SF Giants release veteran pitcher Tyson Ross and two others
By Justin Fried
The SF Giants have reportedly released Tyson Ross and two other veterans.
The SF Giants made their first roster moves in months on Friday announcing the official release of three veterans from their organization including well-traveled right-handed pitcher Tyson Ross.
The MLB’s roster freeze was officially lifted on Friday meaning that teams were allowed to make roster moves for the first time since March. And the Giants clearly took full advantage of that change.
Ross was released along with veteran reliever Nick Vincent and outfielder Jamie Westbrook. All three were on the big-league roster this spring as non-roster invites fighting for a roster spot.
However, with the cancelation of the minor-league season, that meant that there would be Triple-A for the players to resort to if they didn’t make the team. And as a result, each has been released.
The Giants will have a pool of 60 players that these three could have feasibly been on, but the Giants clearly didn’t think that they’d be worth the addition and would likely rather carry young prospects such as Marco Luciano and Joey Bart instead of finger big-league veterans.
Who are the players that the SF Giants released?
Ross is the most notable of the three having played in the majors in some fashion every year since 2010. A Berkeley native and former Oakland Athletics draft pick, Ross is best known for his tenure with the San Diego Padres that culminated in a 2014 All-Star appearance.
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Since then, however, his career has gone into a tailspin with injuries and inconsistencies limiting him to a fringe major-league role. Ross was expected to compete for a spot in the Giants’ bullpen this spring but he clearly didn’t impress enough.
The same could be said for Vincent who rejoined the Giants this spring after being released back in August. An eight-year veteran, Vincent has pitched for a number of different teams and actually impressed when he joined the Philadelphia Phillies following his unsuccessful Giants tenure.
However, we likely won’t be seeing a true reunion in 2020.
Finally, Westbrook is the only one of the three without any prior major-league experience. The 25-year-old has experience playing second base and the corner outfield and reached as high as Triple-A in the Arizona Diamondbacks system in 2018 and 2019.
Ultimately, however, the Giants simply had too many outfield options to consider using a roster spot on him and his release shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.
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Now that the roster move window is open, it’ll be interesting to see if the Giants make any other moves in the coming days.