The Giants waived three players yesterday: Thairo Estrada, Taylor Rogers, and Tyler Matzek. Matzek came in the Soler trade has been on the IL. Seems like they are waving the white flag on 2024.
Here's MLBTR:
Estrada, Rogers and Matzek were not designated for assignment. They can continue to play for the Giants pending resolution of the waiver process. If they go unclaimed, San Francisco can (and quite likely will) simply keep them on the roster for the rest of the season. However, waivers are irrevocable. If another team places a claim on anyone, the Giants do not have the ability to rescind the placement.
There's more to come, I expect. Take a look at Cot's Contracts. Veterans still in the arb-process like Yaz ($7.9M this year) and Wade ($3.5M this year) might be looking over their shoulders at the large crop of youngsters behind them.
This is that cruel time where teams like the Giants have to think about next season. Who will stay and who will go? There are 28 games left and the odds of being a Wild Card team are increasingly long. Nothing a ten-game winning streak wouldn't cure of course, but this team has not managed even a five-game winning streak this year!
Today's game is 11:10 Pacific. Birdsong gets the start.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
10 comments:
Andrew Knapp was waived as well. Patrick Bailey returned from the IL.
For players to be eligible for the post-season, they have to be claimed by August 31. So it is likely that these guys will be claimed right away or not at all. Not so long ago, Thiaro seemed like one of the few bright spots in the Giants lineup. Taylor is simply expensive.
Yes, that's it, the post-season eligibility deadline. Thairo stands a good chance of getting picked up. Rogers? Teams have to eat his contract ($12M next year)! That probably won't happen unless they are desperate for a lefty.
Last year it looked like Estrada was our second baseman of the future. But he's been one of the worst hitters in MLB this year, unfortunately. With Wisely, Fitz, Schmitt, and Luciano the Giants have a lot of middle infielders.
Taylor has been pretty good though. I wouldn't be surprised if some well-to-do team that thought they needed relief help picked him up. They can always try to trade him in the offseason. And I'm not sure if I would characterize the "Giants" as having a lot of middle infielders. The "Giants organization" does, but not the big club. I'd say the jury is still very much out on Wisely, Schmitt and Luciano. Wisely at least has glove.
Besides Taylor Rogers, is Eric Miller our only lefty in the bullpen? If so it does appear as if the giants have given up, and the team played on Thursday as if the have. Interesting in the Marlin's game, it is only in the sixth inning and Derek Hill, whom the giants let go already has 2 home runs. Tomorrow, he will be coming to Oracle Park. One could not have watched this series vs. Milwaukee and think that the strike zone was called the same for both sides because it clearly was not. Pence tried to bring it up a few times, but then kind of muted himself, I guess the broadcasters can only say so much, but the one sided strike and ball calls adds to the push for the electronic strike zone, and as one of my friends, a big baseball fan, but not a giants fan says: it is time for MLB to investigate and look at this really closely. As it seems to have gotten worse since sports betting has become legal.
Sports betting is a bargain with the devil, no doubt. It's a disaster-in-waiting.
I should note that all three young Giants prospects (Luciano, Wisely, and Schmitt) have a better batting line than Estrada this season! But that says more about Estrada's fall than about them. He really has dropped off a cliff this year.
At $4.7M and going to arb, are you going to bother tendering Estrada a contract? Clearly not, as the team has three guys they can slot in and get "replacement level" production for a fraction of the cost. And one of them just might turn out to be good. A lot of mid-level players (J.D. Davis comes to mind) are seeing their fortunes in the game change quickly. Just another reason to get rid of arb and all that stuff. Players should be free agents much sooner.
I do see a bad drop off on Estrada, and he seems still incapable of taking a walk. But, he does seem to have a knack for getting an RBI. His fielding is clearly under-rating, looking at fielding metrics, I just do not see what they are seeing. I expect him to have a bounce back year next year, if anybody puts him on their major league roster. The giants can go with younger cheaper players, although Estrada is not that old, and he does offer the giants speed, although he is not flashing the speed as much this year. I don't expect him to tail off like Panik, did, but I could be wrong. I did not expect Panik to tail off like he did either. His stroke and approach seemed quite solid, but nevertheless, he did fade into the sunset.
I think the default position to take is that a player WILL tail off. It's what my Dad used to call "the law of averages" and the saber-istas call it "regression to the mean." The guys who last, who can be above average year after year, are the rare ones. Most players fade away and it's a sad fact. It's the worst part of being a fan, I think. Watching guys you like disappear. We can all think of dozens of examples.
Not to say Thairo is done. Just that Management has decided the pool of replacements is a decent enough gamble to let him go. I did really like rooting for him. It seems he's what the saber-folks call "BABIP-dependent." That means his batted-ball data didn't jump off the charts. He didn't hit the ball hard or "barrel it up" often. So those hits starting turning into outs.
No doubt. The game emphasizes power so the control pitcher and the percentage hitter are less important than they were. I think that's fixable. I really do. I think they could tweak the game to add more balls in play and encourage more spray hitters and whatnot.
It seems to have been effective for the Padres, adding hitters like Louis Arraez and Donovan Solano to their mix. It adds to the idiom of keep the line moving, and to some extent, a hit may actually be better than a walk at times. Often a walk is as good as a hit, but certainly not always.
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