Giants Rumors

Orioles Claim D.J. Snelten

By Steve Adams | June 4, 2018 at 1:13pm CDT

The Orioles announced that they’ve claimed left-hander D.J. Snelten off waivers from the Giants. Baltimore had an open spot on its 40-man roster, so no corresponding move was necessary. Snelten has been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk for the time being.

[Related: Updated Baltimore Orioles depth chart]

The 26-year-old Snelten is listed at a towering 6’7″ and 245 pounds, and he entered the season ranked as the Giants’ ninth-best prospect, per Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs. While he doesn’t throw especially hard, Snelten possesses an above-average changeup and has performed reasonably well in the upper minors. He allowed five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings in his MLB debut this season but comes to the Orioles organization with a career 2.84 ERA, 7.5 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 69 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level. Longenhagen’s scouting report notes that Snelten’s size and unorthodox delivery help him succeed against same-handed batters, while the changeup gives him a viable weapon to use against right-handed opponents.

Snelten was only just selected to the 40-man roster this past offseason, so he has two option years remaining beyond the 2018 campaign. He can be shuttled between Norfolk and Baltimore to lend some depth to the Orioles’ staff, and with several trade candidates in the Baltimore ’pen, it’s possible that a spot will eventually open for Snelten to receive a lengthier look.

Giants Outright Gregor Blanco

By Connor Byrne | June 2, 2018 at 6:39pm CDT

The Giants have outrighted outfielder Gregor Blanco to Triple-A Sacramento, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area was among those to report. Blanco accepted the assignment and will report to Sacramento on Tuesday. His roster spot in San Francisco will go to fellow veteran outfielder Hunter Pence, whom the team activated from the disabled list.

The 34-year-old Blanco could have elected free agency after clearing waivers, but he’ll remain in the Giants organization as depth. Blanco’s in his second stint with the Giants, with whom he was a successful role player at times from 2012-16 – a stretch in which they won two championships.

After spending last season with the NL West rival Diamondbacks, Blanco returned to the Giants over the winter on a minor league pact. Blanco did enough in camp to win a season-opening spot in San Francisco, but he ended up struggling to a .242/.289/.350 line in 129 plate appearances before the club removed him from its 40-man roster.

Giants Place Brandon Belt On DL

By Connor Byrne | June 2, 2018 at 4:49pm CDT

The Giants have placed first baseman Brandon Belt on the 10-day disabled list and activated infielder/outfielder Alen Hanson from the DL, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area was among those to report. Belt could miss around three weeks, according to manager Bruce Bochy (via Pavlovic).

Belt exited the Giants’ game Friday with appendicitis symptoms and subsequently underwent an appendectomy, so his DL placement doesn’t come as a surprise. Nevertheless, it’s a disappointing development for a San Francisco club that has gotten off to a 27-30 start. The Giants’ sub-.500 ways certainly aren’t the fault of Belt, who’s in the midst of a career season. The 30-year-old has slashed a tremendous .307/.403/.547 with 11 home runs in 226 plate appearances. His output has been 60 percent better than league average, according to FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric.

Hanson, 25, had been enjoying a terrific season before he went on the DL on May 14 with a hamstring strain. The offseason minor league signing opened 2018 with a .298/.346/.638 line and four home runs over just 52 PAs prior to landing on the shelf. Hanson saw action at second base and left field along the way, though he has also lined up at third base, shortstop and the other two outfield positions during his short major league career.

Latest On Giants’ Roster Outlook

By Kyle Downing | June 2, 2018 at 9:26am CDT

The Giants activated Joe Panik from the DL yesterday, as Henry Schulman reports in his latest piece for the San Francisco Chronicle. That’s not even the most interesting news, however, as Schulman also reveals a flurry of insight into the clubs plans for utilizing their other players in the near future.

Perhaps chief among these tidbits is the confirmation that veteran Hunter Pence will play in a backup role when he returns from the disabled list, where he’s been shelved with a sprained thumb since mid-April. Skipper Bruce Bochy couldn’t have been more direct, making it clear that Mac Williamson is the club’s primary left fielder while stating that he’d like to get Pence in later in games, “like I would with a fourth outfielder.”

Although Bochy’s plans are hardly surprising considering how much injuries and the aging curve have slowed Pence’s production across the past few seasons, it’s surely disappointing news for the three-time All-Star. Pence was once one of the great players in the game, ranking 33rd in fWAR from 2008-2014 with at least 20 homers in every one of those seasons. This year, however, Pence kicked off the season by hitting .172/.197/.190 with just one extra base hit an alarming 22 strikeouts in 61 plate appearances. He’s in the final year of his five-year, $90MM contract and thus will reach free agency at season’s end.

The oddest thing to come out of Schulman’s piece is the news that Pablo Sandoval is taking ground balls at shortstop. “He’s got good hands and a good first step,” said Bochy. When the club activated Panik, they optioned Kelby Tomlinson to the minors in a related move, leaving Sandoval as the only reserve infielder on the major league roster. That’ll change soon when Alen Hanson returns from his hamstring injury (Schulman notes that this will probably happen early next week), but for the time being it would seem as though the club is prepared to turn to Sandoval as its emergency shortstop in the event that Brandon Crawford has to come out of a game for any reason.

