Giants Rumors

NL Roster Notes: Bautista, Perdomo, Gonzalez, Mac/Pence

By Jeff Todd | April 19, 2018 at 9:38pm CDT

The Braves don’t intend to take a long time deciding whether to bring up recent signee Jose Bautista, Michael Hoad of Sportsnet.ca writes. GM Alex Anthopoulos says that the club is “optimistic [Bautista is] going to have an opportunity to come up,” so it seems the expectation is that the former star will indeed get a shot. He’ll be looking for a return to form at the plate even as he makes a surprising return to third base after nearly a decade spent mostly in the outfield. But Anthopoulos did note that he hasn’t made any promises of a MLB promotion, so it seems that Bautista will at least have to show something to get a crack at boosting a Braves team that is off to a nice start.

Here are a few notes on some National League players who are already slated to move onto or off of a major league roster:

The Padres have optioned righty Luis Perdomo, per a club announcement, with reliever Kirby Yates being activated from the DL to take his roster spot. Though he showed a good bit of promise last year, Perdomo has been tagged for 13 earned runs in 14 innings in his first four starts of the 2018 campaign. Though he has given up quite a lot of hard contact, the resulting .510 batting average on balls in play surely seems like an outlier. Beyond the performance considerations, the move helps the team manage a roster that has quite a few moving parts.
Marlins pitching prospect Merandy Gonzalez is heading to the majors for the first time, as MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro writes. Skipper Don Mattingly says he’ll use his new hurler as a long relief option for the time being. Gonzalez is a starter by trade, and has some long-term hopes of working in a big-league rotation, but at the moment is appealing mostly because he offers the possibility of filling some innings and is already on the 40-man. Miami added Gonzalez in the trade that sent reliever A.J. Ramos to the Mets last summer.
There’s nothing official yet, but Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic tweeted the “informed speculation” that outfielder Mac Williamson will join the Giants tomorrow. There are still some complications, but the 27-year-old has clearly played his way to a call-up. In fifty trips to the plate at Triple-A, he’s hitting a ridiculous .487/.600/1.026 with six home runs. Meanwhile, veteran Hunter Pence has managed only one extra-base hit, nine singles, and two walks in his 61 MLB plate appearances. It seems he will be headed to the DL with a thumb issue.

West Notes: Astros, Dodgers, A’s, Giants, Mariners

By Connor Byrne | April 14, 2018 at 7:37pm CDT

In a lengthy Q&A with Jim Bowden of The Athletic (subscription required), Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow touches on a slew of topics relating to the defending world champions, including the futures of shortstop Carlos Correa, center fielder George Springer, left-hander Dallas Keuchel and right-hander Justin Verlander. There’s no word on whether the Astros have begun extension talks with any of those players, but Luhnow would unsurprisingly like to retain each of them for the long haul. “If I could wave a magic wand and keep all three of those guys, plus others here for the foreseeable future and possibly for their entire careers, I would do it! It’s amazing to watch them,” he said of Correa, Springer and Keuchel. Luhnow added that he’d also like for Verlander to finish his career in Houston, which only has him under wraps through next season. Correa’s under control through 2021, meanwhile, and Springer isn’t slated to hit free agency until after the 2019 campaign. Keuchel could be gone sooner, though, as he’s scheduled to reach the open market next winter.

More from the majors’ West divisions…

Injured Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner is taking dry swings, but the team remains unsure when he will make his 2018 debut, manager Dave Roberts told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com and other reporters Saturday. The superstar has been out since late March with a broken left wrist, and the defending NL champion Dodgers have clearly missed him during a 4-8 start. In Turners’s absence, their third basemen have hit an ugly .250/.293/.382 (65 wRC+) in 82 plate appearances.
The Athletics sent righty reliever Liam Hendriks to the disabled list on Saturday with adductor tendinitis in his groin. Before that, he was in danger of being designated for assignment, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Hendriks was a solid reliever for the A’s from 2016-17, but he then gave up three runs on seven hits and three walks over his first three innings this year and dealt with a drop in velocity. The injury had something to do with that, according to Hendriks. “It was always kind of there and I felt like I was doing everything right,” he said, “but I went back and looked at the video and my mechanics were completely different, trying to overcompensate.”
The Giants expect righty Johnny Cueto to come off the DL for a start Tuesday against Arizona, manager Bruce Bochy informed reporters, including Kerry Crowley of the Mercury News, on Saturday. Cueto landed on the shelf this past Tuesday, retroactive to April 7, with a sprained ankle. As a result, the Giants have been missing their three best starters – the injured Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija are the others – though the only one who’s not nearing a return is Bumgarner, whom the club moved to the 60-day DL earlier this week (fractured finger).
The Mariners activated designated hitter Nelson Cruz prior to Saturday’s game against Oakland, sending right-hander Casey Lawrence to Triple-A to clear roster space, the team announced. Cruz went on the DL on April 3 with an ankle sprain, before which he opened the year with two home runs in just six at-bats.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/13/18

