Giants option Heliot Ramos, Sean Hjelle as roster tightens

The San Francisco Giants made four more camp cuts on Monday as they work to trim their roster to 28 players before their season opener on April 8 against the Miami Marlins.

The latest round of cuts features some pretty notable prospect names. Outfielder Heliot Ramos and right-handed starting pitcher Sean Hjelle were both optioned, while catchers Patrick Bailey and Ricardo Genovés were re-assigned to Minor League Camp.

These moves were certainly inevitable, so it was just a matter of when the Giants officially made them. The team has yet to make any camp cuts with people who were in play for the Opening Day roster, but it seems likely that we’ll see Ramos and Hjelle make their Major League debuts sometime this season. Both players were promoted to AAA last season, and added to the 40-man roster as Rule 5 protections.

All four prospects have had bright moments during Spring Training. Ramos has been brilliant at the preseason plate for the second year running, hitting 4-10 with 2 doubles and 2 walks. Bailey, whose debut Minor League season last year started awfully before he caught fire, picked up where he left off, and has hit 4-12 with 1 home run, 2 doubles, and no strikeouts. Genovés, in Major League camp for the first time, has hit just 1-8 with 6 strikeouts, but the one hit cleared the fence. And Hjelle, never much of a strikeout artist, has fanned 4 batters in 3 innings, while allowing 1 baserunner per inning.

With these latest cuts, the Giants now have 49 players in camp: 34 who are on the 40-man roster, and 15 non-roster invitees.