Giants DFA Gregory Santos

‘Tis the season for adding players and, due to MLB’s roster rules, ‘tis also the season for subtracting them. The San Francisco Giants made one such subtraction on Monday when they announced that right-handed pitcher Gregory Santos had been designated for assignment.

Santos, who is only 23, had an interesting path with the Giants. He joined the Giants in 2017, when the Boston Red Sox traded him to San Francisco as part of the Eduardo Nuñez trade. He performed well in the Minors, but since he had been signed by the Red Sox on his 16th birthday, his five years of Minor League time came at a young age, and the Giants added him to their 40-man roster in 2020 to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft.

He made his MLB debut last year, but pitched just two innings before returning to AAA Sacramento, where a banned substance suspension ended his season. Despite being a question mark, many people remained extremely high on Santos — he entered the 2022 season as the No. 5 prospect in the organization according to Fangraphs, though it’s worth noting that no other publication was nearly that high on him.

His 2022 was a disappointment. Despite his triple-digit fastball and brilliant slider, Santos only struck out 9.27 hitters per nine innings in Sacramento, while walking 5.45. That led to 4.91 ERA and a 5.46 FIP. He again got a brief amount of time in the Majors when injuries hit the bullpen.

Now, with the team needing to clear roster spots for left-handed pitcher Sean Manaea and shortstop Carlos Correa, the wait for Santos’ command to come around has come to an end. Someone else will need to also be DFA’d today or tomorrow, so stay tuned.