San Francisco Giants: Former Giants in Camp Around the League
Let’s check in with former San Francisco Giants and see who is in camp with other teams as non-roster invitees around the league.
Pitchers and catchers report in just a matter of days, and non-roster players from around the league will compete to mark their mark on a big league club and earn their spot on an opening day roster. A number of former San Francisco Giants’ big leaguers are among those players looking to get back to the big leagues with a new team.
Of course, there’s a few former Giants who are in camp with the Giants. Gregor Blanco, a Giant for five seasons, is back after a year with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and will be competing with a number of fellow outfielders to earn a job as a utility outfielder. Hector Sanchez also spent five years with San Francisco before heading elsewhere for two seasons. The catching position is set at the big league level with Buster Posey and Nick Hundley, so Sanchez should provide depth in the minor leagues.
Another catcher who will likely act as minor league depth, Trevor Brown is back in big league camp after being outrighted off the 40-man roster last season. He spent the entire 2016 season as a big leaguer after a cup-of-coffee stint in 2015, but had a miserable season in 2017, both from an injury and performance standpoint. Orlando Calixte is also returning after being designated for assignment earlier this offseason. Chris Heston is with the Giants again, but will be in minor league camp this spring.
Elsewhere, there are nine former Giants’ big leaguers who are in camp as non-roster players. Ruben Tejada is with the Baltimore Orioles’ major league camp. He played 13 mostly uneventful games with San Francisco in 2016, and played 41 games for the Orioles in 2017 when injuries opened spots on the infield.
Neil Ramirez earned a spot on the Giants’ 2017 opening day roster following an impressive spring, but couldn’t carry that success over to the regular season. He’s trying to earn to change his fortunes with the Cleveland Indians, who signed him to a minor league deal this offseason.
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Melvin Upton, Jr. is also in camp with Cleveland, but a run of bad injury luck in 2017 made it so he never appeared in a big league game with the Giants.
Tim Federowicz is with the Houston Astros as catching depth after serving the same purpose with the Giants last season. He appeared in 13 games in his two separate stints with San Francisco, and only totaled three hits. Two of those hits were home runs, however, so that’s pretty cool.
Michael Broadway’s more than decade-long minor league journey resulted in his first big league call-up in 2015 with the Giants. The 28-year-old appeared in 25 games in parts of two seasons by the Bay with minimal success before spending time in Japan and with the Washington Nationals and Tampa Bay Rays’ organization. He is continuing his baseball odyssey in camp with the Kansas City Royals this year.
One of the most surprising names on the list, Emmanuel Burriss is still playing pro baseball! After donning a Giants’ jersey from 2008 to 2012 without much in the way of on-field results, Burriss began bouncing around the league. He returned to MLB in 2015 with the Nationals and was back the next year with the Philadelphia Phillies, while spending time in the Cincinnati Reds’ organization before that. This season, he’ll try to get back to the Show with the Los Angeles Angels as a minor league signee with an invite to Spring Training.
Left-handed pitchers have a long shelf life in pro baseball, and Mike Kickham is evidence of that. He made 14 appearances for the Giants from 2013 to 2014. Since then, he’s pitched in the Miami Marlins, Seattle Mariners, and Texas Rangers’ organization, as well as independent baseball and a return to the Giants’ minor league system. He’s still kicking around, though, and he’s back with the Marlins for a second straight season.
The Giants and the Pittsburgh Pirates have had something of a symbiotic relationship recently, and Pittsburgh has a number of former Giants in camp. Pitchers Kyle Crick and George Kontos are both on the 40-man roster, while outfield prospect Bryan Reynolds (involved in the Andrew McCutchen trade along with Crick) is a non-roster invitee. A more “huh, I remember him” type player in camp with the Pirates is catcher Jackson Williams. The Giants made Williams a first-round pick in 2007, but he appeared in the big leagues with the Colorado Rockies before he did so with the Giants. He played seven games for the Rockies in 2014, and seven more for the Giants the next year.
Gordon Beckham’s stint with the Giants was even shorter than Williams’. He was acquired in the final week of the 2016 season after an Eduardo Nunez injury, and played in only three games. He still become a popular presence in the clubhouse (Buster Posey even vouched for his re-signing the following offseason), but didn’t get back to the big leagues with San Francisco. Instead, he went to the Seattle Mariners, with whom he played 11 games in 2017. Beckham is back with the Mariners as a non-roster player, trying to improve on those 11 games.
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And finally, down with the Tampa Bay Rays is another surprising name who is still going. Joining former Giants Denard Span, Matt Duffy, Christian Arroyo, and the freshly-re-signed Sergio Romo (all on the 40-man roster) is left-handed reliever Dan Runzler. Once a highly-regarded relief pitching prospect, Runzler pitcher for the Giants from 2009 to 2012, but injuries and ineffectiveness forced him away from the highest level for four seasons. He spent the 2017 season with the Pirates’ organization, and even made it back to the big leagues for an eight-game stint.