Giants Designate Ryan McKenna, Drew Pomeranz For Assignment
The Giants made a series of transactions today, with Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area among those to relay them on X. Right-hander Spencer Howard and first baseman Trenton Brooks have been selected to the roster, while infielder/outfielder Tyler Fitzgerald has been recalled. In corresponding moves, first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain while outfielder Ryan McKenna and left-hander Drew Pomeranz have been designated for assignment.
Wade departed yesterday’s game, limping off the field with the club’s trainer. NBC Sports Bay Area provided video on X. The Giants later announced it as a hamstring strain and have now placed him on the injured list. The club says it’s a Grade 2 strain and he’ll miss about a month, per Pavlovic on X.
While he’s out, it seems the club will get a look at Brooks, who makes it to the major leagues just before his 29th birthday. He spent most of his career with the Guardians, as that club drafted him in the 17th round back in 2016. He climbed as high as Triple-A in Cleveland’s system but didn’t get a roster spot by the end of 2022 and reached minor league free agency.
He then signed a minor league deal with the A’s and hit 16 home runs in 94 games while drawing walks in 13.8% of his plate appearances. Even in the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League, his stout .299/.405/.529 batting line translated to a 127 wRC+.
At that point, the A’s flipped him to the Giants for left-hander Sean Newcomb and Brooks has produced in similar fashion since then. He’s appeared in 67 more Triple-A contests since that deal and has ten homers, an 18.1% walk rate and a 15.3% strikeout rate. His .279/.409/.463 batting line in that stretch translates to a 120 wRC+.
Debuts at this late age are especially rare but Brooks clearly has some perseverance that is paying off today. If he can continue hitting major league pitching the way he has done in the minors, he will make for an especially heartwarming late-bloomer story. He has played some outfield in the past but has been strictly at first base this year. He’s in the lineup tonight in place of Wade and could perhaps get a few weeks to test his abilities against big league hurlers.
Turning to the pitching, the Giants have been getting by lately with just four starters in Logan Webb, Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison and Blake Snell. That group included Keaton Winn until he hit the injured list two weeks ago. Mason Black was recalled to cover for him but was hit hard in two starts and optioned back down.
Today’s plan appears to be a bullpen game with Howard expected to pitch bulk innings behind Erik Miller, who will serve as the opener. Howard, 27, has been in the Giants’ system since signing a minor league deal late last year. He’s made ten Triple-A starts this year, tossing 39 2/3 innings with a 5.90 earned run average.
That ERA may be misleading, both due to the fact that Howard has been pitching in the PCL and what may be some bad luck. His .406 batting average on balls in play and 66.1% strand rate this year are both on the unfortunate side of average. He’s actually struck out 32.2% of batters faced this year while keeping walks to a reasonable 9.6% rate, which is why his 4.19 FIP is kinder than his ERA.
The righty was considered one of the top pitching prospects in the sport a few years ago but has struggled in his limited looks at the big league level. He currently has 115 innings of major league work on his ledger with a 7.20 ERA. He exhausted his options as both the Phillies and the Rangers rostered him for a while and he will now need to keep his active roster spot or else be removed from the 40-man roster entirely. If this is the time where things click for him and he manages to hang onto that roster spot, he still has less than three years of service time and can be retained beyond this campaign via arbitration.
To get Brooks and Howard onto the roster, the Giants are cutting a couple of guys they only recently added. Pomeranz, 35, was signed on Friday but is now bumped off the roster without appearing in a game. That means he’s still looking to get back into official MLB action for the first time since 2021. The Giants will have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. The latter scenario would be a moot point since the lefty has more than enough service time to elect free agency.
The southpaw was once one of the better relievers in baseball but underwent flexor tendon surgery late in the 2021 campaign and struggled to get healthy in the two following years. Here in 2024, he was able to throw eight Spring Training innings with the Angels and nine frames in Triple-A in the Dodgers’ system, on minor league deals with both of those clubs. He allowed four earned runs in his first Triple-A game this year but has a 2.25 ERA in the eight innings since, striking out 48.3% of batters faced while walking just 3.4% of them.
That was apparently enough to get a roster spot, although briefly. The next week will shed some light on whether or not another club is equally interested. If so, perhaps the southpaw will indeed return to a major league mound for the first time in almost three years.
