The Giants announced a series of roster moves today, recalling outfielder Luis Matos and selecting right-hander Joel Peguero. In corresponding active roster moves, they have optioned outfielder Grant McCray and right-hander Kai-Wei Teng. Left-hander Erik Miller has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot.
Peguero, 28, makes it to the majors for the first time. It was a long journey. He originally signed with the Rays as an international amateur way back in 2016. Even then he was a bit on the old side, as most international amateurs sign when first eligible at 16 and have verbal deals well before that. That was Peguero’s age-19 season.
In the following decade, he spent many years with the Rays but eventually moved around to the Rockies, Nationals and Tigers without getting a major league call. He signed a minor league deal with the Giants coming into 2025.
He has thrown 42 1/3 Triple-A innings this year with a 5.10 earned run average. That’s obviously not a great number but it’s come in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and Peguero has a .353 batting average on balls in play and 68.3% strand rate this year, both unfortunate numbers. He is averaging close to 100 miles per hour on his two fastballs while also throwing a cutter, slider and changeup around 90 mph. That arsenal has helped him strike out 24.1% of batters faced, though also with a 12% walk rate.
The Giants have fallen to 6.5 games back of a playoff spot, so they are surely leaning towards decisions that prioritize the future over this year. They sold at the deadline and can now use the remainder of the season to get looks at some other players. They can throw Peguero out there in front of big league hitters and see how they handle his fiery stuff. If he can get outs, perhaps he can earn a role on next year’s club.
Sending Teng down to the minors opens a job in the rotation. Manager Bob Melvin tells reporters, including Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle, that Carson Whisenhunt will be coming up to start tomorrow’s game. However, Landen Roupp is also going on the injured list. It was reported yesterday that Roupp has a left knee sprain and is going on the IL.
Justin Verlander is starting today’s game, with Logan Webb and Robbie Ray scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The Giants are off on Monday, so it’s theoretically possible that they go back to Verlander on Tuesday. They will need another starter at some point, however, as Tuesday’s game will be the first of nine in a row. Carson Seymour and Tristan Beck are currently working long relief roles and one of them could make a spot start, though the club also has a number of pitchers on optional assignment who could be recalled.
As for Miller, he landed on the 15-day IL in early July due to a mild sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow. He started a rehab assignment this month but the club informed reporters this week that a recent MRI showed more inflammation and that he’ll be shut down for another two weeks. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those who relayed that update.
Miller’s 60-day count is retroactive to his initial IL placement, so he’ll be eligible for reinstatement in early September. However, based on the most recent information, it seems like he’ll just be finishing his shutdown period at that time. Even if he’s declared healthy at that point, he would likely need a bit of time to ramp up and go on another rehab assignment.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Peguero has been awful at Sacramento (5.10 ERA) but he seems to be a favorite of Melvin. Matos has hit 4 homers in 12 games since being demoted a few weeks ago.
yeah we will see what we got here. Peguero was awesome in ST but hasn’t shown much since
Who cares if he’s been bad. With zero chance at the PS, the Giants are doing exactly what they should be doing; getting a look at some guys in real game, MLB settings.
Yep. Roll them through.
Let’s see as much as we can of Gilbert, Seymour, Koss and Schmidt. Maybe Matos. Stop sending Fitzgerald out there. No point in pretending that Giants still have a shot at playoffs.
I’m on board. They told us at the deadline what was coming.
Even if the Giants were battling for a WC I don’t see Fitzgerald as a plus. He wasn’t doing much when he was demoted either. I just don’t think he’s ever going to be a productive hitter. He can run, but you need to get on base to do that. His RBI total is abysmal for the amount of AB’s. If he could get the ball in play his speed could help. Just not enough contact.
mab, I couldn’t agree more. I think 2024 was a fluke. Over his career with the Giants Fitzgerald basically has had one great month.
His 2024 Statcast page is not good (not enough ABs to qualify for 2025). Besides the foot speed, the only category he ranked high in was his launch angle sweet spot %. I’m skeptical of that being anything more than luck, because his exit velo isn’t very good, and his hard hit, whiff, and K% are very bad.
There’s a few Peguero’s around MLB and milb.
Can we please let Matos play so we can see what we have, should do same thing with Luciano. We either need to play them or trade them, their chance to make the team & trade windows are closing and they have had plenty of time in the minors. No more Bart treatment, give them a longer shot like Ramos got and If they don’t want to give them a longer shot, then please trade them for whatever they can get.
