The Giants shuffled up their pitching staff Wednesday, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link), formally selecting the contracts of lefty Sam Long and right-hander James Sherfy (as previously reported, in the case of Long). Right-hander Matt Wisler was designated for assignment in one corresponding move, while outfielder Alex Dickerson was placed on the 10-day injured list due to an upper back strain with another.
Wisler, 28, was somewhat of a surprise non-tender by the Twins on the heels of a 1.07 ERA and a 32.7 percent strikeout rate in last summer’s shortened slate of games. Wisler has maintained that bat-missing prowess and actually made a dramatic improvement in the problematic 13.1 percent walk rate that likely contributed to his non-tender — he’s down to 7.3 percent in 2021 — but he’s once again become alarmingly homer-prone. In 19 1/3 frames, he’s been tagged for four long balls — a rate of 1.86 per nine innings pitched. The resulting 6.05 ERA prompted the Giants to move on.
San Francisco will now have a week to trade Wisler or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He has enough service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would require forfeiting the remainder of his $1.15MM salary, so he’s likely to accept an assignment if he passes through waivers unclaimed.
Sherfy, 29, has spent parts of three seasons in the division, appearing with the 2017-19 Diamondbacks and tallying a total of 45 1/3 innings pitched. He’s logged a combined 2.98 ERA in that time, punching out a quarter of his opponents against a 9.9 percent walk rate. So far in Triple-A Sacramento, he’s rattled off 7 2/3 shutout innings with an 11-to-1 K/BB ratio.
Dickerson, 31, was a revelation for the Giants from 2019-20 after coming over from the division-rival Padres in a trade, but he’s scuffled in 2021 and dealt with some all-too-familiar durability concerns. Dickerson topped a .900 OPS in his first two partial seasons with San Francisco, but he’s mustered only a .226/.295/.398 output so far this year. This will be the second IL stint of the season for him, as he previously spent 10 days on the injured list with a right shoulder impingement.
There is a God
Kind of shocked by this honestly. His peripherals look good. K:BB rate is over 4. xFIP of 3.55. Seems to have just run into some bad luck with a 61.9% LOB rate. He is a bit homer prone, but there are way worse guys in their bullpen currently.
Which guys would you cut from the bullpen instead of Wisler? Just curious.
Good point. I just looked at their bullpen and didn’t realize how productive everyone had been for the Giants. Nice problem to have, but it means Wisler was even more unlucky than I had thought. There at least 15 teams that should take a flyer on him in waivers though.
It really drives home the “what have you done for me lately” attitude that teams (apparently have to) have. 19.1 innings overrode all of last season’s work… wow.
It is situations like this where the “but this should have happened” analytics fail. Wisler was not unlucky at all…he was just very, very bad
The “what have you done for me lately” standard is perfectly fair when you have to upgrade your team and you have a limited amount of roster spots.
If they could carry 48 dudes, I’m sure Farhan would. He can’t. Someone had to go, and they picked the reliever who has objectively been the worst and was the cheapest and easiest to let go.
It’s baseball.
the reason he has had the homer issue though is kind of obvious. the guy has no pitch mix – he throws 80-90% sliders so guys sit on it – he walk a lot of guys with the movement and guys sit on the pitch – as it is a slider the deeper you can go in the count the more likely you’ll get a pitch to hit too. At least with the fastball you have more opportunity to move the ball around, elevate it, go inside, etc but with all sliders you can usually wait it out until you get a hanger.
What he did before those great 19 innings in 2020 was pretty much spot on with this this season.
@Maverick12
Analytics don’t try to say “this should have happened.” They say “based on what happened, this is what we can project going forward.” Most critics of analytics don’t actually know anything about them.
Is this the same Maverick who thought Vinny Castilla in Atlanta was better than Edgardo Alfonzo in New York in 2002 because Vinny had more RBI?
Johnjaso, I know you were exaggerating when you said your comment about “carrying 48 dudes” but I really wish they would expand the rosters. I feel like I’m in the minority about this but for decades I’ve said I feel they should have 35 to 40 players in the majors and have a bigger roster.
I’m not in favor of that many, but I do feel like they should have kept the 28 man roster this year to help with the increased number of games. But that would give too many players extra service time, in the owners’ opinions.
I actually understand the analytics completely, nice assumption though. What all of you who solely look at analytics fail to realize is how misleading they can be, and that stats always have outliers. Wisler was bad. Very bad. He threw so many hangers and had no control. He let tons of inherited runners score. It sounds like you may need to get a better handle on those analytics.
“It is situations like this where the “but this should have happened” analytics fail.”