At least one more move is coming, as Madison Bumgarner is slated to make his season debut against the Diamondbacks on Tuesday.

Giants Activate Mark Melancon, Designate Jose Valdez

By Jeff Todd | June 1, 2018 at 9:13pm CDT

The Giants have activated veteran reliever Mark Melancon from the disabled list, as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area was among those to report (via Twitter). To create a roster spot, the club designated righty Jose Valdez for assignment (technically, after activating him from the 10-day DL).

Melancon will appear for the first time this season. He has dealt with ongoing elbow and forearm issues since joining the San Francisco organization on a four-year, $62MM contract before the 2017 season.

Though he signed to be a closer, Melancon is expected to spend some time working up to speed before his role settles out. Hunter Strickland has handled the ninth inning to open the year, performing well though perhaps not putting the job in a stranglehold, either.

It remains to be seen how that’ll all shake out. Generally, it’s preferable to have that problem than for Melancon still to be on the shelf. It is fair to wonder, though: since the Giants are paying Melancon top dollar, perhaps they would prefer to see him return to closing rather than running up Strickland’s future arbitration tab by giving him save opportunities.

Valdez, 28, has been knocked around in five MLB innings on the year, allowing three long balls among eight total base hits. He carries a 6.34 ERA in 55 1/3 total frames at the game’s highest level over the past four seasons.

Giants Notes: Samardzija, Upcoming Roster Decisions

By Steve Adams | May 30, 2018 at 7:55pm CDT

The Giants announced on Wednesday that right-hander Jeff Samardzija has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to tightness in his right shoulder. Right-hander Tyler Beede is up from Triple-A Sacramento to take his spot on the roster for the time being, though the organization’s current hope is that Samardzija will only miss one start, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. An MRI revealed some inflammation in Samardzija’s shoulder, per Schulman, but there’s no structural damage. With so many injuries in their rotation, the Giants briefly had all three starters listed as “TBA” this weekend, though they’ve since said that Chris Stratton and Andrew Suarez will start the first two games of the series, while a determination on Sunday’s starter has seemingly yet to be made. Schulman notes that the club had been planning to move lefty Ty Blach to the bullpen, but he’s now a candidate to start in Samardzija’s place on Sunday, as is rookie Dereck Rodriguez.

A bit more out of San Francisco, where there are several roster decisions looming on the horizon…

With Joe Panik, Alen Hanson and Mark Melancon all likely to return from the DL this weekend, and Madison Bumgarner likely to be activated next Tuesday, and two of them (Melancon and Bumgarner) will require corresponding 40-man moves. Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News runs through some possibilities for the roster over the next six days, listing Steven Okert, Roberto Gomez and Jose Valdez as candidates to be designated for assignment in order to clear 40-man spots for Melancon and Bumgarner.
More complicated, Crowley notes, is the impending return of Hunter Pence from the 10-day DL. Manager Bruce Bochy implied that Pence will return to the 25-man roster when his rehab window expires this weekend, though his exact role looks uncertain. Andrew McCutchen is the team’s regular right fielder, and the Giants have said that Mac Williamson will be given an everyday opportunity in left field. Pence, of course, can’t play center field, so he appears headed for a limited role. Crowley suggests that either Austin Jackson or Gregor Blanco could land on the disabled list as a temporary fix, though it stands to reason that if Williamson proves adept in left field, the Giants could eventually have a more difficult decision on their hands.

Injury Notes: Samardzija, Tigers, Pollock, Maeda, Mets

By Steve Adams | May 29, 2018 at 10:57pm CDT

Giants right-hander Jeff Samardzija exited Tuesday’s start after just one inning due to tightness in his right shoulder, writes Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. Any shoulder trouble for a pitcher, of course, is concerning to an extent, but Samardzija’s early exit comes with extra cause for worry given that his fastball was sitting at 91 mph on Tuesday, per Pavlovic. Samardzija’s velocity has been down, in general, early this season, but he’d previously averaged 92.4 mph. The injury to Samardzija is the latest blow to a Giants rotation that has yet to receive a single inning from Madison Bumgarner this season and also lost Johnny Cueto for an extended period earlier this month. In 35 2/3 innings this season, Samardzija has lumped to a 6.56 ERA with 6.6 K/9, 5.8 BB/9, 1.51 HR/9 and a 33.9 percent ground-ball rate.

