cutting a pair of players on Tuesday<\/a>, the Giants sent four more packing on Wednesday: left-handed pitcher Carson Whisenhunt and catcher Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez, who were optioned, along with third baseman Parks Harber and infielder Buddy Kennedy, who were reassigned to Minor League camp. The difference in wording between those two is mostly inconsequential: it just means that Whisenhunt and Rodr\u00edguez are on the 40-man roster, while Harber and Kennedy are not.<\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
Whisenhunt was always a long shot to make the Opening Day roster: he remains one of the team\u2019s top starting pitching prospects, so the Giants likely want him to continue developing in that role, and he lacks the fastball velocity of some of his teammates like Hayden Birdsong, Blade Tidwell, and Keaton Winn, making him less of a fit in a bullpen role. His spring was up-and-down: on the one hand, he showed increased life with his fastball, boosting his velo and striking out 14 batters in 9.1 innings. On the other hand, he had trouble with location, and his fastball was often way too hittable: he gave up some of the loudest contact in camp, while allowing eight hits and eight walks, resulting in a 9.64 ERA and a 3.26 FIP. He\u2019ll surely be up at some point this year.<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez was the favorite to win the backup catcher job when the offseason began, but that changed when the team added Daniel Susac in the Rule 5 Draft. But Rodr\u00edguez had as good of a spring as he could have hoped for, going 12-34 with one home run, four doubles, three walks, and just five strikeouts, for a .964 OPS and a 148 wRC+. The defense behind the plate \u2014 which is his biggest question mark \u2014 was solid, and earned strong reviews from his coaches. And he showed off not just his versatility, but the team\u2019s desire to get his bat in the lineup by spending a not-insignificant amount of time playing both second base and left field. He also stole a pair of bases in as many attempts. He seems likely to play a big role this year, it will just have to wait a while.<\/p>\n
As for the non-roster invitees, Harber \u2014 who has flown up the team\u2019s prospect list ever since the Giants acquired him in the Camilo Doval trade \u2014 impressed mightily. Despite having never taken a bat in AA, let alone AAA, Harber posted mesmerizing exit velocities in the Cactus League, and hit 10-28 with a home run, three doubles, two walks, and just five strikeouts, good for a .996 OPS and a 154 wRC+. Unfortunately, he suffered a hamstring injury a few games ago, and will be out for 4-6 weeks. He\u2019ll presumably begin the year with AA Richmond, but he could move very quickly. A debut this season is unlikely, but not out of the question.<\/p>\n
Kennedy \u2014 a 27-year old who signed as a Minor League free agent \u2014 also had an exceptional spring. The right-handed hitter went 9-26 with two home runs, a triple, a double, four walks, and five strikeouts, which gave him a 1.112 OPS and a 173 wRC+. He\u2019s struggled to hit at the Major League level in four years of scattered appearances, but you never know when it might click for a player. He\u2019ll be important depth with AAA Sacramento, and could come up to fill in if someone gets injured.<\/p>\n
With these four cuts, the Giants now have 37 rostered players in camp, and eight non-roster invitees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco Giants have a whole lot of camp cuts to make in the next week. They…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":665321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[5643,3681,24337,69663,205546,1283,261490,20405,102019,281479,72790,1266,281478,1275,7600,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-665320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-arizona","tag-blade-tidwell","tag-buddy-kennedy","tag-camilo-doval","tag-carson-whisenhunt","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-daniel-susac","tag-hayden-birdsong","tag-jesus-rodriguez","tag-keaton-winn","tag-minor-league","tag-mlb","tag-parks-harber","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-scottsdale","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116252305448138273","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}