Postseason Hero Travis Ishikawa Is Designated for Assignment
Saturday’s doubleheader really threw a wrench in the San Francisco Giants‘ gameplan. One day after the Giants designated third baseman Casey McGehee for assignment to make room on the roster for an eighth relief pitcher, Travis Ishikawa suffered the same fate.
With 17 games in a 16-day span, the Giants need pitching, and unfortunately, it comes at the expense of two veteran players. On Monday, it was Ishikawa who was designated for assignment.
The Giants have been yo-yoing with Ishikawa for a while as he recovered from a back injury that put him on the disabled list to start the season. After 68 at-bats, Ishikawa’s minor league rehab stint had run its course, and the team was forced to make a choice regarding him. After activating Ishikawa from the disabled list, they were forced to designate him.
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There just wasn’t room for Ishikawa on the 25-man roster. With McGehee gone, and Matt Duffy taking over the everyday third baseman’s job, Joaquin Arias‘ bench role becomes more valuable. He is the backup to every infield spot if something were to go wrong. Without him, the team wouldn’t have that super utility man.
First baseman Brandon Belt and left fielder Nori Aoki are playing very well, and they have Ishikawa’s two primary positions covered. Buster Posey is the backup first baseman on the days he doesn’t take the squat. With five outfielders already on the active roster, there was no room for him there either.
Unlike McGehee, who has more than five years of major league service time, Ishikawa would forfeit the remainder of his $1.1 million salary if he were to decline his minor league assignment, because he has less than five years of service time.
That, of course, is assuming that Ishikawa clears waivers. McGehee’s remaining salary of close to $4 million, which the other team would take on if he was claimed, makes him a virtual lock to pass through waivers unclaimed. Ishikawa is only scheduled to make about $800,000 for the rest of the year, and it wouldn’t be unheard of for another team to take on that small sum of money.
Ishikawa will always have a spot in Giants’ fans’ hearts for his pennant-clinching home run to beat Michael Wacha and the St. Louis Cardinals in 2014, but unfortunately, major league rosters are not as accommodating as the human heart. While we can remember hundreds of players and their contributions, the roster takes no prisoners and cares not about history.
We hear it all the time, that baseball is a business and this is a business decision. There was no space for Ishikawa to return to San Francisco, and this is what’s best for business. That doesn’t make this any easier to swallow.
Ishikawa’s story took a Hollywood turn with the NLCS home run. The journeyman first baseman, who had been through six organizations, returns to his first home with the San Francisco Giants. He steps in, playing an unfamiliar position in left field, and plays well enough to get by. But in the biggest spot of his career, he comes through with a three-run walk off home run to win the Giants the pennant. That’s the stuff movies are made of.
And that’s how he’ll be remembered, even if he never dons the Giants’ orange and black again. When the name “Ishikawa” is mentioned, the mind will immediately go to that fabled home run on October 16th, 2014. Where you were, what you were doing, who you were watching with, how loud you screamed. When the Giants celebrate the anniversary of that 2014 World Series victory, Ishikawa will be in attendance, and he’ll probably receive the biggest ovation of them all.
Ishikawa has been through this process before, more than he’d probably like to admit. Like McGehee said he would do, Ishikawa will want to take the time to talk to his wife and kids, and figure out what to do.
This is the nature of the business. Players come and players go, but the memories stick. And Ishikawa’s biggest memories are a lot better than most.