Giants release their player pool roster

In the last year and a half the San Francisco Giants have proven time and again that they’re not going to do things conventionally. And that is yet again on display.

More than 24 hours after having to submit their player pool ahead of the July 1 start to Spring Training 2.0, the Giants became the last MLB team to release their player pool. Interestingly, the Giants opted to fill just 51 of the 60 spots for now.

If you can’t see the tweet, here’s the breakdown of the 51 names. Asterisks are next to those who are not on the 40-man roster:

RHPs
Shaun Anderson
Trevor Cahill **
Sam Coonrod
Johnny Cueto
Tyler Cyr **
Rico Garcia **
Kevin Gausman
Trevor Gott
Dany Jimenez
Luis Madero **
Carlos Navas **
Trevor Oaks **
Dereck Rodriguez
Tyler Rogers
Jeff Samardzija
Andrew Triggs **
Logan Webb

LHPs
Tyler Anderson
Jarlin Garcia
Conner Menez
Wandy Peralta
Sam Selman
Drew Smyly
Andrew Suarez
Tony Watson

Catchers
Joey Bart **
Rob Brantly **
Tyler Heineman **
Buster Posey

Outfielders
Jaylin Davis
Alex Dickerson
Steven Duggar
Billy Hamilton **
Joe McCarthy
Hunter Pence
Heliot Ramos **
Joey Rickard **
Austin Slater
Mike Yastrzemski

Infielders
Abiatal Avelino
Brandon Belt
Brandon Crawford
Mauricio Dubon
Wilmer Flores
Zach Green **
Evan Longoria
Marco Luciano **
Darin Ruf **
Pablo Sandoval **
Yolmer Sanchez **
Donovan Solano

Notable omissions

There aren’t any surprises in terms of who was added (Cristhian Adames is the closest thing to a surprise, I guess), but there were plenty in terms of who wasn’t.

The Giants surprisingly left off five healthy players from their 40-man roster (in addition to three injured players: right-handed pitchers Tyler Beede and Reyes Moronta, and catcher Aramis Garcia).

The five omitted were right-handed pitchers Melvin Adon and Jandel Gustave, infielder Kean Wong, outfielder Jose Siri, and infielder/outfielder Chris Shaw.

It’s worth noting that the Giants can still add those players later, but they’re likely trying to maintain flexibility going forward, since it’s much easier to add players than take them off of the player pool. This gives the team more flexibility with free agent signings and trades.

Also missing is prospect Hunter Bishop. It was reported that Bishop would join fellow top prospects Bart, Luciano, and Ramos, but that’s going to be on hold, as he has tested positive for the coronavirus.

He will presumably be added to the player pool when it is safe to do so.

The Giants surely are not done. Some of those nine open spots will get filled, either with players currently on the team, or ones who are acquired. And there will be 40-man roster shuffling to get non-roster players like Sandoval on.

They’re far from done.