Your 2018 Giants: And the Carnage Continues

Unbelievable:  Baggarly is tweeting about pitchers having issues.

Baggarly reported that "Rule 5 flamethrower Julian Fernandez has a UCL" sprain and is going on the DL.  He did note the upside is that if he has Tommy John surgery, the Giants would keep him into 2019.  However, he would make the big league minimum on the DL and that would be another $545K against the CBT.  However, he is also going to get a second opinion, so we'll see what happens.

And Baggarly reported that "Something is up with Mark Melancon" as well.  Giants are not 100% confident that he will be on the active roster Thursday, and will play catch today and tomorrow.

Baggarly also noted that Evans said that the Giants are open to acquiring help but anticipate going with internal choices for the opening day roster.

He also noted that Andrew Suarez, Pierce Johnson, and Derek Law, who were all headed to Sacramento 48 hours ago, might be on the Opening Day roster.  Bochy will announce the 25-man roster after tonight's game.


ogc thoughts

If Melancon hasn't pitched since Friday, I don't see how he can be ready by Thursday, but OK.  I think it's clearly going to be Dyson as the closer, and not Watson (the two pitchers with extended closer experience) as Bochy likes having lefties in reserve to attack the opposing batters late in the game, as LHH are often one of the best hitters on other teams, and would want to keep Watson and Osich available for set up duties, much like he had Affeldt and Lopez.  Watson was used as the closer by the Pirates last season, for the early part of the season, but he did not do very well in that role, which is probably a large part of the reason that we were able to sign him so late and for not that much.

Interestingly, Baggarly tweeted that Strickland has dominated this spring and would be his pick.  And as I noted in my other post, with his new slider, he might be ready to be closer-worthy with his repertoire finally.  So this would make sense too, especially given how up and down Dyson has been this spring.  And he would certainly bring a sense of deja vu from when Brian Wilson was the closer.  So it will be interesting to see who Bochy choses. 

Wow, Suarez was my dark horse to make the opening day roster, but now he might get onto it because of injuries, not because he forced his way onto it.  Adding him would require a 40-man roster spot, which I suppose he could get the one that Fernandez was going to end up with, but the only way to open up that spot was to put Bumgarner on the 60-day DL, use the spot to add Fernandez, who we then place on the 60-day DL as well, and then add Suarez.  In any case, he might be the guy taking the long reliever/5th starter role. 

And Law would take Fernandez's bullpen role, which was enabled by the carrying of only 4 starters, so he could be going back once the Giants need a 25-man spot, when Samardzija is ready to return.  And Johnson is probably in line for Melancon, if he should go on the DL as well, but that won't be known probably until game time opening day Thursday (Wednesday is a mandated scheduled off day before Opening Day).

Luckily the Giants had left enough space under the CBT threshold to add veteran or two later in the season, so if Fernandez does go for TJS, there is space that would be available under the CBT for the Giants to continue to stay under, and obviously, less room to move around in, financially.  Schulman noted that it could affect the Giants decision on adding Gregor Blanco, as he's set for a higher MLB salary than the minimum of $545K, and if the Giants need to add players, they might not add him in order to save money against the threshold. 

The Opening Day roster will be released after tonight's game.