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Injury Notes: Bumgarner, Smith

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Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner thinks he’ll be ready before the early June target time frame set by the club, he tells reporters including Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group (Twitter link). Calling the estimate “conservative” for a pinky fracture, Bumgarner noted that he’s due for a check-up in a few weeks’ time. If he is ready to ramp back up earlier than had been expected, that’d be most welcome for an organization that has had to scramble a bit after suffering some health troubles late in camp. Fellow starter Jeff Samardzija seems to be well on his way to a return after throwing a thirty-pitch pen session today, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic also notes via Twitter.

  • Meanwhile, Giants southpaw Will Smith is readying to pitch competitively next Monday, Crowley adds on Twitter. He could soon begin an official rehab assignment, which would start the thirty-day clock on his return to the majors. The 28-year-old, who was picked up in a 2016 deadline deal, missed all of 2017 recovering from Tommy John surgery. He’s just now past the one-year anniversary of the procedure, so he has largely progressed on a typical timeline to this point.

Giants To Sign Jordan Schafer

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The Giants have agreed to a minor-league pact with lefty Jordan Schafer, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (Twitter link). Particulars of the agreement are not yet known.

Schafer, a former MLB outfielder, has been trying to carve out a new niche as a reliever that can, perhaps, also provide some function in the field and on the bases. He turned in a reasonably promising showing in the upper minors with the Dodgers organization in 2016, working to a 3.83 ERA with 10.8 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 49 1/3 innings.

Heading into the 2017 campaign, Schafer joined the Cardinals organization in hopes of competing for a MLB job. But he ultimately required a primary repair procedure to address damage to his ulnar collateral ligament, costing him the entire season.

Schafer returned to the Cards for camp this spring, but never got much of a chance on the majors side. He was tagged for seven earned runs and recorded just two outs in his two Grapefruit League appearances.

Jeff Samardzija Likely To Return This Month

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  • Giants righty Jeff Samardzija, who has been out for over a week with a strained pectoral muscle, is progressing in his recovery, manager Bruce Bochy told Kerry Crowley of the Mercury News and other reporters Saturday. Samardzija probably won’t be ready the first time the Giants need a fifth starter (April 10), Bochy suggested, but it appears likely he’ll return to their rotation sometime this month.

Giants’ Julian Fernandez To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Giants right-hander Julian Fernandez will undergo Tommy John surgery on Thursday, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area was among those to report. San Francisco previously placed Fernandez on the 60-day disabled list earlier this week.

The 22-year-old Fernandez has never even pitched above the Single-A level, nor is he a high-end prospect. But the news is particularly noteworthy because Fernandez was a Rule 5 pick last December, when the Giants snatched him from the NL West rival Rockies with the No. 2 selection. The fact that Fernandez will now undergo this procedure means he’ll rack up a year of service time and earn a a major league-minimum salary ($545K) in the process. As MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk noted earlier this week, that could be a minor nuisance for San Francisco, which has little wiggle room as it works to stay under the $197MM competitive balance tax threshold.

During 7 1/3 spring innings with the Giants, Fernandez yielded a whopping 11 earned runs on 10 hits and five walks, with an eye-opening 12 strikeouts. Fernandez was far more effective at preventing runs last year in 58 innings with the Rockies’ Single-A affiliate, as he logged a 3.26 ERA/3.09 FIP with 8.84 K/9 and 2.79 BB/9.

Giants Release Jarrett Parker

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The Giants have released outfielder Jarrett Parker after he cleared waivers, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports tweets. He had been designated for assignment recently.

It’s somewhat surprising to hear that the San Francisco organization is parting with Parker entirely after deciding not to keep him in the majors. The 29-year-old has at times been seen as a potentially useful MLB asset, but it seems the club just didn’t have the space available at Triple-A and decided to allow Parker to explore other possibilities.

Parker did go down on strikes twenty times in his 48 plate appearances this spring, but also ended up posting a healthy .561 slugging percentage. He’s a .274/.368/.503 hitter at Triple-A and has hit at better than a league-average rate in his 382 career MLB plate appearances, so there’s little question that Parker will draw some interest from other organizations.

