SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Take a look at the big board of available free agents and it may not feel like it, but baseball season is upon us.
The San Francisco Giants’ pitchers and catchers on Tuesday reported for the first day of spring training, spending their first day back at the team facilities undergoing physical exams and settling into their lockers. On Wednesday, they’ll hold their first workout, with position players set to join them next week — without Brandon Crawford for the first time since 2009.
With a change of the guard on the infield and the dugout bench, this camp promises to provide plenty of intrigue. New manager Bob Melvin will be attempting to guide the team back to the postseason for the first time in three years — and vanquish the mighty Dodgers, defending National League champion Diamondbacks and his former Padres in the process.
Before they open the season March 28 at Petco Park, the answers to these questions will hopefully be resolved:
How will BoMel run the show?
Promptly at 9:30 Wednesday morning, Melvin will appear in the first base dugout of Scottsdale Stadium, take a seat on the metal bench and meet reporters for the ritualistic manager’s media session that will repeat hundreds of times over the course of the season. He is never tardy, or so that is the reputation he has developed over 20 years and four prior managerial stops.
Throughout his extensive career in the dugout, Melvin, 61, has developed a certain way of doing things. It could be described as a blend of Roger Craig — the “Humm Baby,” whose old-school ways rubbed off on Melvin as his manager on the late-’80s Giants — and Billy Beane, the forward-thinking A’s executive who worked in tandem with Melvin and Farhan Zaidi in Oakland.
That blend of thinking is evident in the makeup of Melvin’s staff. In each department, holdovers from the previous analytically inclined staff are balanced with more traditional thinkers brought in by Melvin. Pat Burrell and Justin Viele will work with the hitters, and Bryan Price and J.P. Martinez with the pitchers. Even the base coaches are at equilibrium, with Matt Williams in the third-base box and Mark Hallberg at first.
Assistant coach Alyssa Nakken, by the way, gave birth to a baby boy last month. It has not been revealed how that will impact her role with the team.
What impact will the newcomers make?
Logan Webb and a swath of other players make their offseason homes in Arizona, meaning Tuesday’s report date was mostly a formality. Working out at the team’s facilities for most of the winter also comes with a few perks, such as catching a glimpse of one of their offseason addition’s first bullpen sessions.
“It was electric,” Webb said last month of his first peek at Jordan Hicks, the right-hander who routinely registers triple-digit readings on radar guns.
The Giants made a four-year, $44 million bet that Hicks, 27, can be just as electric in the rotation has he has been out of the bullpen for the bulk of his big-league career. It’s an important wager, given that Alex Cobb and the other big arm they added, Robbie Ray, are out until midseason.
This spring should provide a barometer for both pitchers’ recovery from respective surgeries. Cobb (hip) and Ray (elbow) have progressed to throwing on flat ground, so the next milestone will be to get off the mound, which each hopes to accomplish by the time they break camp.
When position players arrive next week, the attention will shift to Jung Hoo Lee and Jorge Soler, the two major investments Zaidi made in the lineup.
It will be the first major-league spring training for Lee, 25, and likewise the left-handed contact hitter’s first extended exposure to major-league pitching after growing into a superstar for the Korean Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes the past five seasons, earning him a six-year, $113 million contract.
Who has the most at stake?
There are a few position battles to watch, mostly revolving around a portion of the dozen players who made their major-league debuts last season.
After getting a cup of coffee, it’s their time to prove they are deserving of an Opening Day roster spot over their veteran competition.
Neither Casey Schmitt nor Luis Matos has a clear spot on the 26-man as currently constructed, and the path to the roster for Tyler Fitzgerald, Wade Meckler and Heliot Ramos looks even longer. The Giants brought in 25-year-old utility man Otto Lopez from the Blue Jays to compete for the final bench spot, which Blake Sabol, Cooper Hummel, Brett Wisely, Donovan Walton and Yoshi Tsutsugo will also be seeking.
The shortstop position, meanwhile, has been set aside for Marco Luciano — unless San Francisco can swing a trade for Willy Adames, the Brewers’ 28-year-old shortstop thought to be available for the right price after Milwaukee’s trade of Corbin Burnes.
Without another addition to the pitching staff, Kyle Harrison, Keaton Winn and Tristan Beck would seem to have locked up the final three rotation spots behind Webb and Hicks, but could Carson Whisenhunt, Mason Black or Kei-Wei Teng show so strongly that it shakes up the status quo?
Which non-roster invitees will impress?
The aforementioned trio was among a large contingent of young arms invited to big-league camp for the first time.
Also among the group: 2022 first-round pick Reggie Crawford, sixth-rounder Hayden Birdsong and 25-year-old Landen Roupp, who has risen from a 12th-rounder in 2021 to one of the organization’s most promising pitching prospects. All three, as well as 25-year-old Carson Seymour, acquired from the Mets in the Darin Ruf trade, have yet to pitch above Double-A, making their odds at cracking the roster longer, but will nonetheless get the opportunity to showcase their stuff in front of big-league coaches.
Beyond the top prospects, more veteran non-roster invitees are often some of the best stories in camp.
Take, for example, the aforementioned Tsutsugo, a 32-year-old journeyman born in Japan, where he slugged 205 career home runs, now on his sixth organization since coming stateside in 2020. Or Daulton Jefferies, 28, a Cal alum and Northern California native attempting to come back from his second Tommy John surgery.
What will the Opening Day roster look like?
Related Articles
SF Giants sign big slugger day before spring training: report
SF Giants utilityman wins salary arbitration case
SF Giants unload Ross Stripling in rare swap with A’s
SF Giants announce Sunday, Feb. 4 as ‘Willie Mays Day’
Report: A’s to sign former Giants starter Alex Wood
Thanks to the glacial pace of this offseason, the group that arrives in Scottsdale this week could look different by the time it breaks camp at the end of March.
Even after breaking the stalemate and signing Soler to a three-year, $42 million deal, a number of high-profile free agents remain available, and the Giants shouldn’t be counted out for any of them. According to Cot’s Contracts, they have approximately $26.5 million to play with before reaching the first luxury tax threshold.
Might Matt Chapman displace J.D. Davis as their third baseman? Could Cody Bellinger provide the thump missing from the lineup? With 23 career starts under the belts of the four pitchers behind Webb in the projected Opening Day rotation, Jordan Montgomery or Blake Snell would represent valuable early-season reinforcements.
Will any of the quartet end up on the Giants? Or any roster by Opening Day? That will be determined by Scott Boras.
