The Giants placed starter Anthony DeSclafani on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to June 28, due to right ankle inflammation. Infielder Jason Vosler has been recalled to take his active roster spot.
It’s the second time DeScalafani has hit the IL because of right ankle inflammation. His first stint cost him two months, as the righty was out from mid-April until two weeks ago. Manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area) the team has “real concern” about the setback. The skipper ominously added that “everything is on the table” as far as treatment options go, leaving open the possibility DeScalfani could require surgery.
It has been a frustrating season for the 32-year-old righty, who has been limited to just five starts. After allowing two runs in each of his first two appearances, he was tagged for five runs during his final start in April. He’s seemed limited even upon returning from his initial IL stint, first allowing five runs in three innings against the Braves and serving up seven through 2 2/3 frames to the Reds on Sunday.
That’s a far cry from DeSclafani’s very productive debut season in the Bay Area. Signed to a one-year deal over the 2020-21 offseason on the heels of a rough final year with Cincinnati, he bounced back in black and orange. DeSclafani threw 167 2/3 frames of 3.17 ERA ball, missing bats at a league average rate while showing excellent control. That earned him a three-year, $36MM deal to return last winter, but the ankle issues have prevented him from settling in thus far in 2022.
San Francisco has an established top four in the rotation of Carlos Rodón, Logan Webb, Alex Cobb and Alex Wood. During DeSclafani’s first IL stint, Jakob Junis stepped into the fifth spot with a strong couple months. Junis has been on the IL himself for the past few weeks. He threw a bullpen session today, Pavlovic tweets, but it remains to be seen how quickly he can return to the MLB staff. The Giants don’t have a single off day between now and the July 18 start of the All-Star Break.
That contract was a huge blunder by Farhan. Too bad Junis went down — he, Webb, & Rodon were a legit trio. Giants need 1-2 quality starters at the deadline or they’re not serious.
Giants are overrated and I’m not surprised they’re in 3rd place in that division. They need more than a quality starter or 2. They lack the TOR arms to contend for a World Series. That’s why they got knocked out in the 1st round last year.
They lost the NLDS because their *offense* sucked.
Both are true
Their *offense* sucked?
The Giants were one of the top offensive teams in baseball last year, by just about any metric. They probably lost in the first round because they happened to face the team who were #1 in just about every metric. Even still, it came down to the ninth inning of Game 5 to decide it.
Their offense sucked *in the playoffs*. I don’t think they scored more than 4 runs in any game.
‘The San Francisco Giants’ the only team in MLB who’s most famous player isn’t actually a player at all. It’s FARHAN ZAIDI.
Farhan doesn’t like all this negative chatter. Because in spite of what the Giants look like during the game or regardless of the score his laptop says the Giants are actually ‘Really good’
Farhan Zaidi . LOL
Good thing you caught yourself. You almost went an entire thread without an LOL. Keep on trollin’!
*snore*
Well, this has been a bad contract so far.
Panik at the Disco! >.<
I’m sure Zaidi is scouring all the dumpsters to find his next lightning in a bottle. Don’t expect any major transactions by the trade deadline.
Agreed — I feel for their fans. It’s not like SF is some tiny market.
Yeah, it sucks when the biggest free agent signings were Joc Pederson (154 wRC+, definite All-Star) and Carlos Rodon (NL leader in pitching WAR).
Wish Zaidi would’ve splurged on a bigger superstar like Marcus Semien or Javy Baez or Corey Seager or Marcus Stroman or Kris Bryant or Nick Castellanos or any of the other guys who got huge contracts and are now sucking it up for their current teams.
Not going to apologize for Desclafani, he’s been truly awful this year. But the fact remains that Zaidi still has an excellent track record with all his “dumpster diving”.
Dodger fan here. Zaidi has been outstanding and the Giants were incredible last year. Period.
It’s not about that though. He has had a great record with his dumpster diving, but a team with the resources of the Giants should be complimenting the dumpster diving with some actual, yea know, spending! Thats how you compete long term with the dodgers. I noticed you left off a name on your list of free agents who have sucked so far, one Kevin Gausman. A guy who wanted to stay in SF that was never even offered a contract by the extremely profitable Giants. He’s had a very good year before getting injured in a fluke play this weekend. Another point with all those names you listed, most of them are unlikely to be in a list of flops this time next year. They are established players who will bounce back and produce roughly what they have before. That’s the beauty of a multi year contract when you can afford to lock up an all star for 5-6 years. They will be on your team awhile, so slumps aren’t that big of a deal as long as they don’t last! Hell, you sign a few of those proven big leaguers to go with your wild cards and you might just be able to consistently compete and weather the storm of any individual player having a rough couple months.
Zaidi needs to SELL at the deadline
He had the same frickin injury last season! They should have operated then. Dumb move to give him an other contract for this year and beyond.. Farhan wanted a. cheap starting pitcher and it blew up in his face.
