Ross Stripling

A’s Designate Jack O’Loughlin For Assignment

By Steve Adams | September 11, 2024 at 3:23pm CDT

The A’s placed righty Ross Stripling on the 15-day injured list with a lower back strain and selected the contract of lefty Kyle Muller from Triple-A Las Vegas in his place, the team announced. In a corresponding move, left-hander Jack O’Loughlin was designated for assignment.

O’Loughlin, 24, made his big league debut with the A’s this year. The Aussie-born southpaw pitched 9 2/3 innings out of the Oakland bullpen and yielded five runs on 13 hits and five walks with six strikeouts in his first look in the majors. That came on the heels of a 6.19 earned run average through 68 1/3 innings (10 starts, 28 relief outings) in a hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League setting where O’Loughlin fanned 22.9% of his opponents against a 10% walk rate.

It’s the first season in the A’s organization for O’Loughlin, who was originally signed by the Tigers and inked a minor league deal with Oakland over the winter. He fared better in 2023 in Detroit’s system, when he pitched a combined 124 innings of 3.99 ERA ball as a starter between the High-A and Triple-A levels.

Muller, 26, will get a second look with the A’s after being passed through waivers earlier in the season. Once a top prospect with the Braves, he came to the Oakland organization as part of the trade sending Matt Olson to Atlanta. The Athletics hoped to be getting a largely MLB-ready piece for the back of their rotation, but Muller struggled badly in parts of two seasons with the big league club, serving up a 6.39 ERA in 119 2/3 innings of work. The A’s tried him exclusively out of the ’pen earlier this year, and he did turn in a 4.22 ERA more than three runs lower than last year’s 7.60 mark, but Muller’s fastball sat at a career-low 92.5 mph even in spite of the move to short relief, which likely turned some clubs off.

Since going back to Triple-A, Muller has stretched out and moved back into a rotation role. He currently has a 4.76 ERA in 28 1/3 innings. His last appearance was his best yet, as he pitched seven innings and held the Rangers’ Triple-A club to three runs on five hits and a walk with six punchouts. The A’s could use Muller in a variety of ways, and if he can impress over the final weeks of the year, perhaps he can put himself back in position to stay on the 40-man roster and be an option for next year’s staff in some capacity.

A’s Move Ross Stripling To Bullpen

By Anthony Franco | August 13, 2024 at 7:25pm CDT

The A’s are bumping Ross Stripling into a relief role, manager Mark Kotsay said before tonight’s matchup with the Mets (X link via Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). Oakland recalled right-hander Joe Boyle to start today, so the 6’7″ hurler will presumably stick in the starting five.

Oakland acquired Stripling and Alex Wood in the hope that they’d serve as veteran anchors to a fairly young rotation. The A’s reportedly took on $9.25MM of Stripling’s $12.5MM salary when they acquired him from the Giants in February. They signed Wood for $8.5MM on a one-year free agent deal. Neither acquisition has provided much in terms of on-field value. Wood made nine starts before suffering a shoulder injury that required season-ending surgery. Stripling lost two months to an elbow injury and hasn’t gotten good results when healthy.

Over 14 starts, the veteran right-hander carries a 5.72 earned run average. He’s striking out a career-low 12.5% of opposing hitters. Stripling has continued to attack the strike zone but simply hasn’t missed enough bats to be consistently effective. He has completed six innings in three of his 14 appearances. He allowed six runs in one of those. His only quality starts are a seven-inning, one-run performance against the Red Sox on April 3 and the six scoreless frames he worked against Pittsburgh on May 1.

Oakland welcomed Stripling back from the injured list just before the trade deadline. There presumably wasn’t much interest from other teams. (The A’s did move Paul Blackburn, whom they’ve tagged for seven runs tonight, to the Mets on deadline day.) Stripling has made three starts since returning. He had a nice showing against the Giants on July 31 but was hit hard by the Angels and White Sox in his other appearances.

With Stripling scuffling, the A’s are going with almost entirely unproven arms in their rotation. JP Sears is the most established member of the staff. Rule 5 pick Mitch Spence got a rotation spot in the middle of May and has turned in back-of-the-rotation production. The hard-throwing Boyle joins Joey Estes and Osvaldo Bido at the back end. Stripling assumes the long relief role which the A’s opened by designating Kyle Muller for assignment this afternoon.

