The Giants have recalled right-hander Keaton Winn from Triple-A Sacramento and optioned fellow righty Tristan Beck to Sacramento in his place, per a team announcement. It’ll be the MLB debut for Winn whenever he takes the hill.
San Francisco has Logan Webb, Alex Cobb and Anthony DeSclafani lined up to start their respective games Monday through Wednesday this week, so there’s no immediate opening in the rotation. However, the Giants went with multiple bullpen games this past weekend, so there’s a need for some long relief in the event that one of the current rotation members has a short start or departs with an injury. Winn, who’s operated primarily as a starter in the minors, can give them just that.
The 25-year-old Winn has made a dozen appearances in Triple-A this year, all but three of them coming as a starter. The Giants have limited him on a per-outing basis, as Winn’s longest appearance of the season spanned just 4 1/3 frames and he has only 41 1/3 innings combined through those 12 outings. He’s pitched to a 4.35 ERA in that time, with a strong 27.1% strikeout rate and 50.9% ground-ball rate but an ugly 11.2% walk rate.
Baseball America ranks Winn 14th among Giants prospects, noting that he has a mid- to upper-90s heater, a newly adopted splitter and an average slider. There’s a chance for him to stick as a starter at the big league level, and perhaps even a vacancy at the moment with Sean Manaea in the ’pen and veterans Alex Wood and Ross Stripling on the injured list due to back injuries. Then again, Evan Webeck of the San Jose Mercury News tweets that Wood threw a 50-pitch session over the weekend and could be ready for activation as soon as he’s eligible, on June 16.
Winn’s role in the short-term will likely be dependent on the health of his fellow pitchers and how late into the game they’re able to pitch in the coming days. He hasn’t pitched since June 4, so the Giants will surely want to get him some work sooner than later. Winn could be optioned back in the coming days if he’s called upon for a lengthy bullpen appearance and would be unavailable for a few days anyhow, but his first call to the big leagues puts him squarely on the radar when the team needs bullpen or rotation help moving forward.
Bat Guano!!
Guano *is* bat poop, essentially you’re saying “Guano Guano!!” and I fully agree!
Winn certainly can’t do any worse than Stripling or Wood.
Tristan Beck didn’t pitch badly. He deserved a better fate.
Because he worked of Friday and Sunday he wouldn’t have much gas in the tank for the St. Louis series. Beck didn’t even go to Sacramento; the Giants left him in S.F. (courtesy of Alex Pavlovic) and he will likely rejoin the team, with Winn optioned out, for the LA series.
Thanks.
I thought they outlawed roster shenanigans like that? once you got optioned to the minors you had to stay down for a period of time unless there was an injury. ??
they limit the number of options but as far as I know there isn’t a number of days. They did a few years ago play with the IL so that pitchers weren’t manipulated that way but with the options as long as you stay in the limits you are probably fine – you could option a guy 5 times in a week but then you wouldn’t be able to do it again till the following year
Thanks.
Unless there is an il move, a pitcher cannot be promoted until 15 days since the option date.
Congrats Keaton! You deserve this! Go kick some ass!
You will be back Tristan, great job!
Hey he’s from 29 mins where I live, that’s neat!
Let’s Go Keaton!
Heard on the radio this afternoon that today was the first time Keaton Winn had ever been in a major league stadium in his life. He had never even been to a game as a kid growing up. Just sat there in the stands by himself for a while when he got to the ballpark in St. Louis today.
I heard that too ted, it has to be pretty cool for him! I hope he shines under the bright lights!
Surprised this wasn’t Erik Miller. Better stats and stuff.