Last month, Giants starter Landen Roupp suffered what appeared to be a season-ending bone bruise in his left knee. San Francisco never officially moved the right-hander to the 60-day injured list. They now find themselves in a playoff race thanks to the Mets’ recent eight-game losing streak, which leaves the door ajar for Roupp to make it back this year.
Roupp has thrown a couple bullpen sessions in recent days. Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle noted over the weekend that there’s a possibility for the second-year pitcher to come back in October if the Giants snag a playoff berth. That’d probably be in relief, as he hasn’t thrown in a game setting since August 20.
The Giants lost Carson Whisenhunt to a back strain a week after Roupp’s injury. That has left them without great options for the final two rotation spots behind Logan Webb, Justin Verlander and Robbie Ray. Righty Kai-Wei Teng hasn’t worked deep into games and carries a 6.41 ERA across seven appearances.
They’re operating without a fifth starter, which resulted in Tristan Beck kicking off a bullpen game tonight for a big matchup in Arizona. The Giants dropped half a game behind the Diamondbacks with last night’s loss in the series opener. They’re 2.5 games back of the Mets, who beat the Padres earlier this evening, pending the result of tonight’s game.
San Francisco made a move before tonight’s game, recalling righty Trevor McDonald from Triple-A Sacramento. Keaton Winn, who pitched two innings in relief of Teng yesterday, was optioned out. The 24-year-old McDonald gave up two runs in as many innings in his first MLB appearance of the season.
McDonald has occupied a spot on San Francisco’s 40-man roster since the 2023-24 offseason. The former 11th round pick had one day of major league service before tonight. The Giants called him up for the final game of the ’24 season, in which he tossed three scoreless innings. He had spent all of this season working from the rotation in Sacramento. McDonald had a decent 23% strikeout rate and got ground-balls at a 53% clip, but he struggled to a 5.31 ERA across 142 1/3 innings in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
There’s a less fortunate update on another of the organization’s pitching prospects. Former first-round pick Reggie Crawford underwent another shoulder surgery and will be out into the middle of next season, reports Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. Crawford underwent his first labrum repair last September. The UCONN product was already out for the season but had recently begun throwing bullpen sessions.
Crawford, the #30 overall pick in 2022, has thrown 37 1/3 career innings in the minor leagues. He will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this offseason if the Giants don’t add him to the 40-man roster. Another team could theoretically eye him as a Rule 5 target whom they could stash on the MLB injured list until he completes his rehab. That makes the 40-man decision an interesting one for San Francisco’s front office. Crawford has shown a triple-digit fastball and a plus or better breaking ball at his best, but he has very little pitching experience. He was primarily a first baseman in college and only threw eight innings for the Huskies. He underwent Tommy John surgery as a junior in addition to his pair of shoulder procedures.
is it not based upon full seasons’ worth of milb work for rV draft eligibility? for example, crawford missing this entire minor league season won’t push his rV timeline back a season? i thought that was a thing
No, it is not. For Rule 5 eligibility, it is based solely on how many seasons have passed since signing with the drafting organization, regardless if the player is injured for all or parts of said seasons.
Good Plan.
Team is sliding back to oblivion
DFA a player to make room on the 40
Add Ethridge to the 40 TWO YEARS BEFORE YOU HAVE TO.
Second day in MLB = He collects slivers sitting on the bench.
The Point of this move was WHAT??
I’d suggest you stick to making dumb puns for player names instead of talking baseball, Jacksson13, at least you’re good at that.
First off it’s Eldridge, not Ethridge.
Secondly, possibly losing Wisely is not a huge loss if that happens.
Thirdly, they added Eldridge to the 40-man one year ahead of time, since he was going to be called up next season. I think most knowledgeable baseball fans know they weren’t going to keep him in the minors, and off the 40-man until they absolutely had to add him.
And lastly, he sat his second day because the Giants were facing a tough lefty. For the guy so concerned with the Giants ruining him, you then criticize them for the smart move of protecting him.
You are good at outrage. I’ll give you that much.
Not outraged. Maybe you read it that way. I didn’t intend it to be harsh, but I saw the negative, error-ridden, contradictory post, that was easily refuted point by point, and decided to respond. At my age I’ve learned by experience not to be outraged by something as unimportant as a comment about a game on a website.
Ha ha. Jean. You are one of the most rational blokes here. My admiration is absolute. It was aimed at Upper Case Jackson.