Farhan has to eventually show he is willing to spend. These mid level moves won’t make you a great team every season. Disco shouldn’t have been re-signed at that rate.
Didn’t see any big complaints when they signed him. He had a 3.17 ERA last year. Given hindsight not a good deal. Interesting that Vosler is back. Never should have been sent down. Wonder if Longo is willing.
Were you looking? I saw quite a few grumblings, both here and on other sites
You must not have looked terribly hard because lots of folks expressed their displeasure. He was a paper dragon last year and his splits vs. teams with winning and losing records confirms that. His record vs. LAD should have been reason enough to let him walk.
If they were dead set on resigning someone, they should have taken Disco’s cash and then dipped into the treasure chest they’ve been amassing and simply resigned Gausman.
Clearly a Gausman re-signing would have been better than a DeSclafani resigning in 2022. But to be fair, we really won’t know how well that Gausman contract pans out until those 5 years and $110m are a thing of the past.
Why is that? If you get a couple of all star level seasons out of Gausman and he helps you make the playoffs, why do you need to wait out the whole 5 years to make sure he doesn’t get hurt or regress? It’s not about “winning” every contract or trade when you run a mlb club, it’s about getting your team to the playoffs every year with a chance to make a run. Farhan has lost the plot. No one will remember how successful he was with dollars to WAR or whatever chart he produces in 10 years to show how efficient his spending was. People will just look for who hung banners at their park with the words world champions on them. As a Giants fan, I am at this point very skeptical we will be one of those teams hanging a banner as long as Farhan is around. Sucks
Should have read ailing.
I was gonna say, Longo’s got nearly an .850 OPS, he’s having another good year, he just needs to stay healthy.
I was hoping they would Stroman. Of course he is costing more to suck just as much.
Stroman’s character not the right fit for the Giants’ clubhouse. Need to ask previous teams why they didn’t try to resign him (especially NY Mets) or no longer a member of their team.
I’m a fan of Farhan, but I really want to see a big move. Are we going for it or not? We need a young star in my opinion.
But what’s the big move? Pitching? IF or OF help? People seem to forget that FZ landed one of the biggest trade pieces available last season in Kris Bryant. And how well did that big move pay off?
And the only way to get a young star is to develop one. No team is trading a Soto, or an Acuna. Best chance for that is to try and sign Ohtani when he becomes a FA in 2024. Of course there will be a ton of competition to sign him, and will be a massive overpay.
The Giants are going to make a run at Judge. Not so sure they have many trade pieces of value. Rodon and Joc are on 1 yr contracts and would equate to rental players. Not sure what kind of haul your going to get in return.
Kapler to the 15-day with a stained chakra
Does Rodon have a opt out after this year? I hope we don’t lose him.
He does and we will. Another example of Farhan being a very responsible spender. Enjoy watching Rodon this year, I know that I’m not expecting the giants to make any big deals until there is a change of leadership. Rodon has been awesome to watch this year though, I get stoked for his starts. Whoever signs him to a nice big contract in the off-season will be getting a good one
Do the Giants make a run for Aaron Judge?
maybe have a chance when he turns 36
Kapler is a below-average manager, he’s more of the problem than the reason for wins. He stands out in losses.
looking like last season was an anomaly for Desclafini, so when he comes back and does not produce he should be either sent to BP or put on some IL to figure out what he is missing from last year.
Giants have now lost 9 of 12, lost 3 series (Braves 1-3, Reds 1-2, split 1-1 with Tigers, and after tonight 0-2 against White Sox). Zaidi needs to tell Kapler he has until All-Star break (trade deadline at latest) to turn the Giants around and secure a Wildcard berth) or he’s fired.
Kapler has made mistakes, but he’s not been a very glaring reason for this stretch in my opinion. He’s been giving a mandate that doesn’t make sense, to win with no stars and make sure he uses his whole bench and bullpen almost every game. He’s not the one making a call to pinch hit for the guy who is the team leader in homers for a guy who hits .290/.340/.400 against lefties in a tiny sample size late in a one run game. Those moves come from the executive suite. This team was constructed to go a little over 500. And that’s what they are doing. It’s hard to say if Kapler is good enough in game or not when his team isn’t equipped to be the better team on most days. By all accounts his players seem to like him fwiw
Buck stops with Kapler on the field regardless with caliber of players he’s given. And ultimately buck stops with Zaidi who assembled the roster and telling Kapler what to do on game day. If Giants don’t turn things around soon then Zaidi and Kapler both need to be fired.
Kapler blames everyone but himself for Giants problems.
After manager calls out energy, Giants put up dud in sweep
By Danny Emerman July 3, 2022
© Neville E. Guard | 2022 Jul 3
With his back against the dugout wall and his team fighting to remain above .500, Gabe Kapler called out his team’s insufficient energy. He did so for nearly six minutes, speaking in macro, overarching abstractions he typically avoids.