By Steve Adams | April 13, 2018 at 11:05am CDT

Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league, all courtesy of Baseball America’s Matt Eddy unless otherwise noted…

The Angels have added right-handed reliever Jordan Jankowski on a minor league contract. The 28-year-old got his first taste of the big league in 2017, tossing 4 1/3 frames for the Astros before landing with the Dodgers via waiver claim. Jankowski has averaged 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings in 177 1/3 Triple-A frames in his career, though he’s struggled with control since being selected in the 34th round of the 2012 draft as well.
Former big league infielders Tyler Ladendorf and Darnell Sweeney have signed minor league pacts with the Blue Jays. Ladendorf, a former Twins second-rounder who was once traded to the A’s in exchange for Orlando Cabrera, logged 68 MLB plate appearances with Oakland from 2015-16 but hit just .123/.149/.154 in that brief time. He’s a career .258/.326/.350 hitter in Triple-A and has played second base, shortstop, third base and corner outfield as a pro. Sweeney, meanwhile, posted a .639 OPS in 98 plate appearances with the Phillies in 2015 after they acquired him from the Dodgers in the Chase Utley trade. He’s a career .258/.325/.394 hitter in Triple-A.
The Giants released outfielder Daniel Carbonell, who they’d originally signed Carbonell to a four-year, $3.5MM contract back in 2014 after he left Cuba. Signed because of his defensive prowess and speed, Carbonell’s bat never came around, as he appeared in just two Triple-A games with the Giants after stalling out in Double-A. In 437 plate appearances at that Double-A level, the now-27-year-old Carbonell hit just .188/.227/.273.

Latest On Mark Melancon

By Jeff Todd | April 12, 2018 at 8:13pm CDT

Giants closer Mark Melancon has still yet to take the hill for the team and it remains uncertain just when he will. Most recently, he underwent a stem cell injection to his troublesome pronator, as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area was among those to report.

For the time being, the righty reliever is going to take another two weeks of rest before hopefully attempting to resume throwing. He’ll surely require a full ramp-up from that point, though it’s tough to know how long it may take for Melancon to work back to the MLB bullpen.

Melancon, who missed a big chunk of the 2017 season, seemed destined for the Opening Day roster until a late-spring announcement that he was struggling once more with forearm and elbow issues. It emerged that he had never been able to throw pain-free despite a surgical procedure performed in early September of last year.

There’s no particular reason at this point to find further concern with Melancon’s status, though the timing does indicate that rest alone did not solve the problem and it seems there’s still plenty of uncertainty in how things will progress. Regardless, the veteran hurler’s timeline will surely depend upon when he’s finally able to throw without discomfort.

Needless to say, the Giants are hoping to get a significant contribution from the 33-year-old sooner than later. He’s in the second season of a four-year, $62MM contract that now looks to be among the least productive investments ever made in a relief pitcher. To this point, Melancon has provided the San Francisco organization with only thirty innings of 4.50 ERA pitching — though he did carry a typically solid 29:6 K/BB ratio last year.

Giants Promote Andrew Suarez, Move Madison Bumgarner To 60-Day DL

By Jeff Todd | April 11, 2018 at 12:33pm CDT

The Giants announced today that they have promoted lefty Andrew Suarez, as expected. To create space on the 40-man roster, the club moved star hurler Madison Bumgarner to the 60-day DL. An active roster spot was opened by optioning reliever Steven Okert.

Suarez, 25, will follow Tyler Beede in making his debut for a San Francisco organization that has been hit hard by rotation injuries. There is a bit of good news on that front, as Jeff Samardzija is on track to return next week, as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets. For now, though the club will see what it has in some young hurlers.

Suarez, 25, was a second-round pick in the 2015 draft. He has been a steady performer while climbing the ladder in the Giants’ farm system, first reaching the top rung last year. In his 155 2/3 total innings in 2017, split between Double-A and Triple-A, he carried a 3.30 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 while generating grounders on nearly half the balls put in play against him.

As for Bumgarner, it is not exactly a surprise to see him put on ice for the full sixty days while he returns from a fractured pinky finger. That injury, which occurred late in camp, was expected to keep him out until early June anyway. Though the veteran had hoped to return sooner than initial projections, he could still conceivably beat the target by a few weeks after today’s placement.

