Thursday BP: Is Logan Webb bound for the starting rotation?

The San Francisco Giants don’t figure to have a particularly good starting rotation in 2020. Even so, prospect Logan Webb has an uphill battle to climb if he wants to crack it.

You can pencil Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, and Kevin Gausman in for 60% of the slots. They’re high-paid veterans and potential trade bait.

Then there’s veteran Tyson Ross, on a minor league contract, as well as Webb’s fellow prospects Tyler Beede, Dereck Rodriguez, Andrew Suarez, and Conner Menez. There’s even Shaun Anderson, re-converted to closer last year, who likely would love a chance to crack a rotation again. And probably some more minor league invites still to come.

Between Webb’s age and options, he’ll have to really impress if he wishes to break camp as a starter.

He’s prepared to do that. Maria Guardado wrote about Webb on MLB’s website (hat tip to McCovey Chronicles user Split Change for linking this article in yesterday’s post):

“He’s going to be working off of less than a full workload going into 2020, so that’s a concern for us,” president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said at the Winter Meetings last month. “But he’s shown the ability to be a rotation piece as long as we can manage the workload over the course of the season.”

Webb said the Giants have not yet spoken to him about his workload for the upcoming season, though he plans to come into Spring Training prepared to throw the same amount of innings as he normally does as a starter. He has already had some conversations with Bailey and the other new pitching coaches, as well as a lunch outing with new manager Gabe Kapler.

Webb was electric a year ago, though not always effective. He’s a fun pitcher to watch, and the Giants could certainly benefit from some fun.