The San Francisco are in 4th place in the NL West with a losing record 75-76
They’re 3-7 over their last 10 games…This isn’t a playoff team. This is big pile of Dog Shiz
Die hard SF fan reluctantly agrees. Pitching has let us down. Webb is tragically overrated. Not a big game pitcher. Jung Hoo can only hit on the road, at home he’s a nonstop grounder to 2nd. Walker has no biz being a closer, or even on the roster.
Many exciting moments this year, (best of all was dumping Doval!) and the fans returned in huge numbers, but sadly, it’s over.
TheBull always has a suspicious amount of likes, same with his “TonyGwynnSD19” and “27champyankees” accounts who leave obsessively negative comments on SF Giants articles.
Perhaps either Jacksson13 or 99 Captain Judge 99 are the ones doing it.
It’s easy to weed our trolls too, copy/paste username and add “mlbtraderumors” then Ctrl + F and find their name and you can make correlations.
Hope you can do something about it, Tim Dierkes. Thanks.
TheBull is so predictable. Anytime the Giants go into a skid he shows up like clockwork. Yet his comments are conspicuously absent when they’re playing well. He’d be enshrined if there was a gloaters hall of fame.
This !! Clockwork.
Giant fan since 1965 here
Buster has shown that he’s not afraid do what needs to be done to win …
he’s doing very well as a rookie president of baseball ops … which means he can get better!!
and it appears that he has the backing of ownership
So yes the season’s over …
But I’m very excited for the future
( at least in Baseball )
Meanwhile… go Philly
Yeah. Good sentiment. I’m good with the year. Wild ride that had me giving up on them at the deadline, but that’s on me. They ended up taking us pretty deep. Devers is obviously a huge plus. Took the farm from bottom few to mid field. He got some stuff done. Onwards and upwards.
The Mets have won 2 in a row. What are you talking about 8 game losing streak
How does Jacksson13 and TheBull have that many likes for the negativity and typos?
Makes you think
I’ve lost count on the number of different accounts this guy rolls with. It’s pretty funny how all the multi account guys think they get away with it. Way overestimating their cleverness.
Is there anything more pathetic than using different accounts to upvote their own posts ?
Short answer, nope.
I think I’ve figured out the username for Jacksson13. I think it’s because he Jack’s son, and he’s 13. That would explain a lot.
It will be fun to see Eldridge play, and Jerar as well. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see a bit of Jesus Rodriguez at catcher. Adames might break the 30-HR curse. The Giants might even end the season with a winning record. But that’s what is left. This team won’t get to the playoffs without a back end of the rotation, especially with 4 more against the Dodgers.
The Dodger$ are very beatable. They have no bullpen and are generally playing like they’re cumulatively tired. I’d be shocked to see them go deep into October. But unfortunately the exact same thing can said for my beloved Giants. They’ve fallen back into their inability to hit the change-up, and wildly swinging at the slider two feet outside and in the dirt. Plus Verlander is now our only reliable starter. Verlander. Jason Verlander. It was mostly a fun season, and that’s ok. Go Phils and Jays!
I wouldn’t say the Dodgers are very beatable. They still have a ton of talent. You can beat a lot of teams by out-scoring them, and the Dodgers can score runs. They are beatable in the sense that no team is invincible. I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of the teams with the best records, Phillies, Brewers, Jays lose in the PS.
I absolutely agree with the rest of your post. I’ve been disappointed in the coaching though. The team seems to be trying to hit HRs instead of just making contact. I think that’s why they have too many one-pitch outs, and 7 pitch innings for the opposing pitcher. Pfaadt threw only 97 pitches in 9 complete innings today.
And as much as I hate to see Walker come into a game in the 9th, I understand Melvin doesn’t really have a good alternative due to injuries and trades. But I absolutely do not understand why Ramos remains in the lead-off spot. He has a .524 OPS this month with more SOs, than hits and walks combined.
I too feel like the Giants are on their way to a successful future starting with 2026. Lots of good things happened this year. I know their record is about the same over the past few years. But this is the first time in years I’ve got hope for the next season. Buster is doing a really nice job. We’ve actually been talking playoffs in September. Lots of ifs this season. If Schmitt had been at 2b all season. If Devers had been here all season. If Adames would have been close to himself the first half. If Chapman didn’t miss time. If Ramos would have been smarter with some of his decisions in LF and baserunning. If Verlander would have been better in the first half. If Doval hadn’t been such a head case when he was here. If Tyler Walker had been more consistent. If backup catcher was stronger. If the overall hitting would have been better. If Jerar hadn’t been hurt all year. Anyway, I think we can have a very good team and season next year. Go Giants.