Giants Place Mark Melancon On Disabled List, Select Gregor Blanco

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2:55pm: Melancon spoke to reporters about his injury today and described the pain he’s feeling as similar to the pain he felt last season when a pronator strain limited him to 30 innings (Twitter link via Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News). More troubling is the fact that the right-hander revealed he cannot throw from more than 30 feet without experiencing pain.

Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets that Melancon said he felt pain all spring when pitching, but the discomfort increased substantially when he attempted to pitch on consecutive days. He’ll see a specialist when the Giants are in Los Angeles.

11:11am: The Giants announced that they’ve placed Mark Melancon on the 10-day disabled list, retroactive to March 26, with a flexor strain in his right elbow. San Francisco also placed Rule 5 pick Julian Fernandez on the 60-day DL to open the season, clearing a 40-man spot to select the contract of outfielder Gregor Blanco, who’ll officially return for another stint with the Giants. With Melancon on the shelf, the Giants will likely look to Sam Dyson and Hunter Strickland as potential ninth-inning options.

It’s not yet clear how long Melancon will be sidelined, though he missed a significant portion of the 2017 season — his first with the Giants after signing a then-record four-year, $62MM contract — due to a pronator strain in his right forearm. Melancon posted a 4.50 ERA in just 30 innings with the Giants last season, though his peripheral numbers were considerably better, and fielding-independent metrics were far more bullish than his more rudimentary ERA (3.22 FIP, 3.24 SIERA).

Blanco, 34, was a mainstay with the Giants from 2012-16 before jumping to the D-backs last offseason. He impressed with a .303/.405/.576 slash in 43 plate appearances this spring, but he’s struggled to a .234/.323/.333 batting line across the past two big league campaigns. He’ll give manager Bruce Bochy some depth across the board in the outfield and a potential left-handed complement to Austin Jackson, Hunter Pence and/or Andrew McCutchen when needed.

Blanco’s addition to the roster means the Giants prospect Steven Duggar will open the season in the minors, though the organization hopes that Duggar will force his way into the mix later this season and hold down a long-term spot in the outfield.

Gregor Blanco, Gorkys Hernandez Make Giants' Roster

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  • Outfielders Gregor Blanco and Gorkys Hernandez will open the season with the Giants, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. The Giants signed Blanco, 34, to a minors pact back in January. Per that deal, he’ll earn a $1MM salary in the majors and have a chance at $500K in incentives in San Francisco, with which he previously played from 2012-16 and won a pair of World Series. Hernandez is out of options, so he was also in a do-or-die position this spring. The 30-year-old rose to the challenge, though he’ll surely need to improve on last season’s showing (.255/.327/.326 line with no home runs in 348 PAs) to keep his roster spot for all of 2018.

Latest On Giants’ Pitching Injuries

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The injury bug has continued to attack Giants pitching, as manager Bruce Bochy told reporters (including NBCSports.com’s Alex Pavlovic and Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group) that right-hander Julian Fernandez has suffered a UCL sprain and is headed to the disabled list.  Furthermore, closer Mark Melancon’s availability for Opening Day could be in question, as his arm is still bothering him after making back-to-back appearances last Thursday and Friday.

Fernandez was selected out of the Rockies’ farm system in last December’s Rule 5 Draft, and would’ve had to remain on San Francisco’s 25-man roster all season or else be offered back to Colorado.  Placing Fernandez on the DL would keep him in the Giants organization for now, though the larger concern is the 22-year-old’s health status.  The timeline for such UCL injuries vary greatly due to the severity of the sprain, though Fernandez will likely be sidelined for at least a few months.

