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The Major League Baseball season has started, though someone needs to tell the Giants offense!
(Hold for applause)
I’m kidding, I’m kidding. They scored four runs yesterday, so I’m sure they’re fine.
Like I did last year and the year before that, and the year before that, I’m going to go through all 29 non-Giants teams in the majors to see where former Giants big leaguers, and particularly memorable former Giants minor leaguers or Spring Training invitees (new category!) wound up this year.
As always, if I forgot someone, it was definitely Grant’s fault, and if I forgot a coach, it’s because I don’t really have a system here and I’m just winging it. Hope that helps!
NL West
None.
Manager Bud Black pitched for the Giants for four years in the ‘90s.
The Dodgers are managed by Dave Roberts, who signed a 3-year deal with the Giants before the 2006 season and lasted 2 years. But he did become friends with Rich Aurilia and they started a winery together, which, good for them. Friendship is important.
None. Weird how all the teams that see Giants players the most go out of their way to avoid acquiring them. Probably a coincidence.
NL Central
Here’s the good stuff. Kyle Crick, Melky Cabrera, and Francisco Liriano are all on the Pirates. Crick, of course, went over in the Andrew McCutchen trade. Cabrera finagled a minor league deal out of the Pirates by creating a website detailing all the teams that definitely were offering him a minor league deal, and oh boy, and interested Pennsylvania teams better step it up or they’d lose him forever. Liriano, never technically a Giant but a former minor leaguer who was part of the AJ Pierzynski trade, also signed a minor league deal with Pittsburgh and ended up making the roster.
For the record, it’s been 15 years since the Pierzynski trade. Did you get it a gift? The traditional gift for a 15 year anniversary is crystal. No pressure, though.
None.
Luis Castillo, a former low level Giants farmhand who was a throw-in in the Casey McGehee deal, was the Reds’ opening day starter, and he pitched 5.2 innings, struck out 8, and gave up just one run.
Farhan should go to the MLB offices, hold up a picture of McGehee, and yell, “MULLIGAN!” It’ll work. It could work. I mean, we don’t know it won’t work.
Also, the Reds are managed by former Giants third baseman and former Giants farm director David Bell. Both of those jobs lasted exactly one year before he chose to go to an NL team in the Eastern Time Zone whose dominant color is a shade of red. Some people just have a type.
None.
Other than Willie McGee, a member of the coaching staff whose job is very specifically listed as “Assistant Coach,” nobody.
NL East
Charlie Culberson is still around, you know. Mr. Not-Scutaro has made a nice little career for himself. And, of course, we have to acknowledge #ForeverGiant Matt Joyce, who spent the three most memorable days of his life in Giants camp this spring. What’s your favorite Matt Joyce memory in a Giants uniform? For me, there’s too many. I can’t pick just one.
Sergio Romo! Romo had been in Tampa for about a year and a half, and apparently enjoyed it so much that when his time there was done, he immediately signed with Florida’s other baseball team that no one in Florida likes or thinks or cares about.
Andrew McCutchen! Miss you, Cutch! He was a nice player for the Giants, and while he perhaps was not the McCutchen who won an MVP, he was still a quality bat in the middle of the lineup. As we’ve seen in the first few games of this season, that’s not something to take for granted.
They also have Bryce Harper, but I can’t remember if he was ever a Giant. Maybe? I’ll put him down for a maybe.
I got an outraged email that I didn’t include manager Davey Martinez in this article, so I’m editing it several days later, when almost no one will read it, to let you know that Davey Martinez, manager of the Nationals, played 188 games for the Giants in 1993 and ‘94. This is an Important use of everyone’s time.
They currently employ former San Jose Giant Zack Wheeler. Wheeler had a strong season in 2018, and please do not bemoan the Carlos Beltran trade, I beg of you. It’s fine. They won two more World Series after that. It’s fine.
The Mets hitting coach is none other than Chili Davis, the Giants’ last homegrown All-Star outfielder, who, again, is a 59-year-old hitting coach. The last outfielder the Giants developed who went on to make the All-Star team as a Giant (sorry, Adam Duvall!) is a 59-year-old hitting coach.
I don’t have a joke for that, but I might have to repeat it about fourteen more times anyway.
AL West
Do you think the Astros, an extremely good and young team, employ any former Giants? Is that a thing that you think?
We can both admit that you don’t think that. Congratulations! You’re right.
If, in mid-February, right when all those Harper rumors were heating up, someone had come back in time and told you that on Opening Day, Chris Stratton would be teammates with the best outfielder in baseball, you probably would have asked at least one question and deduced that he was on the Angels.
