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Giants Claim Wandy Peralta

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The Giants have claimed left-handed pitcher Wandy Peralta off waivers from the Reds, according to C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. He’ll report to his new club on Monday, tweets Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic, adding that the Giants have placed infielder Zach Green on the 60-day injured list thanks to a hip impingement.

Peralta has thrown 34 innings for the Reds this year, striking out 27 batters and walking 15 en route to a 6.09 ERA. He hasn’t been able to duplicate the success he generated in 2017, but he’ll have a chance for a change of scenery as he joins the stable of Giants relievers for a September tryout.

Giants Claim Ricardo Pinto

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The Giants have claimed righty Ricardo Pinto off waivers, per a club announcement. A roster spot was created by moving Trevor Gott to the 60-day injured list.

Pinto has been hit hard in each of his two, brief MLB stints but hasn’t yet received a full opportunity. In 123 1/3 innings this year in the upper minors, he carried a 4.23 ERA with 8.1 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9.

One thing that isn’t in doubt is Pinto’s arm speed. He has shown upper-nineties heat whether leaning on a two-seam or four-seam fastball. Perhaps the Giants have some ideas for unlocking Pinto’s potential — much as they did with Gott.

Pablo Sandoval Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Pablo Sandoval’s season officially came to an end, as the Giants announced that infielder underwent both Tommy John surgery and a more minor arthroscopic procedure yesterday to remove loose bodies from his right elbow.  Given the usual TJ recovery period for position players, Sandoval won’t be ready for the start of the 2020 season, though exactly how much time he’ll miss isn’t yet known.

Though Sandoval went on the injured list in mid-August and the Tommy John diagnosis has been known for a couple of weeks now, the Giants activated him on September 1 so the longtime fan favorite could get one final at-bat in front of the Oracle Park faithful.  It’s quite possible this could end up as the final appearance for Sandoval in the orange-and-black, though given that his injury recovery will certainly limit his free agent options, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Sandoval re-sign with San Francisco sometime next year, once he has a clearer idea of when he’ll be back in action.

There’s certainly evidence that the 33-year-old can still be a productive player, as Sandoval is finishing up his best season in years.  The Kung Fu Panda hit .268/.313/.507 with 14 homers over 296 plate appearances, good for a 109 wRC+ that marks Sandoval’s first season of above-average run production since 2014.  He also capably handled spot duty at both corner infield spots, and even contributed a scoreless inning on the mound.

Injury Notes: Dyson, Cueto, Polanco, Dominguez, Morejon

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The Twins are waiting to see how reliever Sam Dyson responds to some time off to deal with recurring biceps soreness. Chief baseball officer Derek Falvey discussed the matter with reporters including Phil Miller of the Star Tribune (Twitter link). It’s an effort to “get out ahead” of things, says Falvey. The Twins need their most significant trade deadline acquisition at top form with a major postseason clash beckoning. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been himself since coming over. Dyson owns a 7.15 ERA in a dozen appearances in Minnesota.

More injury updates from around the game …

  • Giants right-hander Johnny Cueto, on the mend from 2018 Tommy John surgery, experienced a setback in his most recent rehab outing, tweets Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News. He’ll be reevaluated in the next few days but won’t be an option for the team as soon as originally hoped. Manager Bruce Bochy had previously put a tentative date of Sept. 8 on a return for Cueto, but that no longer appears to be a plausible timeline. Back tightness, rather than arm issues, has caused the revised timeline. While there’s still hope that Cueto will make it back to the big-league bump this season, the organization will surely avoid any unnecessary risks.
  • A few Pirates outfielders won’t return to action this year, as Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (Twitter links). Gregory Polanco will receive platelet-rich plasma injections in a bid to spur healing in his troublesome shoulder. That’ll be a key situation to monitor in the offseason for the Pittsburgh organization. Jason Martin now has his own shoulder malady to deal with: a separation suffered yesterday. He’s expected to miss the rest of the year. Infielder Kevin Kramer will come up to the active roster due in part to Martin’s absence. Though Bucs righty Mitch Keller was hit in the wrist with a batted ball yesterday, he was able to play catch today. his timeline isn’t clear, but that certainly seems like promising news.
  • The Phillies got some promising news on righty reliever Seranthony Dominguez, who has at times seemed destined to miss the rest of the season. Despite a recent scare, he has shown enough progress in his elbow health to resume throwing, manager Gabe Kapler told reporters including Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philly (via tweet). It’s still not clear that Dominguez will have enough time to ramp up and return to active duty, though perhaps there’s still an outside shot.
  • Padres southpaw Adrian Morejon will not make it back to the bigs in 2019, Dennis Lin of The Athletic tweets. That’s not to say that the widely hailed 20-year-old isn’t making progress. His injured shoulder is in good enough shape to allow Morejon to resume throwing. Though he struggled quite a bit in limited MLB action, Morejon has generally shown all the skills that made him a consensus top-100 leaguewide prospect. He’ll likely again factor into the San Diego plans next season, though he’ll do so without much of an innings base to work from. Morejon has not yet thrown more than 65 1/3 frames in a given campaign and fell shy of that mark this year.

