NL West Notes: King, Waldron, Ohtani, Giants
The Padres provided an update on the status of right-hander Michael King earlier today, as relayed by Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The good news is that King’s shoulder issue, which sent him to the injured list just last weekend, is not structural in nature. Rather, Sanders writes that the right-hander is dealing with a pinched nerve. Less fortunate, however, is that the Padres remain in the dark about what King’s timetable for a return to action will ultimately look like.
“Now that we’ve been able to locate what the issue is … just trying to get a handle on how to release that nerve a little bit that’s preventing that (scapula) from being able to fire appropriately,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said, as relayed by Sanders. “We’ve got some really smart people, including Michael himself, involved with that process that will get that going as soon as possible, and how soon that is is to the discretion of that nerve.”
The cause of the pinched nerve isn’t known, though King was initially scratched from his start last week due to discomfort in his shoulder after sleeping on it uncomfortably the night prior. Sanders adds that King sought a second opinion on the issue earlier this week and that, because he’s already started to improve, the Padres are not yet ruling out him resuming playing catch by the end of next week. That would potentially allow him to return to the rotation shortly after his minimum stint on the injured list expires without a rehab start, although ultimately King won’t be able to return until the nerve issue has completely resolved itself. Sanders suggests that right-hander Matt Waldron, who pitched 146 2/3 innings for San Diego last year but has been sidelined all season so far due to an oblique strain, could be ready to return from the injured list in the near future and take up King’s rotation spot while he’s on the shelf.
More from around the NL West…
- The Dodgers watched as Shohei Ohtani continued his slow-going return to pitching earlier today, as Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times was among those to report that the superstar threw two innings of live BP against the Dodgers’ minor league hitters this afternoon. Harris notes that’s a slight uptick from last week’s 22 pitches, and that Ohtani recorded one strikeout and one walk along during the session. After the session, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including USA Today’s Bob Nightengale) that the outing was a “positive” one for Ohtani, though his command wasn’t quite as sharp as his last time out. That Ohtani is continuing to make progress in his rehab is encouraging, although he remains expected to not pitch until some point in the second half of the season. Fortunately, rehabbing hasn’t seemed to slow him down one bit at the plate, as he entered play today slashing .294/.394/.670 with a 187 wRC+, 22 homers and 11 steals.
- The Giants could be looking to make a change at first base in the near future, even with top prospect Bryce Eldridge not yet at Triple-A. As Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on yesterday, the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento tabbed former top prospect Marco Luciano to serve as their first baseman in a game earlier this week. It’s a new position for the 23-year-old, who has already appeared at second base, shortstop, and in left field over the years, but Rubin notes that the River Cats are expected to continue using Luciano at first going forward as concern mounts about the club’s production at the position in the majors. LaMonte Wade Jr. is the club’s starter at the position, but after entering the year with a 115 wRC+ in a Giants uniform he’s slashed just .171/.278/.279 with a wRC+ of 60 across 48 games. Luciano has yet to hit in the majors himself, with a career 68 wRC+ in the majors, but even his meager production in 126 career plate appearances would be an improvement over Wade’s numbers this season. Plus, Luciano is a former consensus top-20 prospect in the sport who may be able to tap into that potential if offered regular reps at the big league level. While Luciano begins to learn the new position, the Giants will hope that Jerar Encarnación‘s eventual return from the injured list is enough to help improve the club’s first base production going forward.
Poll: Can Willy Adames Turn Things Around?
2025 has been a good time to be a Giants fan so far. Buster Posey‘s turn at the helm of baseball operations has helped push the club to a solid 31-25 start, putting them just one game back of the Cardinals for the final NL Wild Card spot and three games back of the Dodgers for the NL West crown. While San Francisco would surely prefer to be in playoff position right now, it’s been a very encouraging start for a club that was projected by Fangraphs for an 81-81 record and a 28.5% chance of making the postseason prior to the start of the 2025 campaign. Strong as the club’s start has been, however, that’s been almost entirely without contribution from their marquee free agent signing of the 2024-25 offseason.
It’s been a rough first year in San Francisco for Willy Adames, to put it mildly. Long viewed as an excellent two-way shortstop, Adames has yet to post on either side of the ball for the Giants. Advanced defensive metrics are notoriously finicky and take quite a long time to stabilize, but Adames’s -3 Outs Above Average and -2 Fielding Run Value are both worrying figures for a player who was a Gold Glove candidate as recently as 2023, while his -8 DRS this year stands dead last among all qualifying shortstops. Errors are hardly the best way to measure defensive value, but only Manny Machado and Elly De La Cruz have committed more of them in 2025. No matter how you slice it, Adames has started his stay in the Bay Area off with lackluster defense.