Some more injury updates from around baseball…

Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire told reporters tonight that the team has placed left-handers Francisco Liriano and Daniel Stumpf on the disabled list due to a right hamstring strain and ulnar nerve irritation, respectively (Twitter links via Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press). It’s not clear exactly how long either is expected to miss, though the move will send one of the team’s top trade chips shelf (Liriano) while leaving Gardenhire without a left-handed option in the bullpen. Ryan Carpenter is coming up to join the team’s rotation for the time being, per MLB.com’s Jason Beck (on Twitter), while right-hander Johnny Barbato will be added to the bullpen.
A.J. Pollock’s fractured thumb has not yet fully healed, D-backs skipper Torey Lovullo told reporters (Twitter link via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). That didn’t come as a surprise to the organization, per Lovullo, who said that Pollock’s progress is “exactly where we thought it would be.” As Piecoro indicates, the latest update suggests that Pollock’s return won’t come on the short end of his originally projected timetable of four to eight weeks. The short end of that timeline would’ve lined up Pollock for a return in mid-June, but the eight-week timeline would extend his absence closer to the All-Star break.
The Dodgers pulled Kenta Maeda from tonight’s start in the second inning due to a right hip strain, tweets Alanna Rizzo of SportsNetLA. The Dodgers trainers checked on Maeda on two separate occasions in the second frame, and he was pulled on the trainer’s second trip to the mound. Los Angeles is already without Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Hyun-Jin Ryu, each of whom is on the disabled list, though Kershaw is likely to return this week. Maeda, who owns a 3.61 ERA and a 68-to-18 K/BB ratio in 52 1/3 frames this season, would represent another costly loss at a time when L.A. was hoping to see its rotation begin inching toward better health with the return of Kershaw.
Steven Matz exited tonight’s start with discomfort in his left middle finger, though the Mets said that x-rays have already ruled out a broken bone, per Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News. The injury occurred when swinging in his latest at-bat, and Matz is headed for an MRI for further evaluation, tweets Tim Britton of The Athletic. The Mets already lost Noah Syndergaard to the DL earlier today, so even a brief absence for Matz would be all the more problematic. On the plus side for the Mets, right-hander Anthony Swarzak made a rehab appearance in Triple-A Las Vegas tonight and threw a scoreless inning with two strikeouts and one hit allowed.

Giants Designate D.J. Snelten, Release Hector Sanchez

By Connor Byrne | May 28, 2018 at 2:01pm CDT

The Giants have designated left-hander D.J. Snelten for assignment, Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group reports. Additionally, the club has released catcher Hector Sanchez, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. Sanchez recently suffered his eighth concussion, Pavlovic notes.

The 25-year-old Snelten’s exiting the Giants’ 40-man roster to make room for the addition of righty Dereck Rodriguez. Snelten, a 6-foot-7, 245-pounder, joined the Giants in the ninth round of the 2013 draft and worked his way to the majors this year. He struggled across 4 1/3 innings, though, allowing five earned runs on nine hits and three walks (with four strikeouts). Snelten has been far more effective at Triple-A since last season, having combined for a 2.84 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 over 69 2/3 frames.

Sanchez, 28, has spent the majority of his professional career in the San Francisco organization. He made his pro debut back in 2007 and ascended to the majors in 2011, later seeing extensive action with the Giants from 2012-14. He left the Giants after 2015 and spent the ’16 campaign with the White Sox and Padres, only to return to San Francisco the next season.

Sanchez stayed with the Giants on a minor league deal over the winter, but he hasn’t seen any major league action this year. In all, he has amassed 834 plate appearances in the majors, including 637 with the Giants, and hit .238/.273/.367.

Giants To Select Dereck Rodriguez

By Connor Byrne | May 28, 2018 at 7:28am CDT

The Giants will select right-hander Dereck Rodriguez from Triple-A Sacramento on Monday, per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. San Francisco already has a full 40-man roster, so it’ll have to create a spot for Rodriguez.

The 25-year-old Rodriguez comes with an interesting backstory, as Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com detailed in 2017. Not only is Rodriguez the son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez, but he’s still relatively new to pitching. The younger Rodriguez entered the pro ranks as an outfield prospect in 2011, when the Twins selected him in the sixth round. That didn’t work out, however, leading the Twins to turn Rodriguez into a pitcher back in 2013.

Rodriguez took to his position change quickly and eventually reached the Double-A level with the Twins, but his time with the organization ended after last season. He then signed a minors pact over the winter with the Giants, and has since pitched to a 3.40 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 in 50 1/3 Triple-A innings (nine appearances, all starts). Rodriguez will work out of the Giants’ bullpen in his first major league call-up.

Quick Hits: Machado, Cards, Herrera, Bumgarner, Yu

By Connor Byrne | May 27, 2018 at 9:15am CDT

Although the Orioles didn’t find a Manny Machado trade to their liking over the winter, the club did believe it was progressing toward a deal with the Cardinals in December, Buster Olney of ESPN reports. St. Louis backed out of negotiations on a swap that would have sent pitching prospects and third baseman Jedd Gyorko to Baltimore, per Olney. The identities of the prospects aren’t known, though Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reported in mid-December that the Orioles had interest in young Cardinals hurlers Luke Weaver, Jack Flaherty and Jordan Hicks. It’s hard to imagine the Cardinals parting with any of those three now, but Olney notes it’s possible they’ll circle back on Machado as the season progresses. Regardless, the Machado trade sweepstakes is likely to kick off in earnest after the June 4-6 draft, according to Olney.

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