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Hank Schulman’s morning twitter stream had a couple of nuggets:
Pablo Sandoval moved to 60-day DL to accommodate Strickland’s activation tonight. #sfgiants
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) August 18, 2018
It’s significant because the #SFGiants have now used their two 60-day DL cards (Cueto, Sandoval) to add players to 40-man. Any additional players added, including September call ups who are not on the 40-man, would require someone else to be removed.
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) August 18, 2018
Just as a reminder, the 60 day DL goes away after the season, so Pablo, Cueto and Fernandez all have to be restored to the 40-man, In addition to the prospects they will have to begin protecting this year. A large number of current 40 players have to go. ......
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) August 18, 2018
..... Free agents are removed automatically, but #sfgiants won’t have a lot of those, and a couple the do have — Hundley and Holland — they might want to re-sign.
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) August 18, 2018
It’s something I hadn’t yet contemplated, because there’s so much else to contemplate in a .500 season. Half my brain is consumed with the winning and the other half, well, that’s consumed by the losing.
We’ll work backwards here. The minor leaguers currently on the 40-man roster are Tyler Beede, Tyler Herb, Pierce Johnson, Chase Johnson, Derek Law, Steven Okert, Josh Osich, Chris Stratton, Aramis Garcia, Miguel Gomez, Kelby Tomlinson, and Mac Williamson.
Players who will be free agents after this season: Andrew McCutchen, Nick Hundley, Derek Holland, and Hunter Pence.
Everybody else is either arbitration eligible or the Giants have the option to renew their contract at a specified rate.
If none of the free agents are re-signed (possible) and with the two players on the 60-man automatically added back, that would put the 40-man roster at 39 players to begin the offseason. This suggests a number of players would be exposed to the trade or chopping block to fit in the aforementioned minor leaguers the Giants might want to protect from the Rule 5 draft and any free agent they want to sign.
Schulman’s commenters mention Law, Osich, and Okert as players who could be on the chopping block, and I tend to agree that they’re the most obvious candidates at the moment. Maybe, if I hold the roster up to the light or tilt it just so, Kelby Tomlinson or Chase d’Arnaud disappear and Casey Kelly doesn’t block a younger pitcher, and maybe if all three left along with Law, Osich, and Okert, then that 6-man purge creates some flexibility.
I could see a surprise cut like Tyler Beede or see him traded in some very minor move (although that’s not the Giants style, either), but the 40-man roster’s general “fullness” coupled with the Giants general conservatism when it comes to roster reinvention (nothing radical!) already suggests that it’ll be another offseason of very few moves. Maybe just one big free agent (either a hitter or pitcher) and then some depth moves (nothing that tilts the roster too far in the direction of inexperienced players, of course).
What do you think?