Giants Promote Jaylin Davis

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The Giants announced today that they have selected the contract of outfielder Jaylin Davis. He’ll take the 40-man roster spot of reliever Reyes Moronta, who was placed on the 60-day injured list.

Davis came to the San Francisco organization as part of the deadline deal that sent reliever Sam Dyson to the Twins. The former 25th-rounder was putting up big numbers in the upper minors at the time of the swap but was obviously deemed expendable by the Minnesota organization.

Since changing jerseys, Davis has continued to rake. Over the course of the year, he has posted well-above-average numbers at each stop: a 147 wRC+ at Double-A, 175 wRC+ in the International League, and 160 wRC+ in the Pacific Coast League.

It remains to be seen whether Davis will be able to apply his power consistently enough at the major-league level. But it’ll certainly be fun to see whether he can do so. We’ve seen other under-the-radar slugger types carry forward big upper-minors production into the bigs. If that’s the case for Davis, the Giants could have a steal. He’d have required a 40-man spot in advance of this winter’s Rule 5 draft regardless of today’s move, so there was little reason not to give him his first look now.

Giants Claim Corban Joseph

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The Giants have claimed infielder Corban Joseph off waivers from the Athletics, per a club announcement. Righty Tanner Anderson was outrighted after clearing waivers, the Oakland organization also announced.

It’s yet another addition for the insatiable Giants, who placed Pablo Sandoval on the 60-day injured list to clear roster space. The 30-year-old Joseph becomes the latest player to catch the eye of president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. Just what kind of opportunity he’ll have late this season remains to be seen.

Joseph debuted way back in 2013 but has appeared in only 27 lifetime MLB contests. He struggled this year with a brief chance in Oakland, but spent most of the season at Triple-A. In 425 plate appearances in the Pacific Coast League, he slashed a robust .371/.421/.585 with 13 long balls. The left-handed-hitting Joseph is primarily a second baseman; he could see some time there along with the righty swinging Mauricio Dubon.

Giants Select Kyle Barraclough

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11:29am: The Giants have announced the move, adding that lefty Andrew Suarez has also been recalled from Triple-A. San Francisco’s 40-man roster is now full.

11:21am: The Giants will select the contract of right-hander Kyle Barraclough prior to today’s game against the Cardinals, tweets Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News. The veteran right-hander is already with the club in St. Louis, he notes. San Francisco has an open spot on its 40-man roster at the moment, so a 40-man move to accommodate Barraclough’s promotion isn’t a strict necessity.

It’s been less than a month since the Giants claimed Barraclough, 29, off waivers from the Nationals. Barraclough briefly served as the Marlins closer in 2018 and was a steady setup piece in the Miami bullpen from 2015-18, but he had a season to forget following last October’s trade to Washington.

In 25 2/3 innings with the Nats this year, Barraclough turned in a disastrous 6.66 ERA — due largely to the fact that he surrendered as many homers (eight) in that short sample as he did in 55 2/3 innings a year ago. In fact, heading into the 2019 season, Barraclough had only yielded a total of 15 home runs in 218 2/3 innings. Home runs are up throughout the league, of course, but Barraclough’s increase was among the most stark in the game.

With the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, Barraclough was blasted for seven runs in his first two-thirds of an inning. Those continued struggles may have aided the Giants in successfully passing Barraclough through outright waivers, but he’s righted the ship since that alarming system debut. He’s pitched five straight appearances without yielding an earned run, collecting nine strikeouts against three walks across five innings in that time.

Entering the 2019 season, Barraclough had pitched to a 3.21 ERA with 11.5 K/9 and 5.5 BB/9 in 218 2/3 innings at the big league level. If he’s able to continue his recent momentum and convince his new organization that he can a future piece in the ’pen, the Giants will be able to control him for another two years via arbitration. If he’s ultimately removed from the 40-man roster a second time, he’ll have the requisite service time to elect free agency at season’s end.

Reyes Moronta Suffers Season-Ending Shoulder Injury

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Reyes Moronta’s season is over, as the Giants right-hander has suffered a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder.  (Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to report the news.)  It isn’t yet known if Moronta will undergo surgery, though it is being considered.

Such an outcome isn’t unexpected given Moronta’s extreme reaction last night upon suffering the injury.  After throwing a pitch to Luis Urias in the sixth inning of last night’s 4-1 Giants loss to the Padres, Moronta fell to the ground in obvious pain, and needed a few minutes to recover before leaving the field.