So you’re trying to walk this comment back?
And only you said anything about “solely” looking at analytics. You sure sound like the old Mav.
If you understood the analytics then you would know there are ways to take into account hangers and no control, letting inherited runners score, etc. We have to use both the eye test and analytics when analyzing players because we all have biases and perceptions that may not be accurate. It is good to use objective data to either confirm our beliefs or reconsider them. So when I make a claim about a player in a wider context of his projected production, I will always use the numbers because those or going to be far more accurate than my recollection. You are correct that in a short term glance he has been “bad, very bad.” But I am more concerned with if those things that have made him bad are a long term trend or a situational issue. This is where the numbers can help us, and that is why I use them.
I don’t know who the “Old Mav” is but you seem to have some weird beef with him. Where have I tried to walk anything back? I’m very confident in my statements against some wannabe fantasy baseball owners. I played pro ball and even was a special advisor to some front offices. My advice: watch more games
So Wisler being terrible for pretty much his entire career aside from 19 innings…then suddenly he is “unlucky”
Sure seems like some deep analysis there. That GM offer should come in anyday
Maverick12, the intellectual powerhouse, strikes again.
Don’t you realize we are all Hall of Fame shortstops? Your special advisor rank is laughable.
No one is saying he sucked for a handful of years before 2020. Just that he was better than the bottom line numbers suggest in 2021.
There are plenty of pitchers, that are good, even very good, that will have a bad stretch of some significance. Analytics are there to help you decide whether the guy is a good pitcher in the midst of a bad stretch, or a just a bad pitcher.
Deciding a guy is just bad without analytics is why some teams have released good pitchers, like Dave Stewart. What happened with Stewart probably won’t be repeated, because almost all teams embrace analytics these days to certain extent, unlike when Stewart played.
this was literally my EXACT reaction
Sherfy was part of the Olympic Qualifier squad
Another day another DFA for a guy that clearly has SOME talent. I mean he has an FIP of barely over 4 this year. Did he lose his job because of bad luck and/or bad defense? It sure seems that way to me.
He’s just not a guy to rely on. You bring him in and there’s a 1/3 chance that he can’t throw strikes, a 1/3 chance that he’s hanging sliders down the middle of the plate, and a 1/3 chance that he throws filthy sliders. Obviously the numbers aren’t as set in stone as I put them there, but that’s what it felt like watching him. As soon as I thought he was turning a corner he proved me wrong again with the same inconsistency.
I am not saying he’s some stud pitcher. Not even saying he’s better than the guys who are going to replace him. But I think he’s a big leaguer. And I find it to be a bad look that every day decent players are being DFAd. Correct me if I am wrong here but has this practice increased lately? I think it has.
The question has to be asked: if not Wisler, who? In order to add Sherfy and Long, they needed two 40-man and 26-man spots opened up. They moved Dickerson to the IL (that was one 26-man spot) but if not Wisler, who goes?
Wisler was the easiest cut on that roster.
With the way teams are using pitchers, in today’s game but especially this year with all the time off, maybe the rules should be adjusted. Maybe???
I know Tauchman hit a grand slam last night, and made a nice catch against the Dodgers a few weeks ago, but his leash has to be getting short. It’s like having a second pitcher in the lineup. That being said, I’m glad to see Wisler go. Doesn’t make sense to carry a reliever who you can only put in when you are either up or down 8 runs. Hopefully when Yaz comes back Tauchman is shown the door.
I don’t see it that way, tauchman has extremely high defensive value and with ruf, dickerson and yaz on the IL he has a lot of value in the lineup. Plus he draws a lot of pitches, like belt he seems to draw a 3-2 in every at bat and even if he isn’t hitting he is wearing down opposing pitchers
Totally agree
Every time Wisler came in I cringed, but when Tauchman comes up, he always seems to give a good at bat and produce something positive, even if it’s not represented in his slash line
His hits all seem to be big hits and his good defense has been very needed
I hate Tauchman when looking at the stats column, but his fielding clearly has saved runs and added to run shortening of opposing teams. Players are less likely to get a big jump off the base if he is unable to get to a ball because they think he might now.
In fantasy leagues he is drop candidate for sure, but on the field not so much I rather have him bat 8th -play some D and wear down pitchers by having to throw 5-10 pitches to him
There’s no way to argue that Wisler shouldn’t have been DFA’d. He had 2 losses in relief, and he blew his 1 save opportunity. Yeah, I know that could happen to anyone, But he inherited 13 runners and 8 of them scored. As a reliever, you can’t have that, he could not be depended on.
bad defense? he’s got Crawford behind him.
