Giants call up outfielder Duggar, beat Cardinals.
Jackson, Gearrin dealt to Rangers; prospects Duggar, Black join S.F.
In this era of big winners and bigger tankers in major-league baseball, the worst thing a team can be is a wishy-washy .500. As sure as the summer fog will make unsuspecting San Francisco tourists shiver, the Giants were headed there in 2018.
Something had to change, and on Sunday morning, it did.
Before the Giants busted out of their hitting malaise and whomped St. Louis 13-8 to earn a series split, they announced they had traded underperforming outfielder Austin Jackson, reliever Cory Gearrin and Class A pitching prospect Jason Bahr to the Rangers for a player to be named or cash.
That was the groundwork for the moves the Giants really wanted to make, aside from gaining some breathing room under the luxury-tax cap. They promoted their most advanced outfield prospect, center fielder
Steven Duggar, and right-handed reliever Ray Black, who can throw 100 mph but nearly retired this winter after years of arm issues.
Duggar was one of the best defensive outfield prospects in Triple-A and had ratcheted up his hitting.
Duggar was put into action immediately, leading off and playing center field for the Giants. He went 2-for-6, his first big-league hit a double that started a five-run rally against Greg Holland in the sixth inning after Pablo Sandoval’s three-run homer in the fifth gave the Giants a 6-4 lead. Sandoval had five RBIs.
Black’s debut was rough. Starting the eighth inning with the Giants leading 11-5, he walked his first two hitters and then surrendered a three-run splash homer to pinch-hitter Matt Carpenter on a 99-mph fastball.
On Sunday morning, manager Bruce Bochy said Duggar largely will platoon with Gorkys Hernandez in center, with Hernandez moving to left on days Duggar plays. The Giants will have to adjust for at least one game because Hernandez hobbled off the field with a tight left calf after hitting a two-run single to cap the five-run sixth.
Bochy said the injury does not appear serious. Hernandez wanted to stay in the game and could be available again by Tuesday.
The Rangers bailed out the Giants again. After acquiring Matt Moore and taking on his $9 million salary over the winter, Texas will assume all of the roughly $4.4 million left on Jackson’s contract for this year and next, and the $800,000 left on Gearrin’s 2018 contract.
That knocks about $2.1 million off a payroll that the Giants admitted was straddling the $197 million luxury-tax threshold.
That was the price the Giants sought in order for Texas to acquire Bahr, last year’s fifthround draft pick, who had a 1.69 ERA in three starts for San Jose after his promotion from Low-A Augusta, Ga.
Rangers general manager Jon Daniels told Texas reporters the club asked Jackson not to report, a sign it might release or trade him.
The Giants made the deal and promoted Duggar at a time when the offense was frigid, scoring 10 runs over six games that included five losses. General manager Bobby Evans said the talks began before the slide and had more to do with the club’s desire to promote Duggar and Black while shedding payroll.
“It’s not about what happened the last four or five days,” Bochy said. “That being said, sometimes you’ve got to shake things up when you’re not going well.”
Duggar, 24, was hitting .272 with a .775 OPS at Sacramento. He struggled early in the season, then made some slight mechanical changes at the plate and a bigger mental adjustment. He said he stopped over-analyzing and just played.
The Giants originally hoped to promote Duggar in April. He admitted he was disappointed not making the team out of spring.
“Sure, I guess, in a way,” he said. “There obviously were things I needed to work on, that I still need to work on. It was good for me to go to Sacramento because I definitely failed down there.”
Black, 28, walked seven and struck out 38 in 212⁄3 innings for the River Cats. His story is truly about perseverance.
Starting in high school 10 years ago, Black has had Tommy John surgery, injuries to his knee and hand, a shoulder operation that cost him two years and arthroscopic surgery on his elbow to remove bone chips.
When he felt some postsurgery pain this winter while throwing, he considered retirement and going back to Pennsylvania to work on the family vegetable farm.
“It’s been a crazy road, a lot of ups and downs, a roller-coaster emotionally,” Black said. “I stayed open-minded (about playing in 2018) and the rest took care of itself. I had a pretty good spring and it kept rolling from there.”
Black hit 102 mph in Sacramento this year and 100 twice Sunday.
Gearrin had become the eighth man in an