San Francisco Giants: Some Surprises as Team Sets Roster

Injuries to the pitching staff forced the San Francisco Giants to make some slightly surprising moves as they set the Opening Day roster.

The San Francisco Giants combined to shut out the Oakland A’s on Tuesday, bringing Spring Training to its end. With the season set to open on Thursday at Dodger Stadium, the Giants also set their roster.

There are no surprises in the starting lineup. Buster Posey is the starting catcher, while Brandon Belt, Joe Panik, Brandon Crawford, and Evan Longoria make up the infield. In the outfield, the primary starters will be Hunter Pence, Austin Jackson, and Andrew McCutchen.

Nick Hundley is, as expected, the backup catcher. Pablo Sandoval also is on the roster, which wasn’t much of a question either, with his backup infielder counterpart being Kelby Tomlinson. The fourth-year infielder was still in competition with Josh Rutledge, but his friendly rival was re-assigned following Tuesday’s game. Tomlinson will serve as the primary backup at second base and shortstop.

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The bench outfielders can be considered a surprise. Though there was some speculation that the Giants would keep just one backup outfielder, they opted instead to keep two. Gorkys Hernandez and Gregor Blanco are the last of the position players on the roster. A 40-man roster move to get Blanco on has not yet been announced.

Steven Duggar was in contention until the final day and had some flashes of brilliance during the exhibition season, but didn’t crack the Opening Day roster. He wasn’t going to be kept as a backup, and with the Giants probably facing a lot of left-handed starters early in the season (the Dodgers have four southpaw starters and play the Giants 10 times in the first 33 games), Jackson is going to get a lot of at-bats. Duggar will certainly be back, and very soon.

Obviously with all the tough injury news in the past week, the Giants’ pitching staff looks much different than it was supposed to. Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija will head to the disabled list to open room on the 25-man roster, and Rule 5 pitcher Julian Fernandez will almost certainly join them.

The Giants plan to stick with their earlier assertions that they will use four starting pitchers through the early part of the season, using the well-timed off-days to keep everyone on a normal schedule. Ty Blach, Johnny Cueto, Derek Holland, and Chris Stratton (who threw the ball beautifully on Sunday) will make up the abbreviated rotation.

They will also keep eight relievers. Sam Dyson, Cory Gearrin, Roberto Gomez, Pierce Johnson, Mark Melancon, Josh Osich, Hunter Strickland, and Tony Watson figure to make up the Opening Day bullpen.

Johnson and Gomez are surprising additions to the bullpen, being that they were optioned earlier in the spring. But with things changing pretty drastically in the past week, their additions became necessary.

Johnson was a standout this spring, pitching to a spotless ERA and giving up just one hit while striking out nine in seven innings. Gomez also got his fair share of swings-and-misses, totaling 13 strikeouts in 8.1 innings, and will give the Giants a bit of length out of the bullpen. He made 13 starts for the Triple-A River Cats in 2017.

Melancon is on the Opening Day roster as of now, despite reports earlier in the day that he’s still dealing with some discomfort in his surgically-repaired right arm. Obviously, as we’ve seen over the latter part of Spring Training, a lot can change in two days.

Next: Giants Need Cueto's Changeup Again

Changes will come very soon. The Giants will need a fifth starter in a couple weeks, and will have to make a move on the 25-man roster to accommodate that player. As of now, though, this is the Giants’ Opening Day roster.

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