The Giants continued their roster-churning efforts by outrighting pitchers Jake Jewell and Trevor Oaks. Among those to tweet the news was Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group (via Twitter).
Both of these 26-year-old right-handers were acquired earlier in the offseason through waiver claims, then dropped to allow the club to acquire two additional hurlers. Jewell and Oaks are now lodged in the San Francisco system without occupying 40-man roster space, which was perhaps the plan all along.
The voluminous waiver activity of the Giants has brought in a host of new players. Whether any will provide much value remains to be seen.
Jewell is coming off of a tough 2019 effort in which he was bombed at both the MLB and Triple-A levels. But he features a mid-to-upper-nineties fastball and has shown some swing and miss potential. Perhaps the Giants can re-think his approach and help improve the results.
For Oaks, the standout skill is groundball induction. The soft-tossing sinkerballer has worked almost exclusively as a starter and was successful in that role last year at Triple-A. Though he recorded just 4.9 K/9, he drew grounders on 50.2% of the balls put in play against him and allowed just five home runs in 128 1/3 innings — no small achievement given the offensive explosion in the highest level of the minors.
commentinggenius
If you don’t love these moves Zaidi is making then you don’t understand baseball and you’re not a true Giants fan!! 😉
Maknauer21
Great small moves made by Zaidi, by 2021 or 22 they will be World Series contenders. Once their top prospects like Bart, Ramos, Luciano, hjelle, and Corey they will be real contenders. They also need to keep making small moves like they did to get yaz and Alex dickerson.
rightyspecialist
They’ll be better in 2022 but they won’t field a legit playoff contender for at least another 4-5 years. They just booked their 3rd consecutive below .500 season . The next step is to finish w/ a winning record. That isn’t going to happen in 2020 or 2021. They should in 2022.
But fielding a team that finishes above .500 and building a lever play off contender are two entirely different things. The latter takes time
Nevrfolow
Im with you. Jewell intrigues me and im happy he made it through.
Ronin6
Dr. Z, will get SF back on track quicker than most the Fragile Fans and Writers would ever believe 🙂
rightyspecialist
I agree, Zaidi knows what he’s doing. If only these soft Giants fans and Homer Frisco writers would just leave him alone he’ll build a winner
thekid9
How did this get even 1 comment?
Four4fore
Not a Giants fan but understand building low risk low cost dept.
Buzz Saw
Jewel could be a real diamond in the rough
DarkSide830
[throws rotten tomato] boo!
Nevrfolow
High ground ball rate and has a above average swinging strike rate. He really could be as his HR fly ball rate will definitely drop.
Ronin6
Better than Sabean’s High Cost, High Risk
VTGiant
You mean the one that brought home 3 World Series titles?
aussiegiants53
I dig these moves, depth creation is all apart of it, get them into the system and get them some of this new age coaching and see what they can achieve
antibelt
Nothing wrong with building depth. Some pretty decemt relievers come from moves like this.
HalosHeavenJJ
And the Angels to Giants to DFA train continues.
mrperkins
The numbers cited for Oaks are 2018 and I see no stats on the link to 2019. Did he pitch at all last year?
CheesyDiarrhea
Depth creation blah blah depth move blah blah
/Rosterbates on self
aussiegiants53
You ok there mate? Bad day?
giantsphan12
I don’t think his stomach is feeling well (per his moniker)
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
Now Trevor Oaks can join his brother Lester Oaks Construction Worker
geg42
Do waiver claims still cost $20k? Or is it $50k now? I have seen both cited.
DarkSide830
either way its pennies