The Giants have sent infielder Sergio Alcántara outright to Triple-A Sacramento, according to his MLB.com transactions tracker. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment a few days ago. He has the right to elect free agency but it’s not clear if he will exercise that right or not.
Alcántara is celebrating his 29th birthday today. Signed to a minor league deal in the offseason, he was selected to the big league roster last week as the Giants infield was a bit snakebit. Matt Chapman was on the injured list with a right hand injury, Christian Koss was out due to a hamstring strain and Tyler Fitzgerald was battling some minor back soreness.
From the get-go, it seemed like it was mostly an emergency call. Alcántara didn’t force his way up, as he was only hitting .206/.319/.252 in the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League. Two days after he was called up, Chapman was ready to come off the IL, so Alcántara was bumped right back off the roster. Since he’s out of options, he had to be removed from the 40-man. In that window, he got into one game, going 0-4 with two strikeouts.
That was his first major league action in a few years. He appeared in the big leagues in the 2020-22 seasons for the Tigers, Cubs, Diamondbacks and Padres. He now has a .207/.278/.340 career batting line, when factoring in this year’s game.
He is considered a solid defender, having spent his career bouncing between shortstop, third base and second base. He could stick with the Giants as a glove-first depth infielder or head to the open market to see what other opportunities are available to him.
Photo courtesy of Dennis Lee, Imagn Images
On his birthday is crazy.
I’d love to see a rule change that requires a minimum amount of time on the 40-man roster, once placed on it. You remove him early and you’re shorthanded until the time elapses.
Why? To put teams at even more of a disadvantage when injuries occur, and they need to go to their MiL depth? They already have a minimum time rule for guys on the IL.
You’d probably see more marginal guys, who are the typical depth type guys, just being released. If you force their presence on the 26-man roster to be longer, preventing the injured guy from returning even when he’s healthy and ready, releasing a guy would be a work around to that rule.
I’m curious how much of a pay bump he got for his few days in the bigs
Cup of coffee in a Giants mug.
Probably 5 or 6 times a day more than for AAA.