McKenna, 27, was just claimed off waivers from the Orioles ten days ago. He got into four games and stepped to the plate six times, striking out four times without getting a hit. He’s generally been a glove-first outfielder in his career, having hit .221/.298/.328 but with eight Defensive Runs Saved and six Outs Above Average in 1,287 2/3 outfield innings. He’s out of options but could appeal to other clubs as a bench outfielder.
The Giants will have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. Since he has a previous career outright, he has the right to reject another such assignment in favor of free agency. However, with less than five years of service time, doing so would mean forfeiting his remaining salary. He is making $800K this year, slightly more than the league minimum, and may not want to walk away from that if he clears.
Giants Notes: Luciano, Wade, Pederson
Marco Luciano hit .269/.350/.467 over 257 combined plate appearances in rookie ball and high-A ball in 2022, a solid performance that was marred by over two months lost to the injured list due to a lower back strain. To combat the back issues that have hampered him more than once during his career, Luciano told The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser that he has gained 30 pounds since last season, as he believes “having more muscle will help make my body stronger so I can last the entire season.”
Luciano is one of the Giants’ top prospects and one of the better-regarded prospects in the sport, as Baseball Prospectus, The Athletic’s Keith Law, and MLB Pipeline all had the shortstop ranked between 18th and 22nd on their preseason top-100 lists. Evaluators are clearly still high on the 21-year-old despite his injury concerns, though it isn’t yet clear if Luciano has recovered enough to participate in any game action before Spring Training is over. Slusser writes that Luciano’s fielding work has been limited, and he only started hitting on the field a few days ago. With Luciano expected to start the year at Double-A, it would seem like he might first need some extra work in extended Spring Training before making his on-field debut in 2023.
More from San Francisco’s camp….
- Left knee inflammation twice sent LaMonte Wade Jr. to the injured list last season, contributing to a tough year that saw Wade hit only .207/.305/.359 over 251 PA over 77 games. Discussing his injury with Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, Wade said his knee problems first started late in the 2021 season, and following the 2022 campaign, some doctors even suggested that surgery was necessary. Wade opted for rehabilitation over surgery, and “I’m healthy now and I feel way better than I ever have.” That’s terrific news for both Wade and the Giants, as the 29-year-old is being counted on for the majority of playing time at first base in 2023.
- Joc Pederson is getting some work at first base this spring, playing six innings in Friday’s Cactus League game. While Pederson will mostly be a DH this season and be used in the outfield when he does get into the regular lineup, the Giants were also considering Pederson as a left-handed hitting first base option if Wade isn’t available. Pederson has “worked really hard at first. He has a really good understanding of his mechanics right now,” manager Gabe Kapler told MLB.com’s Maria Guardado and other reporters. Pederson previously played 149 innings as a first baseman with the Dodgers in 2019, but with dismal results, as per the public defensive metrics.
Giants Notes: Correa, Wade, Belt, Jackson
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi met with the media yesterday and addressed a wide array of topics. In addition to downplaying the club’s need for catching help, he touched on a few of the team’s free agent decisions.
Nothing has loomed larger for the organization over the past few weeks than the deal with Carlos Correa that fell through. Correa’s camp quickly pivoted to the Mets after the Giants expressed concerns about the star shortstop’s physical and backed out of their $350MM agreement. Of course, New York’s doctors expressed similar concerns and Correa’s $315MM deal with the Mets also fell apart.
Zaidi indicated that San Francisco briefly touched base with Correa’s camp after his physical with the Mets was flagged (link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). The Giants’ baseball ops leader indicated Correa wasn’t much interested in reopening discussions with San Francisco at the time, saying that Correa’s group “had other things they were more focused on.” Zaidi had expressed something similar a couple weeks back, indicating the team was unlikely to get deeply involved again with the Boras Corporation then focused on hammering out a deal with the Mets. That never came to fruition and Correa eventually returned to the Twins on a six-year, $200MM guarantee.
While the Giants’ offseason is in large part defined by near-misses on Aaron Judge and Correa, San Francisco certainly wasn’t inactive. They came up short on the star player they’d been seeking but brought in a number of quality regulars and role players. That was especially true in the outfield, where Joc Pederson returned via the qualifying offer and Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto signed multi-year free agent deals.
That solidified the outfield, with Haniger and Conforto expected to flank Mike Yastrzemski or Austin Slater on most days. Pederson will be the primary designated hitter if everyone’s healthy. LaMonte Wade Jr. has gotten a decent amount of corner outfield run over the past couple seasons but now looks set to man first base, at least as the strong side of a platoon arrangement.
