Some Sunday morning roster moves to get your blood flowing.
Ahead of his start this afternoon against the Cleveland Guardians, LHP Kyle Harrison was activated from the 15-day injured list by the San Francisco Giants. Not a surprising move in any way, but the corresponding move to accomplish it goes to show how tough of a business Major League Baseball can be.
After being the hero in last Sunday’s win against the Dodgers, RHP Spencer Bivens gets to be the roster spot cleared to make room for Harrison. The Giants optioned the 30-year old back to Triple-A to make room. Bivens had a shaky outing yesterday that the box score sort of launders for him: 3 IP 4 H 1 ER 1 BB 2 K (1 HRA) — on the broadcast, it was pointed out that it looked as though he struggled to find his release point. Hardly a sin, and yet, because he has the full compliment of player options, has yet to be optioned this season, and is the pitcher least likely to make an appearance in the next few days because of his workload, his spot became expendable. That’s the biz. Rough stuff.
David Villar was 5-for-17 with a pair of doubles and a homer in this 6-game callup. The Giants are using his spot to get a look at the recently claimed LHP Kolton Ingram. He managed to pitch 1 innings for Richmond before the recall, and walked 2 in that single appearance. He pitched 5.1 innings for the Angels last season and struck out 7 while walking 5. He also allowed 7 runs (5 earned), bad enough for an 11.81 ERA. But! The Giants need some fresh innings and it couldn’t hurt to have another lefty in the ‘pen. The Giants had been going with 14 position players and 12 pitchers in a way that didn’t seem sustainable given their pitching issues.
Even with Kyle Harrison back in the rotation, nothing has been settled. Should Blake Snell return this week as planned and Robbie Ray, Alex Cobb, etc. follow soon after, the team will still need to figure out how to balance all the innings. Jordan Hicks is likely to be banished to a multi-inning reliever once it’s clear Webb, Snell, Ray, Harrison, and Cobb is the rotation, but outside of Webb, none of those guys should be expected to go more than 4-5 innings at a time, particularly Harrison as the season progresses. There will be plenty of innings still for the other pitchers and figuring this out is the next phase of bullpenning.
Expect Spencer Bivens to be back soon. He certainly pitched well enough to be the next guy up once he’s rested and once the Giants have a clear need for him. I’ll address the Luke Jackson in the room by saying that he’s still owed money next season, and I think the team will at least try to get him some more innings before the deadline to see if he can be moved before outright cutting him and eating the money owed this year and next.