If Fernandez did require Tommy John surgery, that procedure would have an interesting big-picture impact on the Giants.  As The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly observes, Fernandez would be placed on the Major League disabled list and clock a year of service time while recovering from a TJ procedure, and he would also earn the $545K minimum salary.  Even that small payroll addition would be an added stress for a Giants team that has very little space under the $197MM luxury tax threshold, after the team made a point this offseason of somewhat limiting its spending to get under the threshold and reset its tax overage counter.  That $545K would be an expense that the Giants weren’t planning to make at all for Fernandez, as he struggled (13.50 ERA) over 7 1/3 spring innings and potentially could’ve been considered not worthy of a 25-man spot.

Melancon’s back-to-back outings marked the first time he’d pitched in consecutive days this spring, as the veteran reliever continues his recovery from forearm surgery last September.  Needless to say, any further soreness is a red flag for both he and the team, though Bochy said that Melancon’s roster status wouldn’t be determined until after he tests his arm further by playing catch over the next day or two.  Melancon has been bothered by some arm fatigue throughout camp and pitched in just five games throughout Spring Training as the team tried to bring him along slowly.

The closer is trying to rebound after a disappointing and injury-marred first season in San Francisco that saw him post a 4.50 ERA over 30 innings.  If Melancon does go on the disabled list, the Giants could turn to setup men Hunter Strickland or Tony Watson for save situations, or potentially again use Sam Dyson as closer as they did in 2017.  Dyson, however, has struggled through a very rough spring.

It has already been a brutal spring health-wise for the Giants, with Madison Bumgarner (fractured finger) and Jeff Samardzija (strained pec) both going down with injuries that have badly stretched the team’s pitching depth.  GM Bobby Evans told Baggarly and other reporters that “I anticipate we will remain internal” in regards to finding replacements, though Evans is open to the idea of potentially adding new pitchers.

Giants To Designate Jarrett Parker, Select Derek Holland

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The Giants have designated outfielder Jarrett Parker for assignment, per John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). His roster spot was needed for the addition of lefty Derek Holland, who’ll make the rotation after signing over the winter as a minor-league free agent.

Parker, 29, has seen 382 total MLB plate appearances over the past three seasons and generally acquitted himself well. He has also been rather productive at the highest level of the minors and had a strong showing this spring, with a .220/.333/.561 slash (though also twenty strikeouts in his 48 plate appearances).

Still, the Giants elected to risk losing Parker rather than carrying him on the Opening Day Roster. It seems the organization will instead keep veteran Gregor Blanco as its lone left-handed-hitting outfielder to open the season, unless it goes instead with youngster Steven Duggar.

As for Holland, it has been clear for some time that he was destined to earn a job in San Francisco this year. As the Giants lost several rotation pieces, Holland worked 15 solid spring innings, over which he allowed seven earned runs and recorded 18 strikeouts against five walks. He’ll earn a $1.5MM salary with as much as $2.5MM more in incentives.

Giants Hire Dusty Baker As Special Advisor

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The Giants are expected to bring back former manager Dusty Baker as a special advisor to CEO Larry Baer, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Baker will report to executive vice president Brian Sabean in his new role, which the Giants are likely to announce Monday.

The 68-year-old Baker will return to work in his home state of California, where he played with the Dodgers, Giants and Athletics from 1976-86. He has since enjoyed an accomplished career as a manager, and a large portion of his success as a skipper came during his San Francisco tenure.

Baker was atop the Giants’ dugout from 1993-2002, a decadelong span in which the Barry Bonds-led club went 840-715 during the regular season, posted six plus-.500 campaigns and made three trips to the playoffs (Bonds is also a special advisor to Baer nowadays). During Baker’s last season at the helm, the Giants took home the National League pennant before falling to the Angels in a seven-game World Series.

Shortly after the Giants came up short in the Fall Classic, Baker departed to manage the Cubs, with whom he served from 2003-06 (including for the infamous Steve Bartman incident against the Marlins during the ’03 NLCS). He then went on to hold the same position with the Reds (2008-13) and Nationals (2016-17).

While a championship has eluded Baker during his 22-year career as a manager, which is potentially over, his teams have combined for an impressive 1,863-1,363 regular-season record and nine playoff berths. Only 13 other managers are ahead of Baker on the all-time wins list, and 12 are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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