Wade, a left-handed hitter, owns a .235/.318/.434 line over 632 plate appearances since the Giants acquired him from the Twins over the 2020-21 offseason. He’s been dreadful in 75 looks against left-handed pitching (.119/.178/.149) but has a quality .251/.336/.473 line with 26 home runs and 22 doubles in 557 trips while holding the platoon advantage. That makes him a logical partner for right-handed hitters like Wilmer Flores, J.D. Davis and David Villar, each of whom could rotate through the corner infield.
A desire to lean on Wade at first base played into San Francisco’s decision to watch Brandon Belt join the Blue Jays in free agency, Zaidi indicted (Pavlovic link). Zaidi suggested the team stayed in touch with Belt but didn’t specify whether the club made an official offer. After parts of 12 seasons in San Francisco, the veteran first baseman joined the Jays on a $9.3MM deal earlier this week.
One free agent whom San Francisco did sign is reliever Luke Jackson. The longtime Braves righty didn’t pitch in 2022 thanks to an April Tommy John surgery. It marked a rough platform year but San Francisco still added him on a two-year, $11.5MM guarantee. With the typical Tommy John rehab taking roughly 14 months, Jackson isn’t expected to be ready for the start of next season. Zaidi acknowledged he might open the year on the 60-day injured list, which would keep him out of action until at least late May (link via Evan Webeck of the San Jose Mercury News). That’s not suggestive of any kind of setback, as Zaidi said Jackson is “doing great in his rehab.”
Giants Notes: Boyd, Wade Jr., Cobb
Giants starter Matthew Boyd suffered a flexor strain while rehabbing from surgery, and he’ll now be shut down for at least four weeks, per MLB.com’s Maria I. Guardado (via Twitter). Boyd is a free agent at the end of this season, and at this stage, one has to wonder what, if anything, Boyd will be able to offer the Giants this season. San Francisco signed Boyd as a free agent after he was released by the Tigers.
- LaMonte Wade Jr.‘s return, however, does appear imminent as the outfielder/first baseman has begun a rehab assignment. Wade Jr. is coming off a breakout season in 2021 in which he slashed .253/.326/.482 with 18 home runs over 381 plate appearances. It will be interesting to see where Wade Jr. fits in upon his return. The Giants mix and match with the best of them, but on the surface level, the lefty-swinging trio of Mike Yastrzemski, Joc Pederson, and Luis Gonzalez would seem to have the outfield covered for the time being. For that matter, veterans Brandon Belt and Tommy La Stella, also left-handers, have been taking at-bats at first base and designated hitter, respectively. Still, it’s a long season, and the Giants will no doubt find a way to return Wade Jr. to the mix when he’s ready.
- Alex Cobb is set to make his return to the rotation on Sunday. A roster move will likely come sometime after tonight’s game. The Giants have thrived at regenerating former starters in low-power mode, but Cobb struggled through his first eight starts, serving up a 5.73 ERA, though a 2.63 FIP suggests he may have had some bad luck. He did, after all, post a strong 47-to-12 strikeout-to-walk ratio across 37 2/3 innings.
Injury Notes: Wade, E-Rod, Skubal, Murphy
The Giants placed LaMonte Wade Jr. back on the injured list with continued inflammation in his left knee, per a team announcement. Outfielder Luis Gonzalez, who was optioned earlier int he week after a hot start to his Giants tenure, is back up to take his place on the roster. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports that Wade had an MRI and is slated to see a third-party doctor this coming Monday to get a second opinion. The 28-year-old already missed nearly four weeks of the season due to left knee troubles and has appeared in just 10 games with San Francisco on the year. He’s hitting .240/.375/.360 in a small sample of 32 plate appearances, which is solid thanks to five walks and a hit-by-pitch but a ways off from last year’s pace in the power department. Wade smacked 18 homers, 17 doubles and three triples in just 381 plate appearances with the Giants last season.
While there’s surely concern throughout the Giants organization regarding Wade’s knee, his return to the injured list paves the way for the 26-year-old Gonzalez to try to prove that his .349/.397/.492 start to the season (73 plate appearances) has some legitimacy. No one should expect Gonzalez to maintain a .370 average on the balls he puts into play, but his 8.2% walk rate is solid and his 13.7% strikeout rate is downright tiny by today’s standards. While there’s surely some regression in store, Gonzalez was a prospect of some note in the White Sox system before landing in San Francisco, but he only ever received 13 big league plate appearances with the South Siders.