A’s
Yusmeiro Petit and Nick Hundley on the field, Bob Melvin, Matt Williams, and Marcus Jensen on the coaching staff. Petit was a hero in the playoffs and Hundley was one in the clubhouse; Melvin’s playing career was undistinguished, Williams’s was extremely distinguished, and Jensen’s biggest contribution was being traded for Brian Johnson. But they all have something in common: I’m talking about them in this paragraph. Pretty wild!
Cory Gearrin! Mike Leake! Currently on the IL but I’ll still count him Hunter Strickland! The #ForeverGiantiest #ForeverGiant of them all, Tom Murphy! Manager Scott Servais! Bullpen coach Jim Brower! This is a cornucopia of ex-Giants, and they’ve all found a home in Seattle, where they can all drink coffee and listen to grunge in the Space Needle while it rains, while complaining about how tech is ruining the city. Those are all the things that people do in Seattle, right? I haven’t been there in a while.
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Hey, that’s Hunter Pence! He’s cool and I like him.
AL Central
None.
None.
Dan Otero and Neil Ramirez. Otero has had himself a nice career in Cleveland, and while last year was a bit of a hiccup, he’s signed through this year with a team option for 2020, so he should get plenty of chances to prove himself. Ramirez, meanwhile, was not particularly good last year, but he did improve on a terrible 2017, and it’s not like Cleveland is going to go out and spend money on a Cadillac when they’ve got a perfectly nice 1998 Ford Escort in the garage.
Their bullpen coach is Scott Atchison, a key figure in the vicious Giese-Atchison Wars that defined so much of the early history of this site. I just copy and pasted that from last year’s article because if I’m being honest, I don’t think anyone really pays attention to the Scott Atchison portion of this article, and it’s not like I have another Scott Atchison joke to go with. You get what you get.
Just a couple of legends from the 2016 team, Matt Moore and Gordon Beckham. Moore, of course, had a miserable 2017 and he followed that up with a catastrophic 2018, so naturally in his first game this year, he pitched 7 scoreless innings, giving up only two hits and one walk while striking out six. Beckham, meanwhile, has been in the Mariners organization for the last couple years, but with the Tigers giving him an opportunity to make the Opening Day roster, well, that’s a good situation for him.
Ehire Adrianza and former Giants prospect Adalberto Mejia. Adrianza has had an OPS+ of 86 in his first two years in Minnesota, which is exactly what you would expect from Ehire Adrianza. Mejia, who’s spent most of his career as a starter, is currently in the bullpen, and for all the crappy trades the Giants have made this decade, Mejia-for-Nuñez was totally fine and ended up working out nicely for the Giants.
Sometimes I just like to remind people that most things are fine. It’s fun! You should try it.
AL East
We’re not talking about future Giants, so Kevin Pillar is going to stay off the list. We’re kinda talking about former Giants farmhands, so Joe Biagini gets on the list. The Blue Jays took Biagini in the Rule 5 draft before the 2016 season, and he thrived as a reliever in Toronto while every non-Derek Law reliever on the Giants that year crashed and burned. Since, the Blue Jays have tried Biagini as a starter with very poor results, and now he’s back in the bullpen.
Biagini has had a nice start to this season, and also he found out about Kendrys Morales being traded to the A’s while on a snack run, which is a delightful detail about a pretty goofy guy.
Just Giants legend Hanser Alberto. He’s our generation’s Desi Relaford.
Just like last year, the answer here is Eduardo Nuñez and Heath Hembree. The Giants traded Nuñez in mid-2017 for Shaun Anderson, their most majors-ready pitching prospect, and Gregory Santos, one of their most exciting. That deal worked out really well, and it all started with Adalberto Mejia going to the Twins for Nuñez in the first place. Hembree went with Edwin Escobar to the Red Sox in 2014 for Jake Peavy, which also worked out really well.
Sometimes I just like to remind people that some things are good. It’s fun! You should try it.
Former Giants third base coach Phil Nevin is still the Yankees third base coach. Weird how not losing 98 games gives you job security.
Christian Arroyo, and nobody else! Arroyo is the only player of interest on Tampa’s roster, and certainly the only infielder with Giants roots. Nope, there isn’t one single other...
Oh, fine, you want to hear about Matt Duffy, don’t you? Well, he’s currently injured, and he says his back and hamstring issues will keep him out all month. It’s bad news for the Duffman, but on the plus side, at least the Giants got this good young pitcher for him. Why, on Sunday, he pitched 7 scoreless innings. Another win for Bobby Evans!
Sometimes I just like to remind people that some things are terrible. It’s not fun at all! You shouldn’t try it, but you probably will, because you spend too much time watching Giants games.