Giants Place Johnny Cueto On 10-Day DL

By Steve Adams | April 10, 2018 at 8:42pm CDT

The Giants have placed right-hander Johnny Cueto on the 10-day disabled list due to a sprained ankle he sustained in a workout over the weekend, as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. The move is retroactive to April 7. Left-hander Steven Okert is up from Triple-A to give the team an extra arm for tonight’s game against the D-backs, and southpaw Andrew Suarez will be promoted tomorrow to make his Major League debut in what would’ve been Cueto’s spot in the rotation.

While Cueto’s injury doesn’t sound serious, it’s nonetheless the latest blow in a series of rotation injuries that have hindered the Giants early on in the season. Madison Bumgarner has yet to pitch this season due to a fractured finger that he sustained in Spring Training, while Jeff Samardzija has also yet to make his season debut owing to a pectoral injury. Pavlovic does relay some good news for Giants fans, as Samardzija is slated to make a rehab appearance on Saturday and should be activated for his next turn in the rotation after that.

In many respects, Cueto is off to a solid start to the 2018 season, having yielded just one run on nine hits and two walks through his first 13 innings. However, Cueto’s velocity has dipped from an average of 91.3 mph last season to just 90 mph thus far, and he’s managed to strike out just five batters while posting an uncharacteristically low seven percent swinging-strike rate.

Suarez, meanwhile, was the Giants’ second-round pick back in the 2015 draft. The University of Miami product has made just one Triple-A start this season but impressed there in 2017, tossing 88 2/3 frames with 8.1 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and a 49.2 percent ground-ball rate following a promotion from Double-A, where he’d also impressed. San Francisco is already turning to its top pitching prospect, Tyler Beede, to make his MLB debut tonight, and they’ll follow him with another of the farm’s most promising young hurlers in Suarez — giving fans a potential glimpse of the future. MLB.com ranks Suarez as the Giants’ No. 10 prospect, calling him a high-floor prospect who should at the very least settle in as a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Giants Promote Tyler Beede

By Jeff Todd | April 10, 2018 at 9:43am CDT

The Giants will hand the ball to pitching prospect Tyler Beede tonight, as Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group was among those to report. Reliever Roberto Gomez was optioned to create space.

The righty had already joined the MLB team on its taxi squad, but the team’s precise plans were not clear. Skipper Bruce Bochy announced last night that the youngster will be activated for his first MLB start.

Beede, the Giants’ first-round pick in the 2014 draft, will make his debut about six weeks before his 25th birthday. The Vanderbilt University product has steadily moved up the ladder in the San Francisco farm since signing out of the amateur ranks.

The results have been mixed of late for Beede. He turned in a strong 2016 season at Double-A, working to a 2.81 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9. But he failed to carry that forward last year, when he allowed 4.79 earned per nine (with 6.9 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9) in his 109 Triple-A innings.

While Beede entered camp this spring with at least some hope of forcing his way into the Opening Day roster mix, he labored through his four outings. Still, he’ll receive a shot now that there’s an opening. Fellow hurler Andrew Suarez might also have been considered, but Beede is a much simpler selection from a logistical standpoint since he already has a 40-man roster spot.

It’s not clear at this point whether Beede will have much hope of sticking in the rotation for the remainder of the year. With Jeff Samardzija not far from a return, it could be that Beede will only get a limited opportunity. If he impresses, though, perhaps there’s a chance he could stake a claim to a permanent job. It’s doubtful the Giants are looking too closely at Beede’s service situation, as he isn’t exactly considered a can’t-miss ace, but it’s worth noting that he could still accrue a full year of MLB service in 2018 if he sticks on the active roster from this point forward.

Quick Hits: Duffy, Melky, Indians, Brewers, Giants

By Connor Byrne | April 7, 2018 at 10:26pm CDT

Royals left-hander Danny Duffy was a popular name in trade rumors during the offseason, but he ended up staying put. Duffy remains a trade candidate, however, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. It would take “the right package of prospects” to land the 29-year-old Duffy, Cafardo writes. Duffy’s under control through 2021 for a total of $60MM. He’s off to a rough start this year – albeit over two just two appearances – having allowed eight earned runs on 10 hits and five walks (with eight strikeouts) in 9 2/3 innings.

NL West Notes: Rockies, Myers, Giants

By Steve Adams | April 4, 2018 at 11:37pm CDT

Hours after the Rockies announced an extension for star center fielder Charlie Blackmon, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post chatted with Blackmon’s teammates and manager about the newly inked contract. The question on the minds of many in the wake of the $108MM deal, which guarantees Blackmon $94MM in new money over the next five seasons (he was already signed at $14MM this year), was whether the Rox would be able to keep both Blackmon and Nolan Arenado. However, Arenado tells Saunders that his teammate’s considerable payday hasn’t prompted him to think about his own contract. “Honestly, I didn’t think about that,” said Arenado — a free agent after the 2019 season. “…I would rather not negotiate during the season. I’m happy for Chuck, and it’s not about me, it’s about him. I didn’t really put me and him together with it.”