Some more injury notes worth monitoring around the league…
- A recent MRI performed on Tigers lefty Eduardo Rodriguez didn’t reveal any major damage to his oblique or intercostal muscles, Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic writes. On the one hand, that’s good news, but on the other, it leaves some mystery as to what is ailing the southpaw. Rodriguez left his start against the Rays this week in the first inning, having allowed six of the seven batters he faced to reach base. His fastball velocity was noticeably down, sitting at just 89.8 mph after averaging a bit better than 92 mph through his first seven outings. He’s likely IL-bound, and it seems the Tigers will continue to evaluate him as they search for the root of the issue.
- As if the Tigers’ injury woes weren’t bad enough — Rodriguez is likely IL-bound, where he’ll join Casey Mize, Matt Manning, Tyler Alexander, Michael Pineda and Spencer Turnbull — breakout starter Tarik Skubal exited tonight’s game after taking a 100.4 mph comeback liner off his leg at the end of the fifth inning. The 25-year-old Skubal blanked Cleveland over five frames prior to exiting, dropping his ERA to 2.22 through 42 2/3 frames. He’s fanned 28.4% of his opponents against just a 4.5% walk rate on the season. The Tigers announced that Skubal has been initially diagnosed with only a contusion, but MLB.com’s Jason Beck tweets that he’ll undergo additional testing tomorrow. Skubal tells reporters that he’s optimistic of making his next start, but there’s enough swelling that doctors have yet to perform imaging (hence the additional evaluation tomorrow).
- Mariners catcher Tom Murphy, out since dislocating his shoulder on a tag play at home plate back on May 6, had a setback in his recovery and isn’t expected to come off the injured list anytime soon, tweets Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Further specifics haven’t been announced by the team just yet, but it’s a notable blow given that Murphy was out to a .303/.439/.455 start to his season, albeit through a small sample of 42 plate appearances. He’s been a .240/.321/.440 hitter overall in 687 plate appearances since joining the Mariners in 2020, and his absence will leave the team reliant on young backstops Cal Raleigh and Luis Torrens, both of whom have struggled immensely at the plate this year.
Giants Promote Sean Hjelle, Activate LaMonte Wade Jr.
The Giants announced a series of roster moves to reporters today, including Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com. Right-hander Sean Hjelle has been recalled from Triple-A Sacramento, while outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. has been activated off the injured list. Sam Long and Mauricio Llovera were both sent to Triple-A to create roster space.
Hjelle was a second round selection of the Giants in the 2018 draft and has been working his way up the minor league ladder since then. His promotion is something of an early birthday present, as he turns 25 years old tomorrow. The 6’11” right-hander was ranked #5 in the club’s system by Baseball America back in 2019, though he has slid a bit in those rankings as he has struggled with higher levels of competition.
In 2019, he reached Double-A for the first time, throwing 25 1/3 innings with a 6.04 ERA. After the minor leagues were canceled in 2020, Hjelle returned to Double-A in 2021 and fared much better, putting up an ERA of 3.15 in 14 starts, along with a 25.2% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 54.6% ground ball rate. In Triple-A last year, however, his ERA shot up to 5.74. He was still getting grounders at a 54.1% clip, but saw the strikeouts dip down to 14.1% and the walks bump up to 11.7%. This year, he’s made five Triple-A starts and has improved those results somewhat, getting his ERA to 4.37 and his walks down to 5.1%, along with a 54.8% grounder rate. He’s still not racking up Ks though, with a 14.3% rate on the year. Whenever he gets into a game, it will be his major league debut.
Wade is coming off an excellent breakout campaign in 2021, where he hit 18 home runs and slashed .253/.326/.482, 117 wRC+. This year, he’s yet to make his season debut due to inflammation and a bone bruise in his left knee. After a seven-game rehab assignment, he’s now back on the roster and should slot into regular action in the outfield next to Mike Yastrzemski, with Luis Gonzalez, Joc Pederson, Austin Slater, Darin Ruf and Mauricio Dubon also in the mix.
