The Giants announced to reporters, including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, that they have signed right-hander Austin Warren to a one-year major league deal. Lefty Robbie Ray was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Slusser adds that Warren, a client of the Ballengee Group, will make $755K this year. That’s just barely over this year’s $740K league minimum.
Warren, 28, was designated for assignment by the Angels last week. He underwent Tommy John surgery in May of last year and is still recovering. Since injured players can’t be put on outright waivers, the Angels had to either trade him or release him and opted for the latter.
The righty has 32 games of major league experience, dating from his 2021 debut to the early parts of the 2023 season prior to his surgery. He has a 3.55 earned run average in his 38 innings, striking out just 19.4% of opponents but walking just 6.3% of them and keeping 44.3% of balls in play on the ground.
Over the past three years, he’s tossed 92 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level, pitching for the Salt Lake Bees in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. In that time, he had a 3.50 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate, 10.2% walk rate and kept roughly half of batted balls down in the dirt.
The Giants are clearly hoping that he can return from his Tommy John layoff in good form. Assuming they don’t expect him back in the first two months of the season, he will be transferred to the 60-day IL once the club needs his roster spot. Once activated, he has a couple of minor league options and can be kept in Triple-A if he doesn’t earn his way into the big league picture.
The bullpen in San Francisco would appear to have some innings available. Camilo Doval, Taylor Rogers, Tyler Rogers and Luke Jackson will be in four spots. Apart from that, none of the other relievers on the roster have even a year of service time. If Warren is still on the 40-man at season’s end, he can be retained for future seasons as he currently has just under two years of major league service time.
*Angel legend
middle relievers who will feel very obscure in another ten years for $200!
Who?
The great thing about the internet is an intelligent person never has to ask ‘Who?’
LOL, truth
When he was healthy, all his peripherals were great. But that was three years ago.
rack up those 60 day guys…
Reminds me of the Brebbia deal; never a bad idea to have a guy in the bullpen who has done well and you can stash on the 60 day
Brebbia, Jackson, it’s this year’s Zaidi special. Not a bad idea to utilize the 60 day to roll the dice on project guy.
Could be. I hope for the best. Unfortunately, it seems like every guy SF has picked up this off season is a “project guy.”
Giants 78–Lee is not a project, Soler is not a project. We have a ton of kids coming up that are not projects. Stop with this incorrect narrative. Get off the internet of nonstop complaining. Every team finds value players where they can to fill in the roster depth. You can never have enough pitching. Arms get worn out faster than ever with the pitch clock. Chill out and let this team breath and grow, life is good. Go Giants!
That may be what FZ was thinking when signing him but Warren doesn’t have the track record Brebbia did when he signed with the Giants.
They aren’t really comparable. Brebbia had 175 ML IP when he signed, and Warren has only a small sample of 38 ML IP. And Warren is 3 years younger. Brebbia is more of a strikeout pitcher and the MiL stats show that, but otherwise Warren’s AAA stats are very similar to Brebbia’s.
MLB should have a cap on how many guys named Austin can be on each team.
Undefeated in the Majors!
SF Giants need starters in the worst way. Logan Webb can’t win all the games by himself in the first half. Robbie Ray and Alex Cobb not coming back until after July. Also the need starters beyond 2024. Robbie Ray can opt out after 2024 and Alex Cobb is a free agent after the season. The rookies might not be ready. Farhan Zaidi has done nothing to improve the staters in any way.
Let the kids play? Maybe our farm system is better than it appears.
You didn’t hear? They just signed future hall of famer Amir Garret.
The Giants run their team like a fantasy baseball team, except they deferred their first 6 picks.
I disagree, they don’t make any picks, they just wait until everyone has made their selections and take what’s left over.
Another Zaidi DFA player recovering from TJ (Warren)
It’s beyond time for Zaidi to stop dumpster diving & get healthy, significant impact power bats & top of rotation SP?
Continuing this way of doing business is all the more reason Zaidi needs to be FIRED!!
What is this stupid move. ?
Zaidi’s approach primarily involves investing in undervalued players with the hope that one will emerge as a standout performer for a season. This strategy resembles an experimental attempt to transform these selections into a successful campaign. Consequently, this method may risk the Giants’ reputation within their division until a change in management occurs.