Oct. 2: The Giants officially announced Webb’s IL placement, along with Junis being optioned to Triple-A Sacramento. Hjelle was recalled to take one active roster spot, with righty Luis Ortiz recalled to take the other.
Oct. 1: Logan Webb was scheduled to make his final start of the 2022 season on Sunday, but the Giants will instead be placing the right-hander on the 15-day injured list, manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic). Webb is dealing with stiffness in his lower back, so the Giants will make the precautionary move and recall another pitcher for what will now be a bullpen game against the Diamondbacks. Righty Sean Hjelle might get the quick recall, as Hjelle was just optioned to Triple-A today when Jarlin Garcia was activated off the paternity list.
The IL placement will end Webb’s season after 32 starts and 192 1/3 innings, with that innings total ranking 11th among all pitchers entering today’s action. After emerging as a quality starter for San Francisco in 2021, Webb has continued that strong work this year, posting a 2.90 ERA, 56.7% grounder rate, and an above-average 6.2% walk rate. While his strikeout numbers dropped off considerably (20.7%, after a 26.5 K& in 2021) and Webb continued to allow a lot of hard contact, he was able to avoid severe damage by keeping the ball on the ground. Webb allowed only 11 home runs over his 192 1/3 frames, and had an impressive 5.5% barrel rate.
Webb doesn’t turn 26 years old until November, and he will be entering the arbitration process for the first time this offseason. Though Webb is under control through the 2025 season, it stands to reason that the Giants’ front office might have some talks with Webb’s camp about a multi-year contract extension this winter, in order to officially lock him up as a key piece of the rotation both now and for the future.
In fact, Webb currently projects as the ace of the 2023 staff since Carlos Rodon is a free agent. San Francisco has Webb, Alex Cobb, Jakob Junis, Anthony DeSclafani, and Alex Wood lined up as next year’s rotation, but at least one more arm figures to be added — DeSclafani missed almost the whole season due to ankle problems, while Wood struggled and missed the end of the season due to a shoulder injury.
Other than Webb that ’23 rotation is garbage…aren’t the Giants supposed to be run by a genius or something???
Hard line you’re giving being an A’s fan. Anyway, I’m pretty sure the Giants ownership has more money to spend then last year, so I would bet they have a good rotation along side Web
What do you mean? The A’s have made the playoffs 50% of the years Beane has run the team, cant ask for much more than that. Seattle didnt make the playoffs once in 20 years!
Billy Beane has won all of one playoff series. Brad Pitt could probably do better. But I do agree with you about Farthands. I’ve never seen a more overrated baseball executive.
Good grief. Do other teams get this many trolls on their pages?
Good question Chris. I read articles on other teams, and don’t see the same mindless trolling, so I don’t think so, but that take is purely anecdotal. I wish I knew what motivates that kind of hate for a sports team. I used to say I hate the Yankees, but dropped saying that awhile ago, since I don’t really hate them, or the Dodgers even. And I’ve found one of the better team’s fans to have a dialogue with are Yankee fans. But, yeah, I just don’t get it.
Webb is great, a good Giant, and definitely a pitcher that would be nice to lockup into his early FA. However he just doesn’t come off as a bonafide ace. He’ll be a great #3 going forward. We need Rodon back plus one other front-of-rotation guy!
How is Webb NOT an ace?! He ranks 13th among all MLB pitchers in fWAR this year. Did you see what he did in the playoffs against the Dodgers last year? The dude is a legit ace.
Rodon was outstanding this year but he’s outta San Francisco.
Honestly the guy is kind of a richard head. He orders the camera man to turn away from him when he’ in the dugout. He lowers and shakes his head when a player makes an error behind him. He injured (minorly) a player in the dugout when he kicked a 5 gallon bucket really hard at him. I thought it was an accident, but I saw it. He was looking right at the player. The dude has anger issues.
Madison Bumgarner was very volatile early in his career, but learned to nearly completely control his anger (except with Yasiel Puig).
I’ll be glad to see Rodon’s attitude gone. I hope he can learn to control his anger. He’ll get at least what Gausman got last year.
But I say spend that money on a great teammate.
Like Logan Webb.
I just watched the video again. Rodon kicked a bat (not a bucket) right into all the players in the dugout. It smashed into Thairo Estrada’s shins and he crumpled to the ground. Apparently Wilmer Flores was about to beat the s&%t out of Rodon immediately after, but Rodon ran over to Estrada and apolgized.
One other dugout incident with Rodon. He accidently hit a coach in the head with his hand when he threw his glove on the ground.
I do hope Rodon has a great career though and I hope he lightens up and is happy.
Yeah don’t resign your co-ace because he’s annoying. Stellar idea.
Yasiel Puig, Lastings Milledge, Rick Porcello and Brett Lawrie were all blacklisted out of MLB for being too annoying.
I actually like to like the players on my team. Excuse me.
The Giants won 3 World Series without any richards (that I’m aware of).
Besides, this is the first fully healthy year of Rodon’s career.
Absolutely let him go if he is a negative influence. Culture first. Always.
Solid follow up year from Webb. The Giants expect a lot from that young man. Great job.
Agree with the comment above that Webb in a best-case scenario would be a solid #3. I hope Zaidi understands that he has a very short window to show Rodon how committed the Giants are to contending in 2023. If Zaidi doesn’t make a big FA splash by Thanksgiving, Rodon will likely go elsewhere, and it will make it that much harder to field a post-season rotation for the coming years if all you can count on are Webb, Cobb, and hopefully Harrison. That won’t get it done.
biffpocoroba:
I think saying Webb is a #3 at best might be overstating it. I’m not a huge Webb fan. I’ve found watching him to be frustrating. He seemed to turn a corner last season, but looks to me like he’s fallen back into bad habits. When he gets ahead, I see too many easy takes, which runs up the pitch count, and gives leverage back to the batter.
But he’s still young, and pitching is as much a learned skill as it is a physical one. So, IMO, he projects to a #2, with potential to be a #1, but he needs to improve to have any chance to do that.
Wondering how Hjelle didn’t got on outright waivers after the Giants optioned him for the 6th time this season, after May 1st. My understanding of the new rules for options is that players can only be optioned 5 times without passing through outright waivers.