SF Giants: 20 minor-league cuts include former draft picks

The SF Giants have reportedly made 20 minor-league cuts including a few former draft picks.

The SF Giants and the rest of the MLB world have been hit hard by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But perhaps no part of the baseball world has been hit as hard as the minor leagues.

And on Friday, the Giants joined the list of teams releasing minor league players by reportedly cutting 20 players from their farm system. Now, many of these players aren’t exactly high-profile names that most will be familiar with.

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But they are people who just lost their jobs, some of them their dreams. It’s truly a sad time in baseball right now.

The Giants did commit to paying their remaining minor-league players through the month of June. However, for those released, they will no longer be receiving the $400 monthly stipend.

At the very least, at least the Giants haven’t followed the same path as the Oakland Athletics who instead of releasing their minor-league players, have simply refused to pay them. But that’s another story entirely.

Among those released by the Giants are a few high-ish draft picks from recent years and even one player who spent some time in major-league camp this spring.

Now, it should be noted that Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle did point out that “most if not all of the 20 would have been cut in March if not for the shutdown.”

Still, that doesn’t make the situation any less unfortunate.

Below is a full list of the 20 players the Giants released.

Pitcher Trey McNutt has toiled around in the minor leagues and independent ball for the last 11 years and even pitched in three games with the Giants this spring. Unfortunately, after allowing three runs in 2.1 innings, he was demoted to minor-league camp.

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Given the uncertain nature of the Giants bullpen, there’s an outside chance that McNutt would have finally received his first crack at the major leagues this season — at age 29/30 — if he performed well in the minors.

Of the others released, right-handed pitcher Garrett Cave stands out as a former fourth-round pick just three years ago. And outfielder Ronnie Jebavy is a former fifth-round pick from 2015 who possessed elite speed and fielding ability, but just could never develop as a hitter.

Jebavy made it as high as Double-A in 2018 hitting just .168 in 76 games. And at the age of 26-years-old, the Giants decided that it was time to move on.

It’s a difficult time to be a minor-league baseball player and the Giants’ latest cuts are proof of exactly why that’s the case.