“I don’t think that we’ve brought our best levels of energy to the ballpark over the last couple of weeks,” Kapler said. “And when that happens, I think it’s important to examine where we’re spending our energy.”
Dwelling on a blown call. Focusing on suboptimal field conditions. Complaining about the schedule.
It’s more productive for the Giants to lift up a teammate than let any of those ideas seep in, Kapler said. People only have so much energy to expend. Wasting it on uncontrollable things have added up for the Giants in the past couple weeks.
“That’s the way to turn these things around very quickly,” Kapler said. “It’s a compounded thing. It’s not one person making the commitment to invest energy into our teammates and into this team. It’s everybody making that decision. Collectively, you can really change the energy quickly. It’s one of the things that we’ve been talking about in individual conversations, one of the things we feel like we can do to change the direction, and do so quickly.”
The direction the Giants (40-37) are on is a tailspin, and that continued with Sunday’s sweep to the White Sox. San Francisco has lost eight of its last 10 games and went 2-6 on its home stand — with each game coming against a sub-.500 opponent.
Their 13-4 loss to the White Sox featured much of the same from this current funk: porous defense and lackluster hitting. SF committed another error and got out-hit 17 to seven — a gap closed by SF’s garbage time rally.
The mojo was missing from the start. Austin Slater, Joc Pederson and Evan Longoria each struck out to begin the game. The team jogged back out to their positions for the top of the second leisurely. Then to start the bottom half, Brandon Belt went down looking for a fourth straight punch out. After Wilmer Flores reached on a walk, both Mike Yastrzemski and Darin Ruf struck out.
Seven of the first eight Giants to dig in against Lucas Giolito struck out. If the energy is where it’s supposed to be, the Giants would pick each other up after the slow start, not dwell on it.
“This is really about controlling the things we can control and improving at the margins with the way we use the energy that we have on any given day,” Kapler said pregame. “It’s a lot to get through 162 games, it’s a lot to get through spring training, it’s a lot to get through the postseason. You really have to be intentional about making sure your energy’s not getting out there in a chaotic way. That it’s channeled.”
In the third, Donovan Walton sidearmed a throw to set up a double play into the outfield. Had Walton and veteran Wilmer Flores combined to make the exchange, the Giants would have been out of the inning. Instead, Walton’s error allowed the White Sox to take a 2-0 lead.
Walton and Flores manned the middle infield because Brandon Crawford (left knee) remains on the injured list, Thairo Estrada is experiencing cold-like symptoms and Tommy La Stella hasn’t been able to play the field with any consistency.
Fielding has been an issue for the Giants all year. Entering Sunday, they ranked 29th in outs above average and last in Fangraphs’ overall defensive metric. The roster tradeoffs between offensive pop and defensive liability have tipped too far in the wrong direction.
But much of the mistakes have been mental, both in nature of miscue and in allowing them to linger.
“Are we channeling and challenging ourselves with that energy?” Kapler mused. “Collectively we’re all doing that. It’s as simple as a player doesn’t make a play on defense. Rather than express frustration about it, going up to that player and reminding them how good he is. And how we depended on him in the past and how we’re going to depend on him in the future.”
In the top of the fifth, two White Sox singles didn’t leave the infield. The inability to convert balls in play into outs loaded the bases, knocked Sean Hjelle out of the game and led to three more Chicago runs.
Overcoming poor defense is tough, but the offensive pop was absent Sunday, too. It took over an hour for the Giants to put a single ball in play; before Austin Wynns’ lineout in the third inning, every hitter either struck out or walked.
By the time Chicago took a 6-0 lead, CWS had out-hit the Giants 10 to one. Six relievers pitched for the Giants on what normally would have been Anthony DeSclafani’s turn in the rotation. Before Kapler’s pointed comments about the Giants’ energy, he announced DeSclafani will undergo likely season-ending ankle surgery.
The Giants got on the board with a run in the sixth, but the White Sox ran up five more in the eighth.
Fans headed for the Oracle Park exits when Chicago batted through the order against Yunior Marte. SF officially surrendered when catcher Austin Wynns removed his pads and pitched the ninth inning to Yermín Mercedes.
The late innings were bleak, and despite four consecutive doubles in the ninth, the result was cemented after the Giants’ flat start. Seven of SF’s 11 total strikeouts came in the first three innings.
On the eight-game home stand, San Francisco dropped two of three to the last-place Reds, split two with the last-place Tigers and got swept by the White Sox — which entered having lost six of their past eight.
Kapler said San Francisco’s struggles aren’t from a lack of effort or preparation. If an energy shift is the easiest, quickest way for the Giants to ensure this skid is their season’s low point, it must arrive expediently. The message clearly didn’t resonate right away.