Hypothetical recap: Giants make a series of moves, and then win a game!

With the MLB season suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, there are no baseball games and limited baseball news. So I’m creating a hypothetical season — complete with news and recaps — until baseball resumes. All news and recaps will have the hypothetical tag, so you can at least know when you’re suspending reality. And you can click “hypothetical season” above the headline to see everything that has happened in this “season.”

After making approximately a million and one moves during the 2019 season, the San Francisco Giants have been remarkably quiet so far during the 2020 season, nearing the 50 game mark with only a few minor moves. I really can’t imagine why. Can’t even come close to putting my finger on this one.

But they made a flurry of off moves prior to Tuesday’s game against the Detroit Tigers, which was aided by having an off day on Monday.

The Giants made three additions to the roster, calling up right-handed pitcher Shaun Anderson, and moving left-handed reliever Tony Watson and corner infielder/pinch-hitter Pablo Sandoval from the injured list to the 26-man roster.

For corresponding moves, the Giants traded outfielder Billy Hamilton to the Boston Red Sox for a player to be named later, traded reliever Trevor Cahill to the Oakland A’s for cash, and designated reliever Andrew Triggs for assignment.

And then they played a game. And what a nice game it was.

It was smart of Farhan Zaidi and Scott Harris to make a flurry of moves before a game against the Tigers, who happen to be one of the few MLB teams that is comfortably worse than the Giants.

Not that that guarantees a win. No, far from it. But it maximizes the chances of a win, and minimizes the chances of having your moves met by the cold hard reality of still not being very good.

Smart people, those guys in the Giants front office.

Impressively enough, the Giants even managed to get all three of their new — or rather, newly active — players into the game. Against a right-hander in Jordan Zimmermann, Sandoval got the start at third base, giving Evan Longoria a much needed day off. And after six solid innings of work by Logan Webb, manager Gabe Kapler let Anderson drive the car for two innings, before letting Watson finish things out. Thus is the benefit of a comfortable lead. There’s a reason I’m a writer and not a manager or a strategist, but I think the Giants should inquire about doing that more.

Anyway, the Giants did well against Zimmermann, who used to be quite good and is now quite bad, and who mercifully signed with the Tigers in 2016 when I was hoping the Giants would sign him. Like I said a few sentences ago, there’s a reason I’m just a writer.

And the Tigers did poorly against Webb, who may be on his way to being quite good.

Watson allowed 1 hit and 0 runs in his inning, Anderson allowed 2 hits and 1 run in his innings, and Sandoval went 1-3 with a walk and a single. The Giants won 6-2, and improved to 21-27 on the year.

Here’s the current 26-man roster:

Catchers (2)

Tyler Heineman
Buster Posey

Infielders (5)

Brandon Belt
Brandon Crawford
Wilmer Flores
Evan Longoria
Pablo Sandoval

Infielders/outfielders (3)

Mauricio Dubon
Darin Ruf
Austin Slater

Outfielders (3)

Alex Dickerson
Hunter Pence
Mike Yastrzemski

Pitchers (13)

Shaun Anderson
Johnny Cueto
Jarlin Garcia
Kevin Gausman
Trevor Gott
Dany Jimenez
Wandy Peralta
Tyler Rogers
Tyson Ross
Jeff Samardzija
Drew Smyly
Tony Watson
Logan Webb