
Shoulder”fatigue”. Wish I could get 10 days off from “fatigue”.
Giants about to go on an epic losing streak to end them all…
According to your crystal ball?
Been hearing this song since April. Giants still the best team in baseball. You might want to get used to it.
Yep, BS has been going on for months. I think they are really a year away from being serious WS challengers, just don’t have the sustained pitching talent in my opinion. Especially given Gausman’s last two starts.
Gausman needs to get a feel for his split again and quickly.
I’ve been hearing that for awhile now. First it was, “it’s only May, wait until June”. Then it was, “it’s still early, wait until July. Now it’s August and they’re still in first, and still have the best record in MLB.
They are looking a little tired, and I’m not saying they won’t lose the division, anything can happen. But all 3 NLW contenders aren’t playing as well as they had. Plus SD needs to worry about a hot Reds club, closer to the Padres for the WC, than the Padres are to the Giants.
Giants have been the most consistent team all season. They’ve never lost more than 4 in a row and have only been swept twice this season (ironically both by the Dodgers, but one was a two game series and they’ve since gone 5-2 against them to even the series). I don’t think the Giants are built to roll out a 10 game winning streak but I definitely feel safe saying they’re built to avoid a massive losing streak
Kervin Castro
Hoping we get 2019-2020 La Stella and not April 2021 La Stella…
2021 LaStella is a small sample. Plenty of good players have subpar streaks of only 75 PAs. He should progress to the mean.
I love DeScalfani but I hope maybe they will put him on the IL for the dodger season.
Perhaps the problem is th e Giants have too much depth at offense , hence a logjam that will cause them to lose decent ballplayer.s, and too little depth at pitching. The Giants have virtually no young , quality pitcher s at he major or upper minor league level.s (Webb is the exception)
Kervin Castro looks promising.
They’ll start to slide off the rest of the way, although a WC should still be attainable.
Maybe, but that’s why they play the games. So far so good. You are what you’re record is.
Hey Giant Fans.
Stumbled across this. Good read if you haven’t seen it. Go the coaches !
mlb.com/news/how-giants-became-2021-most-shocking-…
Good read!
You’re thoughts on why LaStella comes off the DL and claims a starting job when Solano has been hitting extremely well as of late? Hasn’t Solano earned the right for at bats, while LaStella should have to earn his role? It’s not like LaStella was stroking before his injuries?