Even more telling, though, were comments by second baseman DJ LeMahieu, who was candid in expressing his doubt that his camp and the Rockies will even hold talks. “No, there have been no talks and I don’t think there will be,” said LeMahieu. The 29-year-old LeMahieu, a two-time Gold Glove winner and All-Star, is set to hit the open market at season’s end.

Here’s more from the division…

The Padres announced tonight that they’ve placed Wil Myers on the 10-day disabled list due to nerve irritation in his right arm and recalled right-hander Phil Maton from Triple-A El Paso. While Myers will be shut down from baseball activities entirely for the next few days, the Friars don’t consider the injury to be serious and are actually expecting a minimal DL stint, as MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell writes. X-rays have already shown that there’s no structural damage in Myers’ arm, per Cassavell, who adds that a specialist examined Myers and made the diagnosis of some apparently mild irritation. “It’s early in the season,” Myers told Cassavell. “If I can use these days to get this right, get my back right, to finish the last 148 games completely healthy, it’s the right move.”
While they didn’t call a great deal of attention to it, the Giants beefed up their analytics department over the offseason, writes Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. San Francisco has become more aggressive in terms of infield shifting and, during Spring Training, displayed leaderboards with more modern metrics such as exit velocity in the clubhouse. Giants players have begun to ask for additional info on their launch angles and batted-ball tendencies, Pavlovic notes. Regarding the infield shifts, Pavlovic also points out that the addition of a strong defensive player in Evan Longoria, plus the increased emphasis on data, figures to make the club considerably more aggressive in terms of shifts.

Injury Notes: Giants, Shoemaker, Lamb, Mariners, Gyorko, Ellsbury

By Jeff Todd and Steve Adams | April 3, 2018 at 6:47pm CDT

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.

Here’s more injury news from San Francisco and elsewhere…

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.
Right-hander Matt Shoemaker has been placed on the 10-day DL by the Angels due to a strained right forearm, the team announced tonight. Anaheim has called righty Parker Bridwell up to take his spot in the rotation for now. Obviously, it’s a concern for Shoemaker, who had two separate forearm-related injuries in 2017 before ending his season to undergo surgery which repositioned the radial nerve in his forearm. The Angels didn’t give a timetable for Shoemaker’s return to action.
The D-backs announced tonight that third baseman Jake Lamb is hitting the disabled list with a sprained AC joint in his shoulder, though manager Torey Lovullo tells reporters that he’s hopeful the young slugger can return to the lineup after the minimum 10-day allotment (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan). Righty Matt Koch has been called up to take Lamb’s spot on the roster for the time being, which will give Arizona some additional depth in the bullpen on the heels of a 15-inning game. The D-backs are well covered in terms of depth around the infield. Deven Marrero got the start at the hot corner tonight, though Daniel Descalso and Chris Owings also seem like possible options there.
The Mariners have placed slugger Nelson Cruz on the 10-day DL with an ankle sprain, the club announced. The move was backdated to April 1st. As Ryan Divish of the Seattle notes (links to Twitter), with two upcoming tilts with National League foes, it was fairly painless for the team to put Cruz on the shelf for a bit. And manager Scott Servais believes Cruz won’t miss more than the minimum, if that. Clearly, the M’s can ill afford any kind of extended absence from Cruz, who has raked since coming to the club on a four-year deal that expires after the present season. In other M’s news, Mike Zunino could be headed in the other direction, as Servais says his top catcher isn’t likely to require an extended absence for his oblique strain (also via Divish, on Twitter). Indeed, the skipper indicated that he believes Zunino will be ready to join the team at some point during its eight-game road swing.
Also heading to the DL is Cardinals infielder Jedd Gyorko, as Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. His hamstring issue is not believed to be a serious one, but the team may need to make the move to bolster the bench in the meantime. For now, then, it seems likely just to be a temporary blip for a player who’ll likely take the lion’s share of the time at third this year in St. Louis. Outfielder Harrison Bader has been recalled to take the open roster spot.
Already on the DL with an oblique issue, Yankees outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury has now been set back by a hip injury, as Bryan Hoch of MLB.com tweets. While it seems there’s not a lot of concern with this new malady, it only adds to the laundry list of aches and pains that have plagued Ellsbury of late. While his contract is obviously under water, Ellsbury remains a useful MLB asset and is in greater need than anticipated due to the Yanks’ other outfield injuries. At this point, it seems, fellow outfielder Aaron Hicks will likely be activated first from his own DL placement for an intercostal strain.

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