SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — If and when Jorge Soler passes his physical, set for Friday, according to club sources, the San Francisco Giants shouldn’t have any trouble clearing a spot on the 40-man roster.
While their 40-man is currently full, expect reliever Austin Warren to be transferred to the 60-day injured list when the team is ready to finalize its three-year, $42 million agreement with the free-agent designated hitter/outfielder. That will allow the team to add Soler without exposing another member of the roster to waivers.
Warren, who signed a major-league deal Wednesday for just over the league minimum, is still recovering from Tommy John surgery. Almost nine months removed from the operation performed by Dr. Keith Meister last May, the 27-year-old right-hander won’t be ready to see game action until after the All-Star break.
Warren hopes to face live hitters for the first time around July, approximately at the 14-month mark, and shouldn’t be more than a month away after that. He is throwing off flat ground six days a week — long toss up to 125 feet every other day — and hopes to get off a mound for the first time by mid-March.
“Haven’t had any issues in rehab so far, so I’m excited about that,” Warren said on his first day in the Giants’ clubhouse. “I was very fortunate to be able to be picked up by these guys. It’s nice here.”
In three seasons with the Angels before tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow, Warren appeared in 32 games out of the bullpen with a 3.55 ERA. But the pitcher the Giants hope to excavate from the rehab process is the one who debuted in 2021 with a 1.77 ERA over his first 20⅓ big-league innings.
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“You see that a lot nowadays where you give up a little something injury-wise for forecasting down the road,” manager Bob Melvin said. “I think you have your dominoes lined up in who we have now and who could be coming. All those things feel, when you finally get through them, that you’re adding a significant player. Just for a period of time you’re without them.”
Warren will have some rehab partners in Robbie Ray, about a month further along in his recovery from the same procedure, and Alex Cobb, who is working his way back from hip surgery.
During his debut in ’21, Warren said Cobb was one of the Angels’ veterans to mentor him upon his arrival in the big leagues. Another familiar face in the clubhouse is Landen Roupp, a college teammate of Warren’s at North Carolina-Wilmington now in his first big-league camp.
“It’s kind of cool knowing some familiar faces coming in here,” Warren said. “Obviously I don’t know (Cobb) all that well, but I’ve chatted with him quite a bit. … I got drafted when (Roupp) was a freshman and kind of took him under my shoulders. We like to hunt and fish. We’re both from North Carolina and do all that kind of same stuff.”