Sears is the only member of that group who entered the season with even a year of major league service. They’re all trying to establish themselves as longer-term members of the pitching staff. Stripling, by contrast, seems likely to be a one-year acquisition. He’ll be a free agent next winter. He turned in an excellent 3.01 ERA for the Blue Jays two years back but carries a 5.52 mark over 161 1/3 frames since signing a $25MM contract with San Francisco over the 2022-23 offseason.

AL West Notes: Evans, Seager, Tucker, Athletics

By Mark Polishuk | June 9, 2024 at 6:23pm CDT

A few players from the 2023 draft have already made their MLB debuts, and Mariners prospect Logan Evans could potentially be coming soon due to his recent move to relief pitching. As Adam Jude of the Seattle Times writes, Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto recently called Evans with the idea of shifting from the Double-A rotation to the bullpen, since the M’s are currently in the enviable position of having a loaded rotation. Working as a reliever could put Evans on the fast track to the Show, and give the Mariners an extra hard-throwing arm in an injury-depleted pen.

A 12th-round pick out of Pitt, Evans has a sparkling 1.16 ERA over 54 1/3 innings for Double-A Arkansas this season, with a 23% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate, and a 53.6% grounder rate. MLB Pipeline’s scouting report also notes that the Mariners received trade interest in Evans as early as last offseason, after he posted an 0.60 ERA in his first 15 pro innings.

Athletics Place Ross Stripling On 15-Day IL, Designate Brandon Bielak

By Mark Polishuk | May 25, 2024 at 11:54am CDT

The A’s announced that right-hander Ross Stripling has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a strained right elbow. Right-hander Brandon Bielak has also been designated for assignment, opening up a 40-man roster spot for Jack O’Loughlin, whose promotion was reported earlier today. In addition to selecting O’Loughlin’s contract from Triple-A, the Athletics also called up righty Tyler Ferguson from Triple-A to take the other 26-man roster spot.

Stripling allowed six runs over 3 2/3 innings in yesterday’s 6-3 loss to the Astros. Even if it is fair to assume that the elbow strain impacted Stripling’s performance in some fashion, it was another in a string of tough outings for the veteran, as he has a 5.82 ERA across 55 2/3 innings and 11 starts for Oakland. His SIERA is a somewhat more palatable 4.66 and Stripling hasn’t enjoyed any batted-ball (.359 BABIP) or strand rate (56.4%) luck, plus his .328 xwOBA is well below his .364 wOBA. The righty’s 4.8% walk rate has been excellent and he has done a very good job of limiting hard contact, though his 13.9% strikeout rate ranks in only the seventh percentile among all pitchers.

Even if the results have been spotting, Stripling has been able to take the ball every fifth day, which is the kind of stability the A’s were hoping to receive when they acquired him in an offseason trade with the Giants. It was widely expected that the Athletics would also be shopping Stripling in advance of the trade deadline, yet this injury now casts doubt on that scenario, and potentially Stripling’s availability for the remainder of the season. More will be known about the severity of the elbow sprain soon, though it is worth noting that Stripling underwent a Tommy John surgery back in 2014 when he was pitching in the Dodgers’ farm system.

The more immediate impact of Stripling’s injury is that Oakland is now down yet another starting pitcher. Paul Blackburn (stress reaction in his right foot), Alex Wood (rotator cuff tendonitis), and Joe Boyle (lower back strain) are already all on the 15-day IL, meaning that of the five A’s pitchers who have made the most starts in 2024, JP Sears is the only fit hurler of the group. O’Loughlin has been a regular starter at Triple-A Las Vegas and will join Sears, Mitch Spence, Joey Estes, and Aaron Brooks in the makeshift rotation. The Athletics have off-days on each of the next two Mondays to allow for some flexibility in figuring out the pitching staff, and in perhaps buying time until at least one of their injured starters is healthy.

Given the short-handed rotation, it seems surprising that the A’s are parting ways with Bielak just nine days after acquiring the righty in a trade with the Astros. Bielak has a 3.18 ERA over 5 2/3 relief innings since coming to the Athletics, and while he has worked exclusively as a reliever over 13 total appearances for Oakland and Houston this season, he started 13 of his 15 games with the Astros in 2023.

Bielak’s Statcast numbers have been troubling in each of the last two seasons, so he might be fortunate to have even the 4.11 ERA he has posted over 103 innings since Opening Day 2023. Still, for a team that is so thin on starting pitching at the moment, designating a swingman with MLB experience puts even more pressure on the Athletics’ internal arms to pick up the slack. The A’s weren’t able to simply move Bielak to Triple-A since he is out of minor league options, and it is possible another team might again look to work out a trade or just claim Bielak in his latest trip to DFA limbo.