As for Long and Llovera, Guardado’s tweet says that Long was optioned and Llovera was returned to Triple-A. The language different could be significant. Under the 2022 health and safety protocols, the commissioner’s office has the sole discretion to determine whether a team has been sufficiently impacted by COVID to call up “substitute” players. If granted permission, the team can then return those substitutes back to Triple-A (and, if he was not previously on the 40-man, off the roster entirely) without utilizing a minor league option or passing the player through waivers. Llovera was selected to the club’s 40-man roster a week ago amid a run of positive tests among Giants’ players. The fact that he has been “returned” to Triple-A, suggests that he is no longer on the roster. However, Llovera’s transactions tracker at MLB.com says he was optioned, meaning it’s possible he still has that roster spot.
Injury Notes: Lewis, May, Gray, Longoria, Giants
The Mariners announced that center fielder Kyle Lewis has begun a rehab assignment in Triple-A tonight, his first competitive assignment since he tore his meniscus last May. Foreshadowing what may come when the 2020 AL Rookie of the Year makes it back to the majors, the 26-year-old Lewis swatted a home run on his first swing back in minor league game action. Equally encouraging for M’s fans is manager Scott Servais’s assessment, who according to MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer notes the team can be “a little bit more aggressive than we’d normally be” in promoting Lewis.
Cutting a 20-day rehab assignment short would be a bold move for a player who played in just 36 games last season, but clearly speaks to the team’s confidence in Lewis’s recovery. For what it’s worth, the Mariners aren’t exactly hurting for offense at the moment, as they rank third in the AL in runs scored. The high-upside outfield trio of Jesse Winker, Julio Rodriguez, and Jarred Kelenic, as well as a mishmash of DH options, have yet to really get it going however, and seem likely to cede time to the right-handed Lewis in the coming weeks.
Some additional injury updates from around the league…
- Mets reliever Trevor May is headed to the 10-day IL with triceps inflammation in his throwing arm, per Tim Healey of Newsday Sports. The typically reliable right-hander is off to a rough start in the 2022 season, allowing sixteen batters to reach base and half of them to score across eight appearances. The Mets currently sit atop the NL win column with an 18-8 record but if there’s one nit to pick with the team’s outstanding play so far it’s the bullpen, who have been a bottom-half unit in terms of run prevention this season. A return to health and vintage form from May will go a long way to shoring up the bullpen and taking pressure off the team’s lineup and rotation, both of which rank as top-5 groups in the sport. Right-hander Adonis Medina, who was acquired from the Pirates in early April, has been recalled to fill the bullpen vacancy.
- The Rangers meanwhile welcomed back right-handed starter Jon Gray from the IL today after he sprained in his knee in his previous start. Gray, one of several splashy signings made by Texas this offseason, has yet to get into a groove with his new club. The 30-year-old has already been placed on the IL twice during the young season, and was pulled after 60 pitches in tonight’s match against the Phillies. A rough first inning ballooned his ERA up to 7.50 on the season, but a quiet pair of ensuing innings is what the Rangers and their beleaguered pitching staff will be looking for more of moving forward. Right-handed reliever Albert Abreu, acquired from the Yankees in April’s Jose Trevino trade, heads to the IL in Gray’s stead with a sprained ankle. Abreu has managed a solid 3.57 ERA on the year, albeit with a worrying 11 walks in just over seven innings of action.
- The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly rolled out a cavalcade of positive health updates on ailing Giants players today. Notably, injured infielders Evan Longoria and Tommy La Stella will join recovering outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. on a rehab assignment in Triple-A. Outfielders Joc Pederson and Mike Yastrzemski are nearing full-time returns as well after a right adductor strain and positive COVID test interrupted their respective seasons. Right-handed starter Anthony DeSclafani has also made progress in his recovery from the right ankle inflammation that recently landed him on the IL. Healthy returns from the listed players would be a boon for the club, who currently have several regulars out for COVID-related reasons. Despite sporting an IL that is more recognizable than the starting lineup, the Giants haven’t missed a beat from last season. The team is currently a half game out of first in the NL West, behind the Dodgers and Padres, with a top-3 bullpen and offense that only figures to get deeper in the next few days.
Giants To Place Steven Duggar On IL, Likely To Select Luis Gonzalez
Giants center fielder Steven Duggar left yesterday’s game against the Mets in the second inning after feeling soreness in his left oblique area. After the game, manager Gabe Kapler indicated Duggar was likely to wind up on the injured list, a sentiment echoed by president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.