He allowed runs in more than a 3rd of his appearances in addition to letting 8 of 13 inherited runners to score.
He throws strikes but got crushed on 0-0, 1-0, and 1-1 counts. After that, he was okay; but he had a tough time getting there.
And when all is said done, he lowered their chance of winning in more than 40% of his appearances and that was clearly too much.
It’s why someone will claim him. He’s basically owed a or $700K the rest of the season. He might even reject an outright assignment if a deal isn’t worked out if he knows a team wants him.
lordd99:
If he’s claimed, the claiming team is on the hook for the rest of his salary. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s probably more than most teams would be willing to pay for a reliever struggling to keep inherited runners from scoring. I think the only way he winds up on another team is if he’s released. Then teams can take a flyer for the league minimum.
I could be wrong, maybe he gets claimed, but if I had to bet, I’d bet no.
Wisler has a 6.05 ERA but only a 4.08 FIP so it seems like he’s been pretty unlucky
4 home runs in less than 20 innings pitched didn’t help, either.
The Giants had to clear someone off the 26-man roster, and Wisler was the low-guy on the totem pole, unfortunately.
I doubt he’ll clear waivers.
Cincinnati, Angels, Arizona, Seattle or even Pittsburgh will go after him
Maybe a spin rate guy coming back to earth – it happens.
When will they inform Wisler’s mother?
Rays will claim him. He’ll be lights out the rest of the season.
When the Giants signed him, there was a lot of positive hype. And then he was called upon on Opening Day and contributed to blowing the lead. After that the Giants seemed to lose confidence in him.
he and garcia, and peralta were part of that. – garcia has generally been turning around but i am sure is on thin ice and peralta was already traded. with littell and leone added and a few AAA guys coming up (frisbee, long) there isn’t a reason to keep guys that have repeatedly been bad.
His luck has been like Trevor Gott’s last year. At least that is the guy I think of first.
Don’t even think about it, AA.
It’s a pretty small sample size overall. In April he got pummeled. Since then, he’s had an ERA under 3 and good H/9, BB/9 and K/9.
Wisler will very likely be claimed, but the red flag with him is he wasn’t pitching in a hitter’s park.
Two of his four homers were in one game, at Cincy.
The Jays BP has cost the 8 games so far, so even this pitcher would be an improvement.
Not surprised, but it is a combination of his performance +the Giants having a bullpen game again. He was brought in to work in higher leverage situations and really at no time has he looked like “that kind of guy”.
The Giants margin for error to go to the post season in 2021 is slim honestly they need to be in the trade market now looking for a high leverage right hander as Moronta due to injury and Wisler performance have left a hole in the pen.
Giants believe Long and Sherfy will be better than Wisler and they also cost less. Giants should have no problem finding a taker for Wisler and his relatively low $1.15M salary.
With the Giants having the best record in baseball they can’t afford to wait on a guy to figure things out.
Better options, economics and the ever present need for bullpen help on the market contributed to this.
BTW, Sam Long looks NASTY! Wisler will not be missed.
Long looks fantastic this afternoon. Lefty throwing strikes. Vosler and Tromp with back-t0-back HR; another hit for.310-hitting Steven Duggar (rhymes with slugger). No crying when players go down. They just plug the hole and find a way. What a find Lamonte Wade Jr.’s .400 OBP has been. Everybody is chipping in. Is it sustainable? Why the heck not? Their clubhouse must be incredible.
Top 5 offense, pitching, and defense, home runs, walks, shutouts, etc., etc., etc….
To this point the Giants are for real
The Giants seem to do better than expected every year since Zaidi arrived. Despite being hamstrung with bad contracts, he has built a nice 40 man roster. And next year is when all the money comes off the books. Giants, Dodgers and Padres should have some fun battles the next several years.
He’s done it little by little. The king of incremental improvement, but taken together his moves lead to a big improvement. It’ll be interesting to see how he approaches the deadline as a buyer.
Shame that shakey late inning relief blew an otherwise solid day. Hopefully a dedicated 9th inning arm is on the Giants shopping list.
Rogers did the job on Garcia. The ball just blooped in. I guess that’s why missing bats is such a big thing these days. Garcia has struck out in all three of his previous at-bats.
Ah, Wisler, the center point of Atlanta’s return from Sand Diego for Craig Kimbrel and the BJ Upton contract. Good thing the compensation pick the Padres included turned into Austin Riley.
Wisler is better than half of the Blue Jays bullpen right now. They need to put in a claim on him.
I don’t think that’s true. He might be better than Beasley, and Edwards, But, Chatwood, Dolis and Mayza have all been more effective in relief than Wisler has.