When Hunter Pence Returns, Who Is the Odd Man out for the Giants?
By Neil Povio
The San Francisco Giants are going to have a good problem when Hunter Pence returns from the disabled list soon — they’ll have too many good players on their roster. With how well Justin Maxwell has been playing right field during Pence’s absence, the Giants will soon have to make a couple of tough decisions.
San Francisco Giants
The very first thing the Giants are going to have to do when Pence is ready to be activated from the disabled list, is decide which player on the 25-man roster is going to have to be either optioned, traded, or designated for assignment.
The Giants are currently playing with one extra pitcher in their bullpen, but it doesn’t appear that San Francisco would let one of those guys go — especially in light of how well the bullpen has been throwing in the early goings of the season.
Jean Machi and George Kontos would be the only players in the bullpen that could be designated for assignment to make room on the roster, due to both of them being out of minor league options. But both of them have been excellent out of the bullpen for the Giants, so that seems extremely unlikely.
As far as position players go, players such as Joaquin Arias, Gregor Blanco, Matt Duffy, Hector Sanchez, Andrew Susac, and Maxwell seem to be the options left to move off the 25-man roster when Pence returns.
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It’s easy to cut down that list of six players down to two players though.
Bench players like Arias and Blanco are both signed to major league contracts.
Arias is signed through the end of this season, with $1.45 million left on his contract. The Giants also like the fact that Arias has the ability to play every single infield position.
Blanco signed a two year, $7.5 million contract over the off-season, so you pretty much know the Giants are not letting go of him. Blanco is really just on this team for his speed and his defensive ability that is most often utilized late in games.
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The Giants aren’t likely going to send Duffy back down to the minor leagues either, not after he won a bench spot on the 25-man roster over Ehire Adrianza during Spring Training. Duffy is another guy who, like Arias, has the ability to play all the infield positions. He also has the ability to be San Francisco’s emergency outfielder. Duffy has also shown the Giants that he can handle the bat.
Plain and simple, Maxwell is not going anywhere at all now. He has easily been the Giants MVP for the month of April, with his clutch hitting and home runs, along with making a few game saving plays in right field.
According to Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News, Bruce Bochy still plans to give Maxwell a lot of starts even after Pence returns. More than likely, Maxwell will rotate between giving Nori Aoki and Angel Pagan days off.
That pretty much leaves Sanchez and Susac as the most likely to be optioned off the 25-man roster.
The Giants do not need three catchers on the 25-man roster, especially when you have a Buster Posey on the team. On top of that, both Sanchez and Susac have minor league options available.
Sanchez has really struggled with the playing time Bochy has given him. In 25 at bats this season, Sanchez has three hits (.120) with one RBI. Sanchez also has allowed two passed balls and has only caught 20% of base stealers this season.
On the other side of the coin, Susac has thrived in the playing time he’s been given since he was re-called from Triple-A. Susac is 5-13 (.385) with one home run and one RBI, and has not allowed any passed balls yet. He has also thrown out 50% of the runners attempting to steal a base against him. Bochy has also said how he wants to try to create a lineup that would allow Susac to start more often. Which seems to be a another good indication that the Giants want to keep Susac around.
With all this said, it seems like Sanchez will become the odd man out when Pence returns. The Giants could either use Sanchez’s last option available and send him to Triple-A Sacramento, or they can even explore trade options. Sanchez does have some trade value for a team looking for a back-up catcher or even a starting catcher, given that he does have a good amount of major league experience.