Perhaps that would be easy enough to look past if Adames was putting up strong numbers at the plate. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. He’s hitting just .208/.288/.333 with a wRC+ of 77. His 26.2% strikeout rate and 9.8% walk rate aren’t out of the ordinary relative to his career numbers, but they are the worst figures he’s posted in both categories since 2022. The primary red flag in Adames’s profile this year is his vanishing power, however. After averaging 28 homers a season from 2021 to 2024, the shortstop has hit just five in his first 56 games as a Giant.
At least some of that can be blamed on his ballpark, and Statcast suggests that Adames would have as many as eight homers if he played all of his games at a friendlier ballpark like Dodger Stadium. Park factors aren’t the only thing to blame for Adames’s power-outage, however. While his barrel rate of 11% is more or less in line with what he’s done throughout his career, Adames is pulling the ball less often than he ever did with the Brewers and hitting the ball softly more frequently than ever before. The fact that Adames has stopped pulling the ball as much and is hitting it the other way more is surely a big reason for his drop in power, particularly combined with the aforementioned unforgiving park factors at Oracle Park, which are especially harsh on right-handed oppo hitters.
That leaves Adames with an altered batted ball profile that works in tandem with his new environment to create some of the worst results of his career. That means his struggles aren’t likely to end so long as he keeps going the other way, but the good news is that Adames can get back to the approach he demonstrated in 2023 and ’24, when he pulled 45.8% of his batted balls and went the other way just 19.5% of the time, it’s not hard to imagine his results improving considerably. While it may be too late in the season at this point to expect Adames to match his 119 wRC+ from last year, getting back up around league average or even matching the 107 wRC+ he posted over the last four years could be a much more realistic target.
How do MLBTR readers think the rest of Adames’s season will play out from here? Will he be able to make the adjustments necessary to hit well in Oracle Park and turn his season around, or will he remain a below-average hitter this season? Have your say in the poll below:
Can Willy Adames Turn Things Around In 2025?
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No, he'll continue to struggle and post a below-average season. 51% (1,677)
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Yes, he'll finish the year as an average or better hitter. 49% (1,598)
Total votes: 3,275
MLBTR Podcast: Bregman Injured, Marcelo Mayer Called Up, And Pirates Talk
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Red Sox calling up Marcelo Mayer with Alex Bregman landing on the injured list (0:55)
- The Pirates losing Jared Jones to surgery and not considering a trade of Paul Skenes (11:30)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- Should the Orioles trade Félix Bautista at the deadline? (29:35)
- What are the chances the Giants could sign Kyle Tucker this offseason? (35:10)
- Are the Cardinals for real? (40:35)
- Does Kevin Alcántara of the Cubs get traded this summer? (48:10)
- The Dodgers have 14 pitchers on the injured list. Does this reflect poorly on the club’s training and conditioning? (51:15)
Check out our past episodes!
- The Disappointing Orioles, Dalton Rushing, And The Phillies’ Bullpen – listen here
- Devers Drama, Managerial Firings, And Jordan Lawlar – listen here
- Replacing Triston Casas, A Shakeup In Texas, And The Blue Jays’ Rotation – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Bob DeChiara, Imagn Images
Giants Moving Camilo Doval Back To Closer Role
The Giants are moving Camilo Doval back into the closing role, manager Bob Melvin told reporters after Wednesday’s loss to the Tigers (video provided by Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). Ryan Walker, who has held the job since the middle of April, is moving into a setup capacity. He pitched the eighth inning while trailing by a run during today’s game.
Walker only allowed one run through his first eight appearances. He has been more up-and-down since then, giving up multiple runs in four of his most recent 14 outings. Walker has still successfully closed out 10 of 12 save chances, but he carries an earned run average approaching 5.00. His strikeout rate, which sat north of 32% a season ago, is down to a pedestrian 21.6% clip this season.
While Walker will still receive his fair share of high-leverage assignments, Doval has recaptured the ninth inning with a fantastic first couple months. The hard-throwing righty owns a 1.16 ERA across his first 23 1/3 innings. He has given up six runs (three earned) all season, all of which came in a three-game span between April 4-7. Doval is closing in on a two-month scoreless streak that has spanned 18 innings. Opponents have collected four hits while striking out 18 times during that stretch.
