The Giants have agreed to a minor league deal with veteran left-handed reliever Scott Alexander, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. The Apex Baseball client will head to Triple-A for the time being.
Alexander, 36 next month, signed a one-year deal with the Rockies over the winter. That pact, which paid him a guaranteed $2MM, didn’t work out for either party. In 16 1/3 innings as a Rockie, Alexander was shredded for a 6.06 earned run average. He allowed 11 runs on 20 hits — four of them homers — and seven walks. He’s never been a big strikeout arm, but Alexander punched out only six of 72 opponents (8.3%) against a 9.7% walk rate. Colorado designated him for assignment on May 23 and released him a few days later.
Ugly as that short run in Denver was, Alexander has a nice track record in the majors overall. He carries a career 3.34 ERA, 17.5% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate in 325 2/3 innings — all accompanied by a gargantuan 66.6% ground-ball rate. As recently as last season, the southpaw tossed 38 2/3 innings of 2.56 ERA ball for the A’s.
Giants fans should be plenty familiar with Alexander, who pitched in San Francisco in 2022-23. He tallied 65 2/3 innings with a 3.70 ERA, a 15.1% strikeout rate, a 4.4% walk rate and a 63.8% grounder rate in his two seasons calling Oracle Park home.
At present, Erik Miller is the only left-hander in manager Bob Melvin’s bullpen. The only other southpaws on the 40-man roster at all are starters Robbie Ray and Kyle Harrison, both of whom are currently in the Giants’ excellent rotation. Alexander will join Joey Lucchesi as an experienced non-roster lefty in the Giants’ bullpen with their Triple-A club in Sacramento.
Guess who’s baaaaaaaaaaack?!?!?!
noooooooooooooooooo. do not want!
Weak sauce.
No harm done if he doesn’t return to ’22-’23 form. A bonus move on the cheap if he does. Schmatt move.
And now ladies and gentlemen we turn our attention to acquiring a right-swinging stick.
2024 he wasn’t even that bad
I wonder if Buster is taking calls on Harrison’s availability.
With so many teams looking for pitching I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m guessing you see Harrison as the one to trade, if Buster was to move a pitcher? He’d be the first in my opinion. He’s been a bit disappointing, but pitchers that young tend to need more time.
I wish he’d add a sinker (or a cutter), though. It makes no sense to me that a guy would throw a 4-seamer, and not another FB with a different shape. He says he doesn’t need it, which makes me question his thought process.
Yeah I do. I have more confidence in Roupp and Birdsong. Whisenhunt is throwing 100 pitches every week in AAA. Left hander.
I was also interested to hear Busters answer to a “what do you draw on when you make roster decisions” question.He skipped over Farhan and went to Sabaen and Evans. I remember Sabaens favourite trade comment was “you have to give quality to get quality”. Throw in this move and I’m thinking it’s a decent chance.
I disagree, there is no reason to trade harrison when you are getting people who are interested in the minor league arms like black, seymour and ragsdale that are on the 40 man but aren’t going to impact the big league roster and will give you a pretty comparable return.
I disagree that Black, Seymour, or Ragsdale would bring a comparable return. LHPs tend to be more in demand. And Harrison has shown more facing ML hitters than Black, who ranks 12th, in the top 30, while the other 2 rank 20th, and 21st. Maybe Black and one of the other 2 might bring a comparable return, but I’m not sure about that either.
They’re going to have more pitchers than spots in the rotation next season, but you know what they say about having too much pitching. Not sure they should trade anyone, but I’ll leave that decision to the baseball people.
Sorry, but Harrison won’t get dealt.
I think that someone gets traded, it is going to be someone though that is not likely to impact the rotation next year. I don’t imagine that you are going to have verlander next year, even if he were blowing the world away he would likely hit the market. that means you have 3 rotation spots and if you have harrison, birdsong and roupp that fills your rotation out without dipping into FA where you are probably going to look at position players anyways it is way better to have guys with MLB experience on the team and guys that you can pull up and try out as depth than to go out of the gate with an untested rookie to start the year next year. that is why you are more likely to trade out of depth than to trade off the roster.
Who have you got as tradeable for an impact bat ?
@claude
Seymour was exposed last year, and no one claimed him. Doesn’t carry much value. Black has been shelled at the MLB level.
What position to target for the impact bat is also a thought to ponder….
RF, DH, or 2B is my thinking.
Yeah. The counter point to my dot joining is that Buster also said young pitching is the barometer of a healthy org.
Interesting deadline ahead for sure.
oldgfan, Definitely RF or 2B. It’s hard to see them re-signing Yaz, unless he takes a cut in salary to be the 4th, or 5th outfielder, and I don’t see him doing that.
DH is a position I think the Giants like to keep open to run their position players through. I doubt they’ll sign a DH only guy, unless it’s a guy that completely mashes, like Schwarber.
I agree with Buster (and you). Pitching was what brought 3 WS titles to SF. Bum, Lincecum, and Cain were the only SPs on all 3 teams.
What is Webb?
A position prospect or 2 Fopp
Harris if pitching gets it done. Tough for rentals but “quality gets quality” said Sabean.
Ok. If it was Harrison I’d be hoping for someone with a year or two of control. Apparently “power” is the common theme with the better young position players, so maybe they give some of that up for a rental.
2B for sure. Fitzgerald has under 10 RBI. For the season!!!
I don’t care about the lack of RBI. Guys need to get on in front of him, and with guys like Bailey and Schmitt hitting in front of him, there aren’t many opportunities.
What I don’t like is his higher than league average SOs, lower than league average walks, and his high chase rate. Nearly half his swings are on balls outside the strike zone. And with speed being his best weapon why doesn’t he bunt for a base hit more often? He has only 2 bunt hits, but got those in only 2 ABs. I think he just wants to hit HRs.
I’m a Fitz guy, but after a longer look I see what you do also. Speed but not too savvy with the run game. I do think that hot week last year has him looking long ball. Has potential to hit for average when he doesn’t.
Oh gawd, I jinxed him.
Another base running error right after I posted. Crap.
Harris not harrison
Yep. Understood.
I’m talking about Harris not Harrison.
that depends on what you consider an impact bat and who it is. if you do an ohearn trade – he is an upgrade but on an expiring contract and shouldn’t cost much since you are only paying for a couple of months of production from a guy
the giants aren’t trading any position players. they basically have a handful of guys in the system in eldridge (who is off limits) and tibbs. and a couple of lower level guys. trading any of them would be malpractice since you are mortgaging the entire farm when you have a ton of high level pitching prospects, some of whom will need to be moved as they are protected on the 40 man
It’s probably not about what SF would want to keep. Other teams seem to want position prospects more than pitching prospects but to me their current top pitching prospect is Harris.
His brother is Jason Alexander. We need them both on the same team!
Alexander pitched well for the Giants before so no harm in bringing him back on a minor league deal.
I do not see the Giants dealing from the rotation to acquire a bat. If Verlander were healthy all seasom maybe they consider it but he hasn’t been and they need insurance incase Ray wears down as well
“Ugly as that short run in Denver was” is NOT PROPER ENGLISH. You can’t just leave “as” out to begin the sentence. It’s not optional! Grammar is not optional when you’re being paid to write.