With the door opened, Sabol will have to eventually prove he can catch at the Major League level, and I presume the Giants will slide him behind the plate as soon as a score gets lopsided. Zaidi all but confirmed that Bart and Roberto Pérez will split time (about 50-50, no less) behind the plate, and also that Sabol will be somewhere on the diamond to ring in the first game of the season. Sabol - who is hitting 14-39 with three homers, four doubles, and 10 walks in Spring Training - stands to be a big beneficiary of injuries to outfielders Austin Slater and Mitch Haniger, which will keep them off the field for the first two series, at a minimum. It turns out there was a second path to the roster: hit the crap out of the baseball and slyly put banana peels in front of teammates. In the long run, that remains true (Zaidi admitted that for Sabol to stick on the roster, he’ll have to be someone they trust as a catcher). Which means he needs to be on the active roster or else he’ll be returned to the Pittsburgh Pirates for one crisp $50,000 bill.Įver since the Giants nabbed Sabol in December, trading for him after the Cincinnati Reds drafted him, I’ve maintained that his only path to making the roster was to prove he could be Joey Bart’s backup. If he were a Minor League free agent, he’d be supremely Giantsy.īut he’s not a Minor League free agent. He’s an outfielder turned catcher who is dedicated to catching but hasn’t yet learned how to do it, and he’s torn the stitches off the baseball at every level, but his (very bad) former team gave up on him before he made his MLB debut. Sabol is unquestionably one of the most unique players that the Giants have had in camp in recent memory. So let’s take a closer look at the three players that Zaidi discussed. In other words, we can predict with reasonable confidence what the roster will look like on Thursday morning. three fringe players who bring the total of expected players on the roster to the 26 that they’re allowed to carry. He dropped lots of interesting tidbits - including that they’re expecting Casey Schmitt to be in the Majors soon that Schmitt will play both third base and shortstop and that they expect their depth to come from the Minors this year, rather than the waiver wire and trade market.īut most notable was Zaidi essentially confirming the rostering of three fringe players. Thursday was case in point, with Zaidi being even more open than usual. They might not reveal tomorrow’s starter, but they’ll tell you exactly why they optioned a player and what that player needs to do to get another look. In reality, they’re usually fairly candid, except when they have a competitive advantage to gain. There’s an odd misconception that this iteration of the Giants brass is overly secretive. But on Thursday night Giants President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi swung by the broadcast booth to talk about Spring Training. game by the way, and I know what your next question is: Brady, is that too early to have a baseball beer?Īnyway, this is the time of year where we usually have a pretty good idea as to what the Opening Day roster will look like, but still have two or three questions. That “30” on the March page, the one with three big orange circles around it? That’s when the Giants start the season against the New York Yankees. The start of the San Francisco Giants season is right around the corner.
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