The 27-year-old looks to have rediscovered the form that made him an All-Star two seasons ago. Doval led the National League with 39 saves in 2023 and posted consecutive sub-3.00 ERA showings between 2022-23. Things went off the rails in the second half of last season. Doval couldn’t find the strike zone, eventually costing him the closing job and his spot on the MLB roster altogether. The Giants optioned him back to Triple-A in August. They brought him back up in September, but he continued to struggle in lower-leverage situations.
San Francisco rebuffed trade interest in Doval over the winter, preferring not to sell low on an obviously talented arm. They’ve been rewarded for their patience with a rebound that could earn him another All-Star selection this summer. Doval is making $4.525MM and remains under arbitration control for two seasons beyond this one.
Giants Temporarily Moving Kyle Harrison Into Rotation
Kyle Harrison will make his first MLB start of the season this afternoon. The Giants southpaw is set to oppose Jake Irvin in the second game of this weekend’s set in Washington.
Manager Bob Melvin said Friday that the 23-year-old Harrison will take at lest two turns through the rotation (relayed by Justice De Los Santos of The San Jose Mercury News). Melvin wouldn’t commit to his role beyond that, saying that the “focus is on the next two starts. Then, we’ll see where we go from there.”
Harrison, once one of the game’s top pitching prospects, at least temporarily assumes the spot vacated by Justin Verlander. The three-time Cy Young winner went on the injured list with pectoral soreness earlier this week. Verlander expressed confidence that he’d be back right around when first eligible for reinstatement on June 3.
The Giants opted for Harrison to take the two starts that Verlander will definitely miss rather than pushing Jordan Hicks back into the rotation or promoting Carson Whisenhunt, whom they would have needed to add to the 40-man roster. He’d probably go back to the bullpen if Verlander makes it back as quickly as expected, but a setback or an injury to any other starter could lead to a more extended run.
Entering Spring Training, Harrison was the favorite to win the fifth starter job. He’d made 24 starts a year ago, posting a 4.56 ERA with league average strikeout and walk numbers across 124 1/3 innings. He was delayed in camp by lingering offseason shoulder soreness and an illness, however, allowing Landen Roupp and Hayden Birdsong to jump him on the depth chart. Roupp won the fifth starter role. Birdsong secured a multi-inning relief spot on Opening Day and has since been swapped into the rotation for Hicks. Harrison was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento to begin the season.
Harrison started six games in Triple-A, putting up a 3.46 ERA across 26 innings in a tough league for pitchers. He struck out a third of his opponents, the second-best mark for PCL pitchers with 20+ frames (behind only the A’s Jacob Lopez). Harrison also kept his walk rate to a solid 7% clip, earning him a recall to the majors in early May. The Giants have used him out of the bullpen four times since then. He has worked 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball, striking out seven while walking three. His fastball has averaged nearly 96 MPH in short stints after sitting in the 93-94 range during his minor league rotation work.
David Villar Elects Free Agency
Infielder David Villar elected free agency after being outrighted by the Giants, relays Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. He’d been designated for assignment on Monday with Casey Schmitt returning from the injured list.
Villar, 28, will look for a new opportunity for the first time in his career. He has been with the Giants since they selected him in the 11th round of the 2018 draft. The right-handed hitter showed some promise during his rookie season three years ago. He hit nine home runs with a .455 slugging percentage in 52 games. He would have needed to improve upon a 32% strikeout rate to find long-term success, though.
The Giants never gave him much of a chance to do so. Villar appeared in 46 games the following season, and he hit just .145 while striking out 32% of the time. That more or less closed the book on his MLB tenure in San Francisco. He has appeared in only 20 big league contests over the past two seasons. Villar has tallied well over 1200 Triple-A plate appearances over the last three years. He’s a lifetime .273/.381/.507 hitter with 61 home runs at the top minor league level.
That minor league production has also come with a decent amount of swing-and-miss. Villar has punched out at a near-26% clip in Triple-A. He has cleared outright waivers twice in the past two months, suggesting every team has trepidation about him making enough contact to produce at the big league level. He’d be limited to minor league offers if he remains in the affiliated ranks. Speculatively speaking, he could also explore opportunities in a foreign league. That’s a relatively common path for players in their mid-late 20s who have had Triple-A success but face questions about their ability to hit major league pitching.
Giants Sign Andrew Knizner To Minor League Deal
The Giants signed catcher Andrew Knizner to a minor league contract. The deal was first reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. He has already made his organizational debut, collecting hits in each of his first three at-bats with Triple-A Sacramento.
Knizner is picking up where he’d left off as a member of the Nationals organization. The 30-year-old had raked at a .382/.516/.500 clip with more walks than strikeouts over 23 games for their top affiliate. Washington nevertheless granted him his release over the weekend. Knizner was set to trigger an opt-out. The Nats preferred to stick with their current catching tandem of Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams rather than override the opt-out by calling him up.