During an appearance on KNBR radio in San Francisco (h/t to KNBR’s Danny Emerman), Zaidi said Duggar was headed for an MRI today but conceded early indications are “that’s an injury that usually puts a guy on the sidelines for a few weeks.” It’s not uncommon for oblique strains to require a month or more of recovery. The team will know more about the severity of Duggar’s injury and be able to provide a more specific timetable for his return once the imaging results come back.
Duggar has been San Francisco’s primary center fielder this season, starting 11 of their first 13 games. Like many of his teammates, the 28-year-old had a quietly solid showing in 2021, when he hit .257/.330/.437 with eight homers and seven stolen bases over 297 plate appearances. That offensive production was reliant on a probably unsustainable .355 batting average on balls in play, though, with Duggar’s 29.6% strikeout rate and 73.4% contact percentage raising questions about his ability to continue producing at an above-average level.
The Giants were confident enough in his abilities not to bring in external center field help this past offseason. Duggar had gotten off to a slow start to the year, collecting just seven hits in 36 at-bats with two walks and 16 strikeouts. His efforts to work through that rough stretch will be put on hold, with the Giants looking for other options to cover the position in his absence.
The immediate replacement seems as if it’ll be Luis González, as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports (on Twitter) the Giants are planning to select González onto the big league club. San Francisco claimed the 26-year-old off release waivers from the White Sox last August. González was on the minor league injured list at the time, and the Giants stashed him on the major league 60-day IL for the remainder of the season. By doing so, they added a player whom Baseball America had named a top 15 prospect in the Chicago farm system each year from 2018-21. That required paying him an MLB salary for the season’s final couple weeks, but the Giants evidently valued him enough to do so if it meant bringing him to the organization.
San Francisco non-tendered González at the start of the offseason, when teams are required to activate players from the IL and carry them on the 40-man roster. They quickly brought him back on a minor league deal, and he’s gotten off to a .283/.389/.500 start in 11 games with Triple-A Sacramento.
González only has nine games of big league experience under his belt, but he’s a .267/.346/.416 hitter in the minors. He can cover all three outfield spots and adds a left-handed bat to replace the lefty-swinging Duggar. The healthy center field options on San Francisco’s 40-man roster — Austin Slater, Luke Williams, Mauricio Dubón and prospect Heliot Ramos — all hit right-handed, and Zaidi spoke on KNBR about his desire to get another left-handed option in the mix for Kapler. The lefty-hitting LaMonte Wade Jr. is on the IL due to left knee inflammation; he’s set to begin a rehab assignment with Sacramento today, and the team won’t reinstate him earlier than anticipated in response to Duggar’s injury (via Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic).
The Giants’ baseball ops leader also downplayed the possibility of recalling Ramos, who tallied seven plate appearances over four games during his first call-up earlier this season. “It was great seeing him up earlier, but not sure we want to bring him up to be in sort of a part-time role,” Zaidi said of the 22-year-old. “I think the next time he comes up, we want him to be in a situation where he can get everyday at-bats.”
For now, it seems the Giants are content to rotate a few players through center field based on match-ups. González isn’t yet on the 40-man roster, so there’ll be another move forthcoming to accommodate his selection.
LaMonte Wade Jr. Will Begin Season On Injured List
Giants manager Gabe Kapler announced to reporters Tuesday that outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. will open the 2022 season on the injured list (Twitter links via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area and Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic). Wade recently exited a Giants Cactus League game and underwent an MRI after experiencing discomfort in his left knee. The imaging revealed inflammation and a bone bruise, and doctors recommended 10 days of downtime before being reevaluated. That shutdown alone will take Wade beyond Opening Day, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll need additional rest or treatment at that point. Even if he’s cleared for baseball activity, he’d likely need at least a quick ramp-up period before jumping back into games.
It’s the second injury of note for the Giants in as many days. The team announced yesterday that third baseman Evan Longoria will undergo surgery to repair a damaged ligament in his throwing hand. He’ll need to have his finger immobilized for a minimum of 10 days following that operation, and with any surgery, there’s the potential for an absence of some note. The Giants didn’t provide an immediate timeline but will surely have updates once Longoria’s surgery has been completed.
