Your 2018 Giants: Opening Day Roster

The Giants Opening Day Roster was released after the last exhibition game.  NBC Sports reported who made it:

• SP:  Blach, Cueto, Holland, Stratton (in rotation order)
• RP:  The eight-man bullpen currently consists of Mark Melancon, Sam Dyson, Tony Watson, Hunter Strickland, Josh Osich, Cory Gearrin, Pierce Johnson and Roberto Gomez, although Melancon could open the year on the DL.
• C:  Posey, Hundley (Sandoval is the emergency catcher)
• IF:  Belt, Panik, Longoria, Crawford; Sandoval, Tomlinson
• OF:  Pence, Jackson, McCutchen; Blanco, Hernandez

Pavlovic had more info on the two new guys:

Johnson and Gomez were the last two to make it, and both benefited from the fact that they can throw two to three innings for a staff that doesn’t have a designated long man. Johnson is a particularly cool story. He was part of the first round of cuts on March 12 but threw well in minor league camp and again when he was called up for spot duty with the big leaguers. In seven spring innings, he allowed just one hit.

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.

Your 2018 Giants: Samardzija Not Superman: Neither is Bumgarner

News just came out about Samardzija's pectoral muscle strain.  It is unknown yet how long he will be out, but he's going on the DL to start the season.  But this is considered a good thing, per NBC Sports Alex Pavlovic, as it is not a worse issue.  The plan is to rest Samardzija for 10 days, and then ramp things up again.  Bochy says that he don't think it will take long to get him back on the team, and the latest estimates on twitter says that he'll be back in 3-4 weeks.

Of course, we don't know what will happen when he crank things up again...

Oh, It's All F'ed UP:  Bumgarner Fractured Hand

Ugh, now it looks like this is all blown to hell:  Bumgarner has been hit on his left hand by a comebacker.  One video shot looked like he got in in the palm of his hand, versus his fingers.  And that's apparently where the break is, on the outer had, between the pinky and the palm.  I'm going to leave this as is, with a few extra comments based on the Bum news, I can't believe this, but it looks like the rotation is Cueto, Holland, Stratton, and Blach, and hopefully Samardzija returns in time to take the 5th starter's role in the rotation, though they could slot him in anywhere.

According to Baggarly on Twitter, he will get pins put in, which will take 4-6 weeks to heal, at which point the pins are removed.  Baggarly says it will not be short DL but he should be back before the All-Star break.

Your 2018 Giants: Latest Spring Cuts

Here are the latest Giants spring cuts, per MLB.com:

• Optioned out:  right-handers Tyler Beede, Roberto Gomez, and Derek Law; outfielders Austin Slater and Mac Williamson
• Reassigned to the minors: left-hander Andrew Suarez, right-handers Joan Gregorio and Jose Valdez, catchers Justin O'Conner, Trevor Brown and Hector Sanchez, infielders Orlando Calixte, Chase d'Arnaud and Kyle Jensen and outfielder Chris Shaw

Your 2018 Giants: Roster Battles After Player Cuts

The Giants recently re-assigned a number of players from their major league spring training camp.  With Opening Day happening in two weeks, I'll take a look at the roster battles and how the 25-man roster is shaping up.

NBC reported the following cuts:

Eight players were optioned to minor league camp, including a couple of guys who have big league experience. The optioned players are: Tyler Herb, Pierce Johnson, Chase Johnson, Reyes Moronta, Steven Okert, D.J. Snelten, Aramis Garcia and Miguel Gomez.  

The Giants also reassigned five players to minor league camp: Tyler Cyr, Jose Flores, Dereck Rodriguez, Madison Younginer and Alen Hanson.  

With the cuts, the Giants are down to 47 players in camp.

Your 2018 Giants: Signs FA Tony Watson for $9M

The Giants have agreed to sign free agent Tony Watson, former teammate and buddy of closer Mark Melancon (he apparently tried hard to recruit him even when he was briefly with the Dodgers;  he pitched very well for them in the playoffs).  Two years at $9M, plus games played escalators that easily push the contract to $14M, but all in 2019, none in 2018, plus a player's option for 2020.

To stay under the CBT penalty, his agent, Scott Boras (of course, he was the sneak that cost us a Top 10 pick in Matt White, when he found a loophole that made him a free agent; I won't fully forgive him unless Bryce Harper signs with us next off-season :^) ), helped figure out a way for the Giants to sign him, given their interest in him once the news that Will Smith would miss at least the first month of the season in his recovery from TJS.  Apparently for the CBT, because it is a two year contract with a third year player option, for AAV purposes, it counts as 3 years, but because only $9M is guaranteed over the first two years of the contract, you divide the $9M by the 3 years.

Boras' financial accountant earned his salary with that move, and this might break the log jam of free agents, as other teams try to do similar contractual gymnastics to sign other free agents.

Your 2018 Giants: Rule 5 Draft: Lose One, Gain One

In the Rule 5 Draft today, the Giants selected the Rockies flame throwing RHP, Julian Fernandez, who has been recorded as hitting 102 MPH before.  Just 22 YO, the Giants are paying $100K to find out if this right-handing can jump to the majors from A-ball, where he did pretty well.

Meanwhile, the D-backs grabbed Albert Suarez from the Giants.  He was valuable in 2016, and the D-backs clearly hope to return him to that for 2018, after a poor 2017 season.