SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The San Francisco Giants hope to lean on a trio of young arms to round out their rotation. That is, if they make it to Opening Day.
It was revealed Tuesday that Tristan Beck had been scratched from his start the previous day — replaced by Mason Black — and flown back to San Francisco to be examined by doctors after experiencing soreness in his right hand.
Beck, 27, is already the second member of the projected starting five to be sidelined this spring, joining Keaton Winn, who just resumed throwing on Monday after being shut down for a week with elbow soreness.
“There’s a level (of concern),” Melvin acknowledged. “What level, I’m not sure yet.”
There’s enough ambiguity with both starters that each could be ready for the regular season, but their early health issues also raise the possibility of the Giants breaking camp without two-fifths of their projected starting rotation and not much depth behind them.
Beck will undergo tests to attempt to determine the cause of the soreness in his throwing hand, which has been a lingering issue, Melvin said.
“It’s been bothering him a little bit for a while,” Melvin said. “He’s kind of been pitching through it a bit. It just got to a point where we want to find out exactly what it is, and we don’t know what that is yet.”
Winn threw off flat ground from 75 feet on Monday and was expected to progress to 90 on Tuesday, according to Melvin. If the soreness doesn’t crop up again, the expectation is that the 26-year-old righty will be ready for Opening Day, if only stretched out to 70 or 80 pitches.
But while Winn was cleared by doctors, it was the second time he has experienced elbow soreness since being called up last season. The issues were different, Winn explained, with last year being a case of overuse and this spring ramping up velocity too rapidly, but nevertheless multiple elbow injuries are worrisome.
“With Keaton coming back, we still feel like there’s time for that,” Melvin said. “But you go through these things in spring training. Probably would be good if we didn’t have any more, but yeah.”
Melvin may have shown his hand as to who the top option may be if either isn’t ready for the season in giving the nod to Black, a 24-year-old right-hander who reached Triple-A Sacramento last season. However, the Giants have other options, such as non-roster invitees Spencer Howard and Daulton Jefferies, or they could stretch out Sean Hjelle, whom they planned to use as a reliever.
Kai-Wei Teng, 26, also had success last season with Triple-A Sacramento but only began his throwing progression last week after being sidelined early in camp with an oblique injury.
On the slow-moving free-agent market, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery remain available, as well as lower-priced options such as Michael Lorenzen and Noah Syndergaard.
Their other young arm, Kyle Harrison, looked to be in midseason form during his first start of the spring, striking out four over two scoreless innings against the Rangers, and their only offseason addition to the rotation, Jordan Hicks, is set to make his debut Tuesday against the Mariners.
The first decision facing Melvin, though, is who will start Wednesday’s exhibition against the A’s.
“I told Bryan (Price), we’re playing the A’s tomorrow,” Melvin joked. “How about bringing Webby back a little early.”
Commissioner visits
There was an important meeting on the players’ schedule for 8 a.m. Tuesday.
The commissioner was in the house.
Rob Manfred spent the bulk of his Tuesday morning at the Giants’ facilities in Scottsdale. His first order of business was holding court with the players.
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The meeting, according to multiple sources, was an “open forum” where the topics of discussion surrounded many of the issues likely to come up in the next round of collective bargaining agreement negotiations between the league and the players’ union.
At hand were teams’ regional sports networks and their impact on spending, the potential for an automated strike zone and issues with the new Nike-designed, Fanatics-manufactured uniforms.
Sources disputed how productive the meeting was or how receptive the commissioner was to the players’ concerns, but the consensus was that the dialogue was appreciated.
Manfred also met with all 30 teams during the regular season last year, paying a visit to the visitors’ clubhouse when the Giants were in Milwaukee.
