Robbie Ray is officially back from the injured list. San Francisco reinstated the southpaw from the 60-day IL to take the ball tonight against the Dodgers. The Giants also added recent waiver claim Derek Hill to their active roster. San Francisco optioned Luis Matos and Randy Rodriguez to Triple-A Sacramento in corresponding moves. To open a spot on the 40-man roster for Ray, the Giants moved Keaton Winn to the 60-day IL.
Ray makes his team debut after being acquired from the Mariners over the winter. Seattle and San Francisco lined up on an out of nowhere swap of veterans on big contracts. The Giants shipped Anthony DeSclafani and Mitch Haniger to Seattle to take a flier on Ray, who was about halfway through his rehab from last May’s Tommy John procedure. The M’s flipped DeSclafani to the Twins, with whom he suffered a Spring Training injury and underwent season-ending surgery. Haniger has underperformed for a second straight year.
The Giants hope their end of the deal yields better results. Ray is more than 14 months removed from his most recent MLB pitch. He’s one of the higher-upside pitchers in baseball when healthy. He won the American League Cy Young award when he turned in a 2.84 ERA with an MLB-best 248 strikeouts for the Blue Jays in 2021. That led the Mariners to sign him to a five-year free agent pact. Ray posted good but not elite numbers in year one, working to a 3.71 earned run average through 189 innings. He made all of one start last season before suffering the injury that sent him under the knife.
If the Giants get even the ’22 version of Ray, that’d be a major boost to their rotation. He joins last year’s Cy Young winner Blake Snell as high-risk, high-reward lefties. Logan Webb is one of the game’s best starters, while Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks round out the group. Harrison has a 3.86 ERA over 17 starts in his first full MLB season. Hicks started the season very well but has seemingly shown signs of fatigue lately in his first extended look out of the rotation.
Winn was also part of the rotation early in the season. The ground-ball specialist took the ball 12 times but struggled to a 7.16 ERA across 55 1/3 frames. He has been out for about a month with elbow inflammation. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reported earlier this week that Winn is still feeling soreness and has been shut down from throwing (X link). He’s eligible to return at the end of August, but it now seems in doubt if he’ll make it back this season.
On the position player side, Hill steps into the outfield at Matos’ expense. They’re each righty hitters with the ability to play all three positions. Matos has struggled to a .217/.238/.333 slash over 40 games. He’s also had some defensive lapses that’ll lead the Giants to send him back to Triple-A. Matos is only 22 and rates as one of the better prospects in the system. He owns a .295/.358/.536 slash over 76 career Triple-A games.
Let it fly Robbie!
Ray looked very good in Sacramento, so even if the Dodgers are a tough draw, I anticipate good results.
I see Matos coming back up after the Giants trade Conforto, if they don’t, then not until roster expansion or next Spring.
More of Farhan scratching at the borders. Giants fans are losing patience.
Neither Zaidi, nor anyone with ownership control, care whether some fans are losing patience. They still rank 8th overall in attendance, averaging over 33.7K per game.
Truth- Season ticket sales were robust so they are sitting pretty until renewal time.
Couldn’t pitch while recovering from injury. 16 months since last appearance. Pete, 5 no hit innings with 8 strikeouts. Btw, don’t assume you speak for Giants fans. You don’t. Do you even know how Ray was acqured?
Matos becomes Zaidi’s Ramos 2.0
Zaidi continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth. After Slater trade Zaidi said Matos would get more playing time. Matos got 10+ AB. Guess Zaidi feels he gave Matos ample playing time before shipping him to minors
Fire Zaidi
Obviously Ramos benefitted greatly from being sent back down to AAA to work on his weaknesses that were revealed facing MLB pitching. Ramos is 2 years older than Matos. Are you suggesting that despite Matos going 1 for 11, in his last 5 games, and hitless in his last 4, should not have been sent down?
Matos needs to learn how to hit still. He chases way too many bad pitches. He’s been beyond awful besides the one week that got him mlb player of the week
I agree, and I blame the coaching. A lot of people want to blame Zaid for this disappointing season, but I’m not sure the problem doesn’t lie with the coaches, especially the hitting coaches.
Matos isn’t the only one swinging at too many pitches outside the zone. To me this team seems way too anxious to swing the bat. Hitters need to be aggressive, but that aggression needs to be controlled. There’s been way too many one-pitch outs IMO.
Zaidi did everything he could with the talent available, and who was willing to sign. With only a couple of exceptions, almost the entire team is putting up numbers below their career averages. This team is better on paper than they’ve been on the field. I could be wrong, but that to me says the coaches, not Zaidi, is the problem.
I remember Luis Matos playing for the Orioles around 20 years ago.
Agnes Gooch was right. Welcome to SF Derek!
If Robbie Ray is going right, SF is going to love him.
At 48-54 they would be better off looking toward 2025.
You’re a huge pile of Asss.
I wish Robbie Ray the best. Really liked him as a Mariners fan, except his tendency to give up the long ball. I hope the Giants get the 2021 version of Robbie but some version of ’21 and ’22 would be good too. Great team player, Giants fans should love him.
Robbie Ray
Another embarrassing overpaid do nothing player
So much money so little return
So pathetic
Ya, OK Captain pathetic.
Couldn’t pitch while recovering from injury. 16 months since last appearance. Hard to provide “return” if injured. Captain, 5 no hit innings with 8 pathetic strikeouts.
🙂
Ray with an awesome bounce back after a rough looking 1st inning.
We’ll see , it was one game