While Knizner obviously isn’t going to keep up this pace, he’s a productive minor league hitter. He carried a .287/.379/.435 batting line over parts of four Triple-A seasons into play tonight. He has had a far tougher time against MLB pitching. Knizner is a career .210/.279/.317 hitter in almost 900 plate appearances at the big league level. He spent parts of five seasons backing up Yadier Molina and Willson Contreras, respectively, in St. Louis.
Knizner moved to Texas on a $1.825MM free agent deal heading into 2024. He spent most of the year as Jonah Heim’s backup, but he didn’t perform especially well. Knizner hit .167/.183/.211 over 35 games. Texas acquired Carson Kelly at the deadline and designated Knizner for assignment not long after. He landed with the Diamondbacks via waiver claim. His time in Arizona consisted of 22 Triple-A games. The Snakes outrighted him off their 40-man roster without getting him into a big league contest.
Patrick Bailey is entrenched as the starting catcher in San Francisco. Sam Huff hasn’t provided much in sporadic playing time as the backup. He’s hitting .200 with one homer and 22 strikeouts in 49 plate appearances. Knizner joins Max Stassi and Logan Porter as non-roster depth at Triple-A. Knizner has been the most productive of that trio in the minors this year, potentially positioning him as the top challenger if the Giants decide to move on from the out-of-options Huff at any point.
Giants To Place Justin Verlander On Injured List
The Giants are placing Justin Verlander on the 15-day injured list with a pectoral nerve issue, manager Bob Melvin told the teams’s beat after today’s loss to Kansas City (relayed by Shayna Rubin of The San Francisco Chronicle). They haven’t announced a corresponding move.
Melvin indicated that the Giants are confident it’ll only cost Verlander two turns through the rotation (via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). They can backdate the assignment to May 19, so he’d first be eligible to return on June 3. The veteran righty’s tenure in San Francisco has gotten out to a pedestrian beginning. He’s averaging just over five innings per start and has tallied a 4.33 earned run average in 10 appearances. He’s striking out only 18.2% of batters faced, though his 11.4% swinging strike rate is up from the 9-10% range of the previous two seasons.
It’s a moderate improvement over Verlander’s final season in Houston. He posted a 5.48 ERA with an 18.7% strikeout percentage through 90 1/3 innings. Injuries have become increasingly prevalent for the 42-year-old future Hall of Famer. Verlander began the 2024 season on the IL with shoulder inflammation. He was knocked back out in mid-June with a neck problem that was initially expected to be minor. It ended up costing him two months.
Verlander was rocked over seven starts after returning from the neck injury. He allowed more than eight earned runs per nine innings while opponents raked at a .322/.369/.483 clip. The Astros felt they couldn’t carry him on the playoff roster given the form he carried into October. It was an unfortunate end to an illustrious run in Houston. The three-time Cy Young winner signed with the Giants for $15MM as a free agent.
The Giants had operated with the same rotation for the season’s first six weeks. Verlander slotted alongside Robbie Ray, Landen Roupp and Jordan Hicks behind Logan Webb. They made an (arguably overdue) swap of Hicks for Hayden Birdsong over the weekend, pushing Hicks to the bullpen after he posted a 6.55 ERA through nine starts.
Verlander would have been lined up to take the ball on Saturday. The Giants have an off day tomorrow, so they could theoretically delay their decision on a fifth starter by a couple days if they wanted to move Ray up from Sunday’s start. They probably won’t move Hicks back to the rotation for what they expect to be a minimal absence from Verlander.
Kyle Harrison is in the big league bullpen after working out of the Triple-A rotation for much of the year. Prospect Carson Whisenhunt has a dominant 52:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio over nine starts in the minors. He’s not on the 40-man roster, though, so the Giants may not want to bring him up yet. Carson Seymour, Trevor McDonald and Mason Black are all in the Triple-A rotation and occupy 40-man roster spots. McDonald started yesterday, while Seymour is lined up to take the ball today, which probably rules them out for a promotion. Whisenhunt pitched on Monday; Black’s most recent start came last Friday.
Giants Designate David Villar For Assignment
The Giants have reinstated infielder Casey Schmitt from the 10-day injured list. As a corresponding move, fellow infielder David Villar has been designated for assignment. The club’s 40-man roster count drops from 39 to 38. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area was among those to pass along the transaction.
