Giants: Misfortune continues as closer Mark Melancon goes on the disabled list with an injury to his throwing arm.
As reeling team loses high-priced closer, GM tries to be optimistic
NEW YORK — The Giants are playing so poorly, they’ve had little need for their closer. As it turns out, if they need their closer any time soon, he won’t be available.
In a season that’s fast becoming historically bad, the Giants continue to make news for all the wrong reasons.
On Tuesday, they placed closer Mark Melancon, who signed a four-year, $62 million contract in December, on the 10-day disabled list with a forearm injury that they called a mild pronator strain.
On a day the Giants lost their most important reliever and another game — 6-1 to the Mets — general manager Bobby Evans said he remains relatively confident in a turnaround.
Evans based his belief on expectations that the Giants’ core players would return to their usual production levels and that winning more home games and playing .500 on the road would become a pattern.
For at least the short term, it won’t be easy without Melancon.
“It’s really tough, actually,” the reliever said. “I’ve never been on the DL. It has been a huge goal of mine to (stay off ) that my entire career. But I’m at the crossroads with the way we are playing right now. If
“I’ve never been on the DL. It has been a huge goal of mine to (stay off ) that my entire career. But ... if I’m not at full strength, I could end up hurting us more.” Mark Melancon, Giants reliever
I’m not at full strength, I could end up hurting us more.”
Melancon, 32, is eligible to come off the DL on Tuesday, and manager Bruce Bochy suggested that’s possible. But for an ailment Melancon said he first felt in spring training, the Giants might decide to exercise caution and shelve him longer.
Melancon felt it a little more during the Giants’ stay in Cincinnati and had an MRI exam that showed inflammation. He warmed up Monday and considered pitching through it. But just before Tuesday’s first pitch, the Giants put him on the DL.
Bochy said his plan is to use a committee of late-inning relievers.
“In my six years here,” reliever George Kontos said, “whenever somebody goes down, somebody else or the group collectively stepped up and picked that person up. I expect to see more of that happening now with Mark going down.”
The problem is, the Giants don’t find themselves in many save situations to utilize a closer. Melancon’s last game was last Wednesday in Los Angeles. Since then, the Giants have lost five in a row, and their 11-23 record is the worst in the majors.
This is the first year they’ve owned sole possession of the worst record in May or later since 1991.
Evans seemed optimistic in an interview Tuesday, saying, “Our focus right now is to look toward improving this club and try to get us back to the position where we’re competing in our division, which we’re not right now.”
At the same time, Evans is realistic about frustrations felt among fans.
“Fans have a right to be upset,” he said. “They’re not alone. The front office is upset. The players are upset.”
Evans was asked about the possibility of being in a selling mode instead of buying mode approaching the July 31 trade deadline. He said it’s not the mind-set. It’s more about what can be done to improve the current situation.
If the Giants are going to upgrade at the deadline, Evans said, the team first must show it’s worthy of being upgraded.
“That’s always our mentality,” Evans said. “The performance of the club always dictates how we handle the trade deadline. My hope is the guys come back and play back to more of the norm of their careers. It’ll give us a much better chance to compete and make our decision much tougher as we get toward the deadline.”
The Giants considered acquiring Melancon at last year’s deadline but went with the status quo, and their faulty bullpen burned them in the end. So the Giants invested big bucks on Melancon, but they have been too awful for him to make a difference.
Melancon, who had Tommy John surgery early in his pro career, said he wasn’t able to pinpoint exactly when he felt the pronator issue.
He said it wasn’t when he represented Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.
“I think I threw five pitches in the WBC,” he said, “and then I got yanked.”