Depending on the severity of the tear and other details regarding the injury, surgery could potentially keep Moronta on the IL for a very lengthy time, perhaps to the extent of putting his entire 2020 season in jeopardy.  Sean Manaea, Arodys Vizcaino, and Jimmy Nelson are a few recent example of pitchers who underwent similar labrum procedures, with Manaea returning to the mound just today after missing over a year, and Nelson representing more of a worst-case scenario since he missed over a season and a half of action.  Again, it won’t be known if Moronta is looking at a similar timeframe given the specifics of his own tear, though obviously he, the Giants, and the doctors will explore whether or not the injury could heal without surgical intervention.

The news brings an unfortunate end to a second consecutive season of very solid work for Moronta out of the Giants’ bullpen.  The hard-throwing righty posted a 2.86 ERA, 11/1 K/9, and 2.12 K/BB rate over 56 2/3 innings this season, following a 2.49 ERA over 65 frames in 2018.  Walks have been a continual problem for Moronta, as his 5.2 BB/9 is one of the chief reasons advanced metrics are less impressed by his work (3.57 FIP, 4.84 xFIP, 4.30 SIERA this season), though he has done an admirable job of keeping the ball in the park during the homer-happy 2019 season — Moronta’s 6.5 % homer rate is the sixth-lowest of any pitcher in baseball with at least 50 innings pitched this year.

Moronta is a homegrown Giants product, signed out of the Dominican in 2010 as a 17-year-old free agent.  He has worked almost exclusively as a reliever during his pro career, and was in line to assume a larger role in San Francisco’s bullpen given how the Giants already parted ways with some veteran relievers at the trade deadline, and face the potential loss of Will Smith to free agency this winter.

Giants Activate Pablo Sandoval From 10-Day IL

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The Giants have activated third baseman Pablo Sandoval from the 10-day injured list, according to Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group. While the fan favorite will still undergo Tommy John surgery per doctors’ recommendation, activating Sandoval should offer him a final chance to end his Giants tenure (and his time under manager Bruce Bochy) by his own accord, likely receiving a final at-bat as a left-handed pinch-hitter.

While the move is essentially symbolic, it’s nonetheless surprising given that many had written off a potential swan song for the long-time Giants third baseman. Don’t expect Sandoval to contribute in a meaningful way, though Giants fans certainly won’t be opposed to giving him a proper send-off.

Sandoval ingratiated himself to the San Francisco faithful during the organization’s dynamic run of success from 2008-2014, a luxury that he didn’t share during his time in Boston, after a big-money contract backfired on the team. That culminated in his release in 2017, at which point he rejoined the club with which he signed as an amateur more than a decade ago. While there was no doubt that Sandoval was not the same in his second Giants tenure, he’s reversed his fortunes this year to regain the admiration of Giants fans. On a minimum salary for San Francisco, he’s posted a .823 OPS, his highest mark since 2012.

If the Kung Fu Panda does make his way into a September game at Oracle Park, it may be the last time he does so in his career. The 33-year-old is slated to reach free agency following the season, though the veteran may be resistant to a departure from San Francisco after his last attempt. Given that loyalty to the Giants and the immense pain that Sandoval has described, it would seem that retirement is not out of the question for Sandoval, though there has been no indication that he’s leaning that way.

Reyes Moronta Exits With Acute Shoulder Strain

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11:15 pm: Giants manager Bruce Bochy informed reporters, including Crowley, that Moronta has an acute right shoulder strain and that the team believes the pitcher has avoided an elbow injury (link).

10:23 pm: Reporters following tonight’s game between the Giants and Padres were aghast at the sight of Reyes Moronta falling to the ground after delivering a 97.5-mph fastball to San Diego’s Luis Urias. Moronta was removed from the mound with the help of a trainer while clutching his right arm. Kerry Crowley described the optics as “really bad”, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle speculated that Moronta was “seriously hurt”, and Grant Brisbee of The Athletic simply summed up the scene as “awful”.

While more official word will presumably follow the conclusion of tonight’s action, there are surely still some white knuckles around the situation in the Bay Area tonight. At 66-68, the Giants don’t figure to extend their wild midsummer run at the Wild Card, but Moronta has been widely viewed as a major part of the SF bullpen moving forward. Since debuting in 2017, Moronta has used his blazing fastball to subdue hitters with consistency. Over 128.1 innings to this point in his career, the righty owns a 2.66 ERA and an 11.22 K/9 mark–though a lack of strike zone management (5.05 career BB/9) has always threatened to undermine his potential.

The Giants, of course, traded away both Mark Melancon and Sam Dyson at this year’s trade deadline, opening an opportunity for Moronta to continue to slide towards the first chair in the team’s bullpen. Further updates to Moronta’s status will be provided at first opportunity.

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