It’s the second DFA of the year for Villar. The first one came just prior to Opening Day. He came into the year out of options and without a firm hold on a roster spot. That got him bumped onto the waiver wire, but he passed through unclaimed and stuck in the Giants’ organization. About three weeks into the season, he was called back up when Schmitt landed on the IL with an oblique strain.
Villar hasn’t gotten much playing time since returning to the big leagues. In the one month since his contract was selected, he received just 26 plate appearances over nine games. He put up a .200/.360/.250 line in that time.
Now that Schmitt is back, Villar is likely destined for the waiver wire once again. He has shown some pop at the plate at times but has often been a strikeout victim, which likely led to him clearing waivers a couple of months ago. He has hit 15 home runs in 383 career big league plate appearances but has gone down on strikes at a 31.6% clip.
Given that he cleared waivers last time, there’s a decent chance he will do so again. If that comes to pass, he would be able to elect free agency this time around, as players with a previous career outright have that right.
It’s also possible that some team that passed on him last time will take a flier on him now, perhaps due to injuries changing their roster outlook. Villar has played the three non-shortstop infield positions, meaning he can provide a bit of defensive versatility.
He has shown some home run power in the majors, as mentioned, and has tremendous minor league numbers. He has taken 1,248 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level since the start of 2022. His 25.6% strikeout rate in that time is still a bit high but far more tolerable than his big league rate. He’s also drawn walks at a 13.4% clip and hit 61 home runs, helping him produce a .273/.381/.507 line and 130 wRC+.
Photo courtesy of D. Ross Cameron, Imagn Images
Giants Move Jordan Hicks To Bullpen
The Giants have moved right-hander Jordan Hicks into a bullpen role. Hicks’s spot in the starting rotation will go to right-hander Hayden Birdsong, who is now slated to start for San Francisco against the Royals on May 20. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle first suggested that the club was discussing the possibility of taking Hicks out of the rotation this afternoon, and manager Bob Melvin later confirmed the change to reporters (including Slusser) and announced Birdsong as Tuesday’s starter prior to tonight’s game.
It was just last week that Melvin suggested that moving Hicks out of the rotation was not something the Giants had begun discussing. Just a few days later, however, Hicks suffered his worst start of the season against the Diamondbacks as he was torched for five runs across just two innings of work. In that time, he surrendered seven hits (including a home run) and one walk while recording just one strikeout. It seems that outing, which raised Hicks’s ERA to 6.55 on the season, was the final straw for the Giants and convinced them that it was time to explore other options to round out the rotation behind Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Justin Verlander, and Landen Roupp.
It’s an unfortunate end to Hicks’s time in the rotation, particularly given the fact that peripheral numbers have generally looked favorably upon the right-hander’s work with the club this year. The righty’s 20.3% strikeout rate doesn’t exactly jump off the page, but he’s walked just 7.9% of his opponents and generated an incredible 57.4% ground ball rate. That’s the sixth-highest grounder rate among all qualified starters this year, and of the five names above him only Webb has allowed less hard contact than Hicks’s minuscule 27.7% clip. That elite contact management has been held back by a sky-high .362 BABIP and a shockingly low 56.7% strand rate. Those figures suggest some bad luck and poor sequencing may be the culprit of Hicks’s struggles, and those ideas are further backed up by his 3.48 FIP and 3.74 SIERA.
That 3.79 figure the 30th best SIERA in baseball among qualified starters this year, sandwiched between Clay Holmes and Freddy Peralta. While Hicks’s peripheral numbers may suggest strong underlying performance, however, it’s hard to make the argument that this move to the bullpen was premature. Hicks is the worst qualified starter in the league by ERA this year, and his struggles actually date back to last season when he posted an ugly 8.18 ERA with a 6.44 FIP across his final five starts of the year before moving to the bullpen in the second half and returning to form with a 1.17 ERA in August.
While it’s far from impossible to imagine Hicks getting another look in the rotation at some point given those aforementioned strong peripherals, a number of injuries may be required in order for that to come to pass. After all, the Giants have an excess of starting talent that’s forced them to use well-regarded youngsters like Birdsong and recent top prospect Kyle Harrison out of the bullpen to this point in the season. Birdsong, who posted a 4.75 ERA in 16 starts as a rookie last year, has done everything that could be expected to earn another crack at starting this year with a 2.31 ERA and a 24.8% strikeout rate in 23 1/3 innings of work as a multi-inning relief arm. The righty’s 9.9% walk rate is elevated, but his 3.68 SIERA to this point in the year is even better than that of Hicks. As for Harrison, the southpaw began the season in the minors and has only made three appearances so far this year at the big league level, though he’s struck out 31.3% of opponents with a 2.25 ERA in that limited work.