Spencer Bivens recalled, and other roster transactions & injury updates

A lot of important updates over the last 18 hours.

This afternoon, just ahead of their scheduled day-night doubleheader against the Colorado Rockies, the San Francisco Giants announced a trio of important roster updates:

The Mike Baumann Minute elapses with 3 hits allowed (including 1 triple) in two-thirds of an inning late in a blowout win. Now, there was a lot of chatter on social media last night wondering why Baumann was on the roster at all when Spencer Bivens serves a similar purpose and had already endeared himself to fans, teammates, and coaches.

I’m not a psychologist and I won’t interrogate the “never stop tinkering” behavior of the front office, but I’ll suggest that when the team projections have largely tended to not work out it makes sense to have some anxiety when looking at the group on hand. Too, Bivens might simply not have been the freshest arm at that point when they added Baumann — you know, there’s probably both not a lot of thought put into it and very concrete if debatable reasons, too. The human element is something for coaches to manage, not front offices. These flesh beings are merely numerical inputs for a player usage model.

Following his 3-inning stint in Cleveland earlier this month, Bivens was optioned back to Sacramento, where he pitched 6.2 innings across 5 appearances. He allowed just 1 run (earned), walked just 1 and struck out 5. while allowing 7 hits. Welcome back, Spencer Bivens! I’m sure your multi-inning ability will come in handy during a doubleheader.

Meanwhile, the impressive Hayden Birdsong lands back on the roster as today’s 27th man, the special exemption created by MLB and the MLBPA for doubleheaders. This does suggest that following today’s start Birdsong will go right back down to Triple-A, and if I’m correct, that doesn’t mean anything other than the Giants will be able to bring him back five days from now because today’s extra man call-up doesn’t influence the 15-day waiting period between options (I’m less clear if it counts towards one of the times a player can be optioned in a season now, and for the sake of alacrity I’m skipping that to post this).

The other really big news comes from last night’s reporting. Keaton Winn will have season-ending elbow surgery, which more than likely knocks him out for 2025 as well. Meanwhile, Alex Cobb, in what very well could be his final season as a major leaguer, looks ready to make his season debut Wednesday against the A’s. That will be after the MLB Trade Deadline, so, it’s unlikely he will be a trade candidate as Andrew Baggarly speculated in a report posted to The Athletic the other night.

The other news is that Jordan Hicks will make his planned final start of the regular season tomorrow, with the rest of his appearances expected to come in the bullpen. That could be very helpful if the Giants wind up trading away some relievers, but of course, if they do that, it’s because they’ve done the math and figured there’s no chance of reaching the postseason this year. Still, with a rotation of Webb, Snell, Ray, Cobbs, and Harrison/Birdsong, you’d like to think they’ve still got a shot.