Athletics Notes: Stripling, Wood, Montas, Waldichuk, Bullpen

By Mark Polishuk | February 3, 2024 at 9:48am CDT

The Athletics’ offseason has been dominated by news about their planned move to Las Vegas, including the still-ongoing question of where exactly the team is going to play during the three-year gap between the end of their lease at the Oakland Coliseum and the opening of their new ballpark in Vegas in 2028. These issues have naturally influenced the front office’s roster-building endeavors, as GM David Forst told reporters (including The Comeback’s Jessica Kleinschmidt and The San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea) that the A’s have been targeting free agents on one-year contracts, in part due to the uncertainty over where the team will be playing beyond the 2024 campaign.

One of those one-year offers was finalized this week, when Alex Wood was signed to a one-year, $8.5MM deal. The pitching additions continued when Ross Stripling was acquired in a trade with the Giants, and Forst confirmed that both Stripling and Wood will be deployed as starting pitchers heading into Spring Training. The two veterans have worked as starters, relievers, and swingmen during their careers (including as recently as 2023 when they both played for San Francisco), but Forst noted that such seasoned starters are “exactly what we need with a relatively young and inexperienced starting pitching staff….We’ve seen what happens when you get a little overwhelmed with inexperience and we started last season with five rookie starters, and it didn’t go well.”

Forst said the A’s started discussing signing Wood and making a Stripling trade with the Giants back during the GM Meetings in November. Plenty of other arms received consideration on the free agent and trade markets, and MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos reports that longtime former Athletic Frankie Montas was of interest before Montas signed a one-year, $16MM deal with the Reds. Montas posted a 3.70 ERA over 537 2/3 innings with Oakland from 2017-22, but the righty has been plagued by injuries and under-performance since the A’s dealt Montas to the Yankees at the 2022 trade deadline.

The Oakland rotation now consists of Wood, Stripling, JP Sears, Paul Blackburn, and then a host of candidates vying for the fifth starter’s job. It remains to be seen if Ken Waldichuk will be part of this competition, as Forst said Waldichuk has yet to begin throwing and won’t do so for at least two weeks.

Waldichuk will see a doctor next week to figure out a throwing schedule in the next step of the southpaw’s ongoing attempts to recover from a strained flexor tendon and sprained UCL in his throwing arm. The injuries emerged right at the very end of the 2023 season, and Forst’s update was the first on Waldichuk since the A’s revealed in early December that the left-hander was pursuing a non-surgical rehab plan that included both a Tenex procedure and a PRP injection. Even if Waldichuk gets the green light to start throwing relatively soon, he’ll obviously still need a lot of ramp-up time to make up for the lost offseason work, and Waldichuk seems like a lock to begin the season on the injured list.

Waldichuk’s had a 5.36 ERA in his second MLB season, and his 141 innings ranked second among all A’s pitchers last year. The additions of Stripling and Wood will hopefully more than make up for those innings should Waldichuk miss a significant amount of time, but the Athletics figure to keep looking for more lower-cost pitching prior to Opening Day. Forst didn’t exactly close the door on more rotation candidates, but noted that the A’s are particularly looking at the relief market.

Giants Trade Ross Stripling To Athletics

By Steve Adams | February 2, 2024 at 12:57pm CDT

The A’s announced Friday that they’ve acquired right-hander Ross Stripling and cash from the Giants in exchange for minor league outfielder Jonah Cox. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, infielder Jonah Bride was designated for assignment. Oakland also confirmed its previously reported one-year deal with lefty Alex Wood.

It’s a rare swap of players between the two Bay Area clubs — one that will add some direly needed pitching to an Athletics roster that’s largely devoid of proven big league arms. The 34-year-old Stripling is coming off a tough first season after signing a two-year, $25MM deal with San Francisco, though he did pitch quite a bit better as the season wore on. The veteran swingman opened the season with 32 1/3 innings of 7.24 ERA ball between the rotation and bullpen before hitting the injured list with a back strain for the next six weeks.

Perhaps Stripling was never at full strength to begin the year, because upon returning from the injured list he pitched much more like his typical self. Over the course of his final 56 2/3 frames, the right-hander notched a 4.29 earned run average with a pedestrian 18.7% strikeout rate and an elite 2.6% walk rate. That lines up far more nicely with Stripling’s broader track record; from 2016-22, he logged a 3.78 ERA in 672 innings split between the Dodgers and Blue Jays.