With Wade now sidelined to begin the season, San Francisco will likely turn to an Opening Day outfield alignment featuring Joc Pederson in left field, Steven Duggar in center and Mike Yastrzemski in right. The Giants are deep in infield/outfield types, with Austin Slater, Darin Ruf and Mauricio Dubon all having experience both on the dirt and in the grass. Thairo Estrada and Jason Vosler, too, have a bit of outfield experience, though their play there has been more sparse than Slater, Ruf and Dubon. Outfielders Heliot Ramos and Jaylin Davis are both on the 40-man roster as well, though they’ve both been optioned to minor league camp already.
San Francisco will obviously hope for a fairly minimal absence for Wade, who proved to be their latest diamond-in-the-rough find this past season. Acquired in a minor trade with the Twins, the 28-year-old Wade eventually seized a semi-regular role at Oracle Park and slashed .253/.326/.482 with 18 home runs, 17 doubles and a trio of triples in 361 plate appearances. He was platooned heavily, logging just 42 plate appearances against southpaws and turning in a woeful .135/.200/.189 slash in that small sample. Wade is on track to be arbitration-eligible next winter and can be controlled through the 2025 season
The Giants Picked Up A Productive Outfielder In An Under-The-Radar Deal Last Winter
The Giants had quite a few unexpected contributors last year en route to a surprising franchise-record 107 wins. Among that group was a player quietly acquired a month before the start of Spring Training. An unheralded pickup at the time, LaMonte Wade Jr. turned out to be an impressive find who could be a valuable part of the San Francisco outfield for the next few seasons.
Last February, San Francisco picked up Wade from the Twins as part of a one-for-one swap that sent righty Shaun Anderson to Minnesota. Wade, 27, had briefly appeared in each of the prior two seasons for the Twins but had a grand total of 113 big league plate appearances under his belt. A .211/.336/.347 hitter in that time, he had an impressive strikeout and walk profile but little else on his MLB resume.
Yet the Giants saw something of interest in Wade, whether based on their scouts’ evaluations or his minor league numbers. He’d hit .246/.392/.356 in Triple-A in 2019. The left-handed hitter only popped five home runs, but his 14.4% strikeout rate and 16.8% walk percentage at the minors’ top level were both far better than the league average. It was an interesting showing, but Wade’s lack of power was concerning for a player whom most scouting reports suggested was best suited for the corner outfield.
It’s easy to understand why the Twins front office felt that moving Wade was subtracting a depth option from an area of organizational strength. They already had Byron Buxton and Max Kepler entrenched in the outfield, and top prospects Alex Kirilloff, Royce Lewis and Trevor Larnach all looked to be approaching themselves. (Kirilloff had debuted in the majors during the 2020 postseason). Wade wasn’t at the level of those other players, and he was entering his final minor league option year.
Yet the deal backfired for Minnesota essentially immediately. Anderson allowed 12 runs in 8 2/3 innings with the Twins before being designated for assignment. Claimed off waivers by the Rangers, he bounced around between a few organizations before finally clearing waivers last month. He’s a member of the Blue Jays now but no longer occupies a 40-man roster spot.
Wade, on the other hand, had a quality showing in his first extended MLB look. He hit .253/.326/.482 with 18 home runs over 381 plate appearances for San Francisco. He became a bit more aggressive at the plate, and his walk and strikeout numbers (8.7% and 23.4%, respectively) were actually fairly ordinary.
Instead, Wade hit for a surprising amount of power. In addition to the 18 homers, he rapped 17 doubles and three triples. That’s a 28-homer, 27-double pace over 600 plate appearances (roughly the equivalent of a full season’s worst of playing time). His .229 isolated power far outpaced the .171 league average. According to Statcast, his average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard contact rate were each a fair bit better than the league mark.
That’s not to say the Twins gave away a future star. The Giants deployed Wade almost exclusively against right-handed pitching, leveraging their strong depth to put him in position to succeed. As a result of the heavy platooning, his rate numbers were probably better than they’d have been had he been asked to play everyday and drawn more assignments against tough lefties. As scouting reports had suggested, Wade was also primarily limited to the corner outfield and first base, only picking up two starts in center field.
Not all deals have to bring back All-Stars, though. The Giants have already gotten the better end of the swap, and Wade looks to have a good chance of being a quality contributor within the San Francisco outfield mix over the next few seasons. If that proves to be the case, the deal will be a nice feather in the cap of president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and his staff — an example of a team successfully pulling from another organization’s area of depth to unearth a valuable addition to their roster.