AB HR SO AVG OPS
467 19 141 221 697 Adames
377 20 133 218 774 Luciano (AAA)
312 2 105 212 568 Bailey
217 4 70 217 605 Fitz (mlb only)
Not amazing but compared to what we have up, i’ll take the pop. and no I don’t think he is close to Adames as a player. that’s just for this years stats comparison
honestly that doesn’t mean a lot in the PCL
Yes True, the point is we need to see what he has, even if cut HR to 10 still higher than a lot of the team or trade him. I was just showing a comparison even tho it wasnt equal
He is tied for 4th in PCL for HR’s but wasn’t called up all year. If you are not going to call him up, trade him!
I agree that at least Matos needs a longer look with regular playing time, but I’d dispute your belief that they’re getting the Bart treatment. IMO it’s just the opposite. Unlike Matos, Bart got plenty of regular playing time.
Yes Bart got more playing time, I went off memory of being frustrated where it seemed like every time Bart went in a minor slump they sent him down, There were better examples during the Farhan/Kap era.
It may seem like it, but Bart didn’t really suffer from being sent back and forth between ML and MiL a lot. He started the most games for the Giants in 2020, with zero games at Sac.
In 2021 he was called up twice for 2 games, and spent the rest at AAA, because apparently the Giants understandably didn’t think he was ready.
But, he did play 97 games with the Giants in 2022, and only 7 games in Sac. So there wasn’t much up and down between ML and MiL that year.
In 2023 he was the starting catcher coming out of ST, but after 26 games all he could produce was a .581 OPS, 0 HRs, and 4 RBI. I can’t blame the Giants for sending him down then to work on getting his swing back. But he wasn’t that good at AAA either, producing a .750 OPS, and not forcing a recall.
They did call him back up in September. But my point was he didn’t really get the yo-yo treatment. He just didn’t live up to what was hoped for
bart not only got a lot of playing time, he was rushed due to the pandemic and not given a lot of direction with posey opting out of the season and a bunch od rando catchers on the roster
bart was unrosterable though. teams were loading the baseswith one out to get to him because he had like a 70% strikeout rate
Bart was given plenty of time. He was at best a backup which would be better than Knizner but it was time for Joey to move on.
Trouble with Luciano is his defense has been poor no matter where he plays. Let’s not forget that David Villar had lots of homers in AAA. But it didn’t translate well in the majors. Luciano in the same boat. I do think he should be called up and put out there everyday and see if there’s hope still.
Ramos earned his way . Matos has just gotten worse every year since 2023.
worthington, That’s incorrect, or at least partly so. While Matos has declined those are small samples. But compare the age 22-23 seasons for them:
Ramos – .158/.220/.250, OPS .470, OPS+ 32
Matos – .193/.225/.348, OPS .573, OPS+ 63
I think you’re forgetting that Matos is 2 years younger than Ramos. There’s no guarantee Matos will break out like Ramos did, but it’s definitely too early to write him off.
From what I’ve read Luciano is a clank glove in the outfield (as he was in the infield). Time for him to find new scenery.
Yep, they say he’s terrible on D, which is crazy to me. We drafted him at 16, how could we not teach him to field a grounder or catch a fly ball? Also I would rather see what he has at DH than Flores or whoever else will not be here next year.
I’m sure they did. I think the work required to get it to MLB standard might be on Luciano.
I’d be ok with the Flo option. As long as it was ok with Flo.
Yes on him but if we couldn’t teach him or saw he wasn’t teachable or desire to get better, that is when the coaches and FO should have got together and said trade this guy while he’s still a top 100 players. And the reason for DH now is that is the only spot then let him hit and hopefully he does enough to help with trade value. Because he won’t play at all next year for us. Imagine what we could have got for him then verse now.
There’s nothing easier than would have, could have, should have. They didn’t. They had their reasons. No point imagining an alternative scenario.
I’d like to think, had the Giants known that Luciano would not develop as hoped, they would most certainly have traded him when his value was high. That seems like a no-brainer. It’s easy to look back, knowing what we know now, and wish they had done something different.
No spot in the field for Luciano. DH is the only option from what I hear. Not good enough to force the issue when that is your situation.
Eldridge and Devers will probably end up on a DH / 1B platoon, so that really makes the lack of position a problem for Luciano. No clear answer at all.
Eldridge and Devers switching between DH and 1B is not a typical platoon, since both are LHHs. Devers seems to be able to hit both RH and LH pitching, but we don’t know about Eldridge. I could see Luciano filling in for Eldridge against tough lefties.
And even if Eldridge and Devers do switch back and forth between DH and 1B on a regular basis, they aren’t each going to play 162 games, even if they both go the whole season without injury. There might still be a spot for Luciano on the ’26 roster.
Give Matos a real, everyday opportunity to prove whether he can contribute to the Giants. Play Matos against both LH & RH pitchers
Don’t need anymore Zaidi up & down, up & down
I’d like to see a platoon with Gilbert. Give them both a chance at some success.
Matos can play center giving Jun Hoo Lee a rest at times also.
Your wish has come through for you tonight.