Stripling is owed $12.5MM this coming season. He had an opt-out opportunity following year one of his contract but unsurprisingly decided to forgo that right after his uneven showing with the Giants. Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic reports that the Giants are paying down $3.25MM of Stripling’s salary; the A’s will be on the hook for the remaining $9.25MM.

The A’s could opt to use Stripling in the rotation or in the bullpen. He has ample experience in both roles and has had success in each as well. Certainly, Oakland brass had hoped that by now, several of the young arms acquired in the trades of Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, Sean Murphy, Lou Trivino and others would have yielded some controllable cornerstone pieces in the starting rotation.

That hasn’t happened, however. Left-hander JP Sears, who posted a 4.54 ERA in 32 starts and 172 1/3 innings out of the rotation last year, is the lone pitcher acquired in that fire sale who’s had any semblance of sustained success with the A’s. Others such as Ken Waldichuk, Kyle Muller, Adrian Martinez, Luis Medina, Zach Logue and Adam Oller (among others) have struggled. Medina did pitch fairly well in the second half of the 2023 season and is likely ticketed for a rotation spot in ’24, but that’s a sample of only 50 innings (4.32 ERA, 21.3% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate).

As such, it seems likely that Stripling and Wood will be reunited as not only teammates but rotation-mates. Stripling’s experience oscillating between a starting and relief role could mean he ends up in the bullpen at various points while the A’s take a look at younger arms. His familiarity with that role is a benefit to a team in the Athletics’ situation. If either Stripling or Wood can rebound after posting shaky results with the 2023 Giants, it’s quite likely that a non-contending A’s team will flip them both for younger talent prior to this summer’s trade deadline.

Stripling’s acquisition comes at the cost of the 28-year-old Bride’s roster spot. Bride, a versatile infielder/outfielder who’s played just about every position on the diamond, has appeared in each of the past two big league seasons. He’s batted just .192/.296/.232 in 293 trips to the plate, but he carries a stout .322/.450/.533 line in 401 plate appearances in Triple-A, where he’s walked more often than he’s struck out. The A’s will have a week to trade Bride or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He still has a minor league option remaining. Between that, his plus hit tool and defensive versatility, he’s a candidate to be claimed or flipped to another club in a separate, minor trade.

As for the Giants, they’ll acquire Oakland’s sixth-round selection from just this past summer’s draft. Cox, 22, batted .287/.366/.403 with a 28.3% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate in 145 plate appearances split between the Athletics’ Rookie-level Arizona Complex League and Low-A clubs. Baseball America ranked him 29th among A’s farmhands heading into the 2024 season, touting him as a plus-plus runner who can handle center field. Cox is years away from being a potential big league factor, but despite struggling with strikeouts in his debut season, BA praised his strong bat-to-ball skills and credited him with an above-average hit tool.

For San Francisco, the money saved in the trade is every bit as important as the player side of the return. Moving the bulk of Stripling’s contract dropped the Giants’ payroll to a projected $154MM, per Roster Resource, and they’re now just under $200MM in luxury tax obligations. That gives them $37MM worth of AAV to work with before they come against even the first luxury threshold.

There are any number of ways for Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi to reallocate those funds. The Giants have been linked to Matt Chapman throughout the offseason, and signing him would bolster the infield defense while adding some pop (but also quite a few strikeouts) to the lineup. Cody Bellinger looks like less of a fit than he did prior to the Giants’ signing of Jung Hoo Lee on a six-year deal, but it could conceivably work out if the Giants push Michael Conforto into more of a DH role (or trade Conforto or another outfielder such as Mike Yastrzemski). San Francisco also reportedly made a late offer to Rhys Hoskins before he signed in Milwaukee, so it seems there’s the possibility of adding a bat to the first base/designated hitter mix.

Just as notable is San Francisco’s lack of rotation stability. Ace Logan Webb is one of the game’s best arms, but the trade of Stripling leaves the Giants with zero established arms beyond him. Top prospect Kyle Harrison was solid in last year’s MLB debut, but that amounted to all of 34 2/3 innings. The Giants signed oft-injured reliever Jordan Hicks and plan to plug him into the rotation — a dicey proposition that would be more befitting of a team with only one rotation hole and several workhorse arms ahead of him. Younger righties like Keaton Winn and Tristan Beck could factor into things as well, but it was obvious even before trading Stripling that the Giants needed at least one more starting pitcher.

