The Giants have reached the part of the season where caution matters more than squeezing out a few extra innings, and Logan Webb’s move to the injured list makes that plain.
Webb was placed on the IL with what the team says is a finger blister, a move that effectively closes the book on his season. It wasn’t exactly a shock.
The Giants had already been weighing whether to shut him down after his last start, and the case for doing it was obvious: he pitched in the World Baseball Classic, missed time earlier in the year with a knee injury, and has now been pulled after another heavy workload. He’ll finish with a 4.31 ERA in 27 starts and 160 and 2/3 innings pitched, ending a streak of three straight seasons with more than 200 innings.
With a week left in the season and injuries already stacking up, Webb probably won’t be the only one the Giants should protect from further damage.
Landen Roupp is the clearest candidate. He’s the only other starter besides Webb who has stayed in the rotation from the beginning of the year, and his workload has already jumped well beyond anything he’s done before.
Roupp has thrown 155 innings, and the Giants have been leaning on him even with the elbow issues he dealt with last season. That kind of usage only gets riskier now, especially with Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald, and Carson Whisenhunt already undergoing elbow surgery this year.
At this point, the Giants can turn to other young arms such as Matt "Tugboat" Wilkinson, Blade Tidwell, Cesar Perdomo, and Yunior Marte, or even reach into Triple-A for help to finish out the schedule.
Jung Hoo Lee is another name worth considering. He was arguably the team’s hottest hitter a few months ago, but his second half has been much quieter.
On the year, he’s hitting .274/.317/.397 with nine home runs and 55 runs batted in. The Giants also have a collection of younger outfielders who deserve a look, and shutting Lee down could give them a better chance to evaluate those options.
It might even create an opening for a Bo Davidson call-up.
Dylan Smith fits the same logic from the bullpen side. The Giants’ relief group has been a problem all season, and president of baseball operations Buster Posey has already said it will be a focus in the offseason.
Smith has been one of the brighter spots, but he has also struggled badly lately and looks worn down after being leaned on heavily by manager Tony Vitello. The safer play would be to give him a break and bring up another arm from the minors.
The Giants are simply trying to survive the final stretch without losing anyone else. Webb’s shutdown was the right move, and the same thinking should apply to Roupp, Lee, and Smith.
In Other News...
Bryce Eldridges Sudden Absence Leaves Giants With One Big Concern
Bryce Eldridges night took an unexpected turn shortly before the Giants faced the Dodgers, when the team scratched the first baseman from the starting lineup because of a head laceration. Brett Harris stepped in at first base and slid into the seventh spot in the order, leaving San Francisco to reshuffle on the fly against a division rival with little time to plan around the change.
For a club still trying to manage its roster carefully, any sudden absence involving Eldridge is worth watching closely. The Giants did get some encouraging development elsewhere, as top pitching prospect Jackson Flora opened his Double-A stint with two perfect innings and four strikeouts, while infielder Marcelo Mayer remains a possible late-season addition. Even so, Eldridges status is the immediate concern, especially with the Dodgers on the other side of the field and no clear sense yet of how long the issue might linger. [Read more 🡒]
Giants May Have Found A Long Term Center Field Answer
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The current group under Buster Posey has already signaled real belief in Cox by pushing him straight from Double-A, a move that says plenty about how the organization views his ceiling. There is still work to do, and plenty can change in a hurry at this level, but the Giants appear to have a legitimate center field candidate worth watching closely as the season unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
Jackson Flora May Be Forcing The Giants To Rethink His Timeline
Jackson Floras first taste of pro ball arrived in September, and it was hard to imagine a better first impression for the Giants top draft pick. The right-hander made his debut with both the clubs Class A and Double-A affiliates, and over three scoreless innings he punched out six without allowing a run, a line that did exactly what a first-round arm is supposed to do: remind everyone why he was taken fourth overall out of UC Santa Barbara.
For the Giants, the performance doesnt change the fact that Flora is still at the beginning of his professional climb, but it does add some early intrigue to how quickly he might move. His debut was brief, yet it was sharp enough to raise the question every organization likes to have about a premium pick: is the original plan still the right one, or has the pitcher already started making a case for something faster? [Read more 🡒]