Giants cut 25 players from big league camp, kind of

The San Francisco Giants announced a lot of cuts from big league camp on Monday. And when I say a lot of cuts, I mean a whole lot of cuts. 25 cuts, to be specific. The Giants trimmed 33.8% of their big league camp.

As is always the case this time of year, when big league camp cuts come flying it, it bears noting that these are camp cuts, not organizational cuts. None of the players are being waived, they’re just being moved around as the front office admits that they’re not in play for the Opening Day roster. Or perhaps not even being moved around, as most of the players will physically remain where they are.

It’s why you’ll see Chadwick Tromp starting today’s Cactus League game, even though he’s been optioned. If you want to learn more about this weirdness, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic has a great explainer on it here (subscription required).

Anyway, back to the cuts that aren’t really cuts.

Eight of those players were on the 40-man roster, and were thus optioned to Minor League camp:

RHP Kervin Castro
RHP Camilo Doval
RHP Gregory Santos
LHP Conner Menez
OF Alexander Canario
OF Jaylin Davis
C Joey Bart
C Chadwick Tromp

The other 17 were non-roster players who have been reassigned:

RHP Daniel Alvarez
RHP Tristan Beck
RHP Tyler Cyr
RHP Matt Frisbee
RHP Sean Hjelle
RHP Jay Jackson
RHP Kai-Wei Teng
RHP Sam Wolff
LHP Luis Gonzalez
INF Arismendy Alcántara
INF Marco Luciano
INF Will Wilson
INF Logan Wyatt
OF Luis Alexander Basabe
OF Hunter Bishop
C Patrick Bailey
C Ricardo Genovés

Of the 25 players, five of them — Bart, Basabe, Davis, Menez, and Tromp — appeared for the Giants a year ago, with Davis and Menez both making the Opening Day roster (which was admittedly 30 players, rather than the 26 allowed this year).

That said, there are no major surprises. None of the cut position players were seen as legitimate contenders for an Opening Day spot, barring injuries to other players. A few of the pitchers seemed to be in play, but all were pretty clearly on the outside looking in. Menez might have been a favorite to make the Opening Day roster a while ago, but the Giants doubling down on left-handed relievers did him no favors.

Nearly all of the Giants top prospects have been sent back to the Minors, though it is worth noting that Heliot Ramos still remains on the big league camp roster.

If math serves me correctly, there now should be 49 players left, vying for 26 Opening Day spots. Here are 47 of the remaining 49, with the two remaining ones escaping my detective skills. I’m missing something, somewhere (the Giants do have two players, Tyler Beede and John Brebbia, on the Injured List. Perhaps those count towards the Spring Training numbers, which are capped at 75 per team).

Right-handed pitchers (18)

Silvino Bracho
Johnny Cueto
Anthony DeSclafani
Rico Garcia
Kevin Gausman
Trevor Gott
Dominic Leone
Zack Littell
Yunior Marte
Reyes Moronta
Dedniel Nuñez
Tyler Rogers
Aaron Sanchez
James Sherfy
Nick Tropeano
Logan Webb
Matt Wisler
Shun Yamaguchi

Left-handed pitchers (10)

José Álvarez
Anthony Banda
Caleb Baragar
Jarlin García
Scott Kazmir
Sam Long
Jake McGee
Wandy Peralta
Sam Selman
Alex Wood

Infielders (8)

Brandon Belt
Brandon Crawford
Wilmer Flores
Jason Krizan
Tommy La Stella
Evan Longoria
Donovan Solano
Jason Vosler

Outfielders (8)

Alex Dickerson
Steven Duggar
Joe McCarthy
Heliot Ramos
Darin Ruf
Austin Slater
LaMonte Wade Jr.
Mike Yastrzemski

Position unknown (1)

Mauricio Dubón

Catchers (2)

Curt Casali
Buster Posey