The Giants have the resources to pursue top-of-the-market arms like Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, though doing so would require deviating from the front office’s prior aversion to long-term deals for pitchers. Other yet-unsigned options include Michael Lorenzen, Mike Clevinger and Hyun Jin Ryu. The trade market features names like Dylan Cease, Shane Bieber and any number of Marlins hurlers (Edward Cabrera, Braxton Garrett and Jesus Luzardo among them).

Stripling becomes the second pitcher and third free-agent signing from last offseason that the Giants will pay to pitch elsewhere in 2024. San Francisco paid the Mariners $6MM in the trade sending Anthony DeSclafani and Mitch Haniger to Seattle. (DeSclafani has since been flipped to Minnesota along with a bit of additional cash kicked in from the M’s.) They’ll have to hope for better results in this winter’s crop of signees if they hope to avoid a fifth playoff miss in six seasons under the current front office.

Ross Stripling Exercises Player Option With Giants

By Nick Deeds | November 5, 2023 at 9:40am CDT

Right-hander Ross Stripling has exercised his $12.5MM player option for next season, per Danny Emerman of KNBR.com. Stripling, 34 this month, will return to the Giants for the 2024 season rather than test the open market. The move is hardly a surprise, particularly given the fact that Stripling himself announced that he expected to exercise his player option back in September.

After signing with the Giants on a two-year, $25MM guarantee this past winter on the heels of a strong platform season in Toronto, Stripling struggled badly in San Francisco this year. The right-hander ultimately pitched just 89 innings with the Giants this year across 22 appearances, 11 of which were starts. In addition to posting his lowest full-season innings total since 2017, Stripling struggled to get results. His strikeout rate dipped from 20.7% in 2022 to just 18.4% this year, while his walk rate crept up from 3.7% to 4.2%.

While those rates both trended in the wrong direction, the marginal loss in K-BB doesn’t compare to the massive home run problem Stripling faced in 2023. Despite the fact that only Comerica Park in Detroit and PNC Park in San Francisco suppressed home runs at a higher clip than Stripling’s home stadium of Oracle Park, the right-hander saw a whopping 22% of his fly balls leave the yard for home runs this year. Not only was that figure a career high in a full season only matched by Stripling’s 22.8% figure in the shortened 2022 campaign, but it was the second highest rate in the majors this year, barely edged out by Phillies righty Christopher Sanchez’s 22.2% figure. With Stripling allowing more than two home runs per nine innings in 2023, it’s hardly a surprise that Stripling’s 5.36 ERA and 5.21 FIP were the worst figures of his career during a full season.

That being said, there’s reason for optimism that Stripling could improve upon his 2023 campaign next year. After all, he missed two months this year across two separate IL stints due to back issues, suggesting it’s possible he wasn’t fully healthy for much of the season. Better health alongside better fortune regarding the number of his fly balls that leave the yard for home runs in 2024 could drastically improve Stripling’s effectiveness next year; after all, even in this brutal season some advanced metrics looked upon Stripling favorably as demonstrated by his 3.98 xFIP (9% better than league average) and 4.13 SIERA.

The Giants are still waiting on option decisions from left-hander Sean Manaea and Michael Conforto, both of whom can also return to the open market rather than playing out the final year of two-year deals they inked with the club last winter. Meanwhile, San Francisco faces a decision of its own regard veteran right-hander Alex Cobb. Manaea and Conforto are both reportedly undecided on whether or not they’ll return to free agency this offseason, while Cobb’s option, once an obvious choice for San Francisco to exercise, could be muddied by a recent hip surgery that figures to keep him out of action through Opening Day 2024.

Ross Stripling Not Expecting To Opt Out Of Giants Deal

By Anthony Franco | September 11, 2023 at 8:05pm CDT

Giants right-hander Ross Stripling has the ability to return to free agency this offseason, as he can opt out of a $12.5MM salary for next year. However, the 33-year-old indicated this evening that he doesn’t anticipate heading back to the open market.

Stripling rather frankly told the team’s beat he “hasn’t pitched well enough to opt out” (relayed by Maria Guardado of MLB.com). While a blunt self-assessment, it’s not an especially surprising declaration. The veteran hurler has a 5.29 ERA over 78 1/3 innings on the season. That’s well off the 3.01 earned runs per nine which Stripling had allowed during his final year with the Blue Jays.

