Giants recall Daniel Robertson

During Monday’s off day, the San Francisco Giants announced that outfielder Joey Rickard had been placed on the 60-day Injured List with elbow inflammation, thus ending his 2020 season after just a few games at the big league level.

That opened up a spot on the active roster, though the Giants took their sweet time in announcing who would fill that spot. But they finally did, and it is utility player Daniel Robertson, who was acquired just over a week ago in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays (the Giants sent the Rays cash considerations).

Robertson — a 26-year-old right-hander — has primarily played second base, third base, and shortstop in his career. But upon arriving at the Alternate Training Site in Sacramento, he made it clear to the Giants front office that he was comfortable playing in the outfield as well. Since he’s replacing an outfielder — and the Giants don’t have a ton of them at the moment — that seems the most likely place for him to get playing time.

It will be interesting to see what the Giants can get out of him. He had a very strong 2018, but that was bookended by poor years in 2017 and 2019. In all, he’s hitting .231/.340/.352 in his career (96 wRC+), and has been worth 2.2 fWAR in 831 plate appearances.

The Giants aren’t going to use 64 players this year like they did a year ago, but it seems clear that Farhan Zaidi and Scott Harris are going to keep churning, and trying out as many new players as possible.