The Giants announced a pair of roster moves this afternoon, as the club placed left-hander Alex Wood on the 15-day IL with a low back strain and recalled right-hander Tristan Beck from Triple-A.
Wood joined the Giants in 2021 on a one-year, $3MM deal and posted a solid 3.83 ERA with a 3.48 FIP across 26 starts as the Giants won 107 games en route to an AL West crown. That performance earned Wood a two-year, $25MM deal to return to San Francisco during the 2021-22 offseason. That deal hasn’t gone well to this point, however. Despite much of Wood’s underlying performance staying consistent in 2022, his results took a significant tumble as he posted a 5.10 ERA, 22% below average by measure of ERA+, in 130 2/3 innings despite solid underlying metrics (3.76 FIP, 3.41 xFIP, 4.00 xERA) thanks in part to an unusually low 63.9% strand rate.
In 2023, Wood has again struggled to find his footing. He managed just ten innings across three starts before heading to the injured list with a hamstring strain in mid-April that would keep him out for nearly a month. Since returning, he’s struggled to a 6.30 ERA with a 5.14 FIP in 20 innings of work that culminated in a 4 1/3 inning, six run start where Wood allowed eight hits and three walks while striking out just four batters last week. Now, Wood heads back to the injured list where he’ll look to get healthy and hopefully get his season back on track upon his return.
Taking Wood’s spot on the roster is the right-handed Beck, who made his big league debut earlier this season out of the San Francisco bullpen, posting a 4.10 ERA and 4.62 FIP in 26 1/3 innings as a multi-inning reliever for the club. It’s unclear whether Beck will take the ball in Wood’s stead Tuesday against the Rockies, or if that start could perhaps go to Sean Manaea, who was demoted to the bullpen last month but has looked good since then, with a 0.84 ERA in 10 2/3 innings of work across four appearances.
Whoever takes the ball on Tuesday, it seems unlikely to be right-hander Ross Stripling, who Susan Sussler of the San Francisco Chronicle reports received a cortisone shot after going on the IL and has made some tweaks to his delivery while rehabbing. Sussler notes that Stripling could progress to facing live hitters soon, though that timeline still puts him a ways away from returning to the big league club.
Let Wood’s contract expire after this season. Harrison or Winn should be given opportunity to take Wood’s slot in the rotation.
I remember the year Wood was supposed to pitch for Cincinnati. Never happened despite a guaranteed contract.
Nah Harrison walks to many batters. Seth corry part 2
At this point last season this would have been a big blow to their rotation. Not so sure this is not a blessing in disguise now.
Unless the Giants legitimately think they can land Ohtani, they should be searching for a #2 like Shane Bieber (although it will cost). Oh, and sign Alex Cobb to an extension.
Gathering a bunch of pitchers like Wood (oft injured), Stripling (oft injured) and Manaea (at best a #5) is filling up on mediocrity. Even if Kyle Harrison becomes the ace we all hope he’ll be, the Giants need to stretch for excellence in their rotation.
How does a Webb, Bieber, Cobb, DeSclafani and Harrison rotation sound?
Ohtani to the Giants is not going to happen. Other organizations like the Dodgers have the advantage of consistently being competitive. Ohtani will sign with a power house team that can win championships.
All the California teams except Oakland were on his top 5 list Seattle was the other team. Giants should be able to put a team around him if they choose to finally spend money.
Ohtani has been vocal on the fact that he wants to play for a Winner. So, the Giants are clearly not even a option let alone a projected destination
SF Giants have only posted 1 winning season above .500 since 2016 . That is not a winning culture
He’ll end up in NY or LA
Giants win 100–105 games with Ohtani on their roster. That is plenty good. They will win 85-90 this year without him.
SF has won 3 rings since the Yankees’ last in ‘09. Doesn’t sound like they have much of a winning culture either.
In other words, he’ll sign with a large market ream with unlimited resources.
This is the problem with the sport and will eventually kill it.
BTW, The Angels are in LA and there is more of a support system for Japanese natives on the West Coast.
I’m going off his list when he came in to the league, and New York wasn’t one of them, also trout was his favorite player. The giants can spend money to build a team but he liked California teams, and Seattle just going off that
REX — I think you meant “and” rather than “but.” San Francisco is in California, has a large Japanese population and has the money to sign Ohtani, although the other West Coast teams will be in on him too.
The Giants have won 3 pennants since the Yankees last one so I’m guessing he doesn’t go to NY either, unless you mean the Mets. But I say he stays in LA but plays for the Dodgers.
The San Francisco Giants have only posted 1 season with a winning record above .500 since 2016
By contrast
The Yankees have posted a winning record every year for the last 30 years
The last time the New York Yankees finished the season with a losing record below .500 was 1992
Cobb is just as “oft injured” as Wood and Stripling
2015-2016 and 2018-2021, sure. But last year 150 innings. And with the exception of those five years he has regularly topped 136. He is not as “oft injured” as the other two. I’d go with a two-year extension. Team has a 2024 option which they’ll pick up.
Guarantees in life. Death, Taxes, and Wood being on the DL for at least once during the year.
How are the kids, Bailey and Schmidt working out? Will they stick, or do you see them being sent back down? I haven’t had the chance to watch much of them this year.
Is Bart going to get traded? Nice that they’re finally getting younger and the Farm is starting to produce.
Bailey, Schmitt, Beck, Walker, and Sabol have all been playing well. Matos and Harrison and Winn all looking like the real deal in the minors as well. Nice to see the youth movement starting in San Francisco.
My best guess is the Giants are hoping Bart can be the weak side platoon option for Bailey, since Bailey is much better against right handed pitching. Bailey has done enough to usurp Bart as the team’s starting catcher (at least for now).
Let’s see how they’re doing a month from now. Both of em are getting worse by the day. .750ops and declining. Let’s see the stats come AS break.
Giants have a bunch of bums for prospects. Harrison walks more than just about anyother SP. Matos has potential but I need to see more ABs and against real talents. Ask Michael Harris lol.
Maybe Luciano can get his avg above.200 this yr. Not looking good being he’s a wiffer
Central Valley — Bailey is both a better defender and hitter than Bart. Schmitt is Gold Glove wherever he plays, but SS (rather than 3b) makes the most sense. Right now, though, Schmitt is swing happy and needs to pull it back together. I could see Bart going in a trade—someone will take a chance on a #2 from the draft, and he isn’t an awful defender. Maybe package him (along with other talent) to Cleveland for Shane Bieber
If you look past Wood’s 5.10 ERA last year he had a solid year with a 3.76 FIP. 9 strikeouts per 9, 2.1 walks per 9 with a 1.24 WHIP. All roughly the same as 2021. He was fine this year until he came off his last IL stint. I think he will be fine in the second half
As far as Manaea goes, he touched 97 two outings ago in relief. He was maxing out at 92 last year so I do look for his season to turn around.
Harrison is striking out nearly 2 batters per inning with an excellent 3.55 ERA in Sacramento but his walks are way too high. So no hurry getting him up.
Wood isn’t terrible, he’s just not reliable for a large volume of innings. Hasn’t tossed 150+ innings since 2018. He’ll give you 120-130, but he’ll likley miss a month or a month and a half.
Ah yes, the AL West champion Giants.
Wood’s mechanics look weird, stiff and jerky. I wonder whether that has anything to do with him being hurt all the time.