While he wasn’t especially overpowering even during his best seasons in Toronto, Stripling has lost a couple percentage points off his strikeout rate. He has still been one of the league’s best at avoiding free passes but has proven far too home run prone. Stripling has allowed 2.30 homers per nine, well above last year’s 0.80 HR/9 figure. Stripling had been susceptible to the longball in both 2020 and ’21.

In addition to the inconsistent production, Stripling has spent the past three weeks on the injured list with a back strain. It’s his second such IL stay of the year. He has expressed a bit of frustration with his status, telling reporters over the weekend he feels the club is keeping him on the IL beyond when he’s healthy enough to return because the team is reluctant to bump someone else off the roster. He reiterated today that he believes he’s ready for a return after throwing 50 pitches in a batting practice session.

Stripling is one of a handful of San Francisco players whose contracts have upcoming player options. Michael Conforto has an $18MM provision, while Sean Manaea will need to decide whether to retain a $12.5MM salary. Neither of those cases are as straightforward as Stripling’s, but both seem likely to return to San Francisco themselves. Conforto started slowly offensively. He’d seemed to find his stride midseason but has missed the past few weeks with a hamstring strain. Manaea lost his rotation spot early on and has worked mostly in multi-inning relief. Despite a solid 27.2% strikeout rate, he owns an even 5.00 ERA through 93 2/3 frames.

NL West Notes: Betts, Marte, Stripling, Lee

By Mark Polishuk | September 10, 2023 at 8:33am CDT

Mookie Betts hasn’t played since suffering a bone bruise on his left foot on Thursday, though the superstar could be back in action as early as Monday when the Dodgers open a series against the Padres. In the wake of the initial injury, the Dodgers put Betts through a battery of tests to ensure that his foot hadn’t incurred more serious damage, and Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register writes that Betts was walking normally around the L.A. clubhouse yesterday.

The club is naturally being as cautious as possible with the MVP candidate, as it is hard to imagine Los Angeles making a serious postseason run without Betts wreaking havoc in the lineup. The league leader in fWAR (7.9), Betts is hitting .314/.411/.609 with 38 homers over 610 plate appearances, and his ability to play second base and shortstop has been crucial for a Dodgers team that has been beset by middle-infield injuries since Spring Training. Fortunately, it looks like Betts will be able to resume his dream season in short order, with an eye towards then helping the Dodgers capture another World Series championship. [UPDATE: Betts is in the Dodgers’ lineup today, leading off and playing second base.]

Giants Less Likely To Trade From Rotation After DeSclafani Injury

By Anthony Franco | August 1, 2023 at 10:28am CDT

Within the past week, multiple reports have emerged about the Giants receiving interest on their starting pitchers. There was some thought that San Francisco could deal a back-end starter for help elsewhere on the roster.

President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi downplayed that possibility when meeting with the SF beat last night (link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Area). Pointing to the recent placement of Anthony DeSclafani on the 15-day injured list (plus an injury to Triple-A righty Keaton Winn), Zaidi said the front office is “kind of in a different position than we were even a week ago” with regards to the pitching. As a result, he stated “it’s less likely we explore something there. It kind of feels like we have just enough pitching to be comfortable and to have some options, but we’ll see what happens over the next day.”

At the same time, it doesn’t seem the Giants are anxious to add rotation depth either. Asked about that possibility, Zaidi noted the club’s success when deploying openers and/or bullpen games. He’s also spoken previously about his comfort with the likes of Alex Wood, Sean Manaea, Ross Stripling and Jakob Junis behind staff ace Logan Webb. At the beginning of July, the baseball operations leader said the Giants were likely only to get involved for potential top-of-the-rotation arms — which are generally lacking in supply this deadline season anyhow.

Still, the loss of DeSclafani deals something of a hit to the group. The righty hasn’t had a great season, carrying a 4.88 ERA with a below-average 18.9% strikeout rate. He trails only Webb and Cobb on the team in innings pitched, though. DeSclafani is battling a flexor strain in his throwing elbow. The team announced last night the righty was headed for a second opinion (relayed by Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle). There’s a possibility the injury will end his season, though the results of further imaging will obviously determine that.

While the Giants might be quiet on the pitching front, they’ll surely continue working the phones over the next six-plus hours. San Francisco has been searching for middle infield help for some time. Thairo Estrada is headed out on a minor league rehab stint, perhaps reducing the urgency to add there, but there’s still room for an acquisition given Estrada’s and Brandon Crawford’s recent health concerns.

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