San Francisco Giants are About to Encounter a Good Problem

With two of their frontline starters about to come off the disabled list, the San Francisco Giants are about to encounter a good problem.

Pretty soon, the San Francisco Giants should have one of those good problems on their hands. The starting rotation, which had been a problem for a large portion of the season, has started to take shape. The Young guys are stepping up and developing right before our eyes. The veterans are holding the line, providing the reliability that every teams needs.

The Giants have stayed in the race despite missing between two and three of their big name starting pitchers for most of the year. But now, one of those starting pitchers is back, with Madison Bumgarner reclaiming his spot at the top of the rotation. The other two are not far behind him.

Jeff Samardzija will make his third, and what should be his final, rehab start with Sacramento on Tuesday night. He appears to have gotten over the shoulder issue that made his command such a problem, with 11 strikeouts in no walks through seven innings in his first start. Johnny Cueto made his first rehab start last Saturday, throwing 3.2 innings, striking out four, and allowing just one baserunner on an infield hit. He’ll be back in the big league rotation after one or two more rehab outings.

The question then becomes, how do they get them in the rotation. Back in May, this would have been an easy question to answer. The rotation was struggling from top to bottom, and it would have been more difficult to figure out who the good rotation options were. Now as everyone seems to be settling into roles and pitching well, the need to shake things up arises.

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The easiest moves to make are with Andrew Suarez and Dereck Rodriguez, two rookies that still have options. Those would be simple moves, but given how they’ve pitched recently, it might not be the right move. Rodriguez, aside from a blow-up in his second career start against the Washington Nationals, has pitched well every time he’s taken the mound. Suarez is making big strides and improving rapidly at the highest level. He’s pitched to a 2.86 ERA and 1.130 WHIP in June.

Chris Stratton also has an option remaining. He was thrust into a bigger role this year after all the rotation injuries, and didn’t respond incredibly well. However, he has settled down and is pitching a lot better after a terrible stretch in late April and early May. In his last seven starts, he owns a 3.23 ERA and 1.308 WHIP.

That leaves Derek Holland, since obviously Madison Bumgarner isn’t giving up a spot in the rotation. Holland hasn’t been flashy, throwing those dominant outings where he strikes out a ton of guys, but he’s been the most consistent Giants’ starter over the past couple months. In 10 starts since the beginning of May, the lefty has a 3.88 ERA and has allowed more than three runs just twice. He’s solid, yet unspectacular.

So it’s not an easy choice. Every pitcher has stepped up recently and has forced the Giants to think long and hard about this decision. Most likely, one of Rodriguez and Suarez will be optioned, but that still leaves one hard choice.

One decision, maybe an out-of-the-box decision, they could make is to put Holland in the bullpen and option Ty Blach, who is currently serving as the long man out of the bullpen. Holland has been absolutely phenomenal against left-handed hitters this year, holding them to a .127/.213/.164 slash-line. In the bullpen, he could give the Giants another left-handed option to face the opposition’s most dangerous lefty.

Of course, that wouldn’t be an easy choice either. Blach has done well since moving to the bullpen following Bumgarner’s return, with a 1.04 ERA and 1.154 WHIP accompanied by an increase in strikeouts (from 4.5 K/9 to 5.7 K/9). Holland has only made 24 relief appearances in his 10-year career, with half coming in his rookie year.

All of that doesn’t even include the 40-man roster move to get Cueto off the 60-day disabled list. The Giants will have to get a bit creative to get through all the paperwork.

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It’s up in the air as to what the Giants will do, and the next two turns through the rotation will be huge for everyone not named Bumgarner. But the fact that the Giants suddenly seem to have good depth, and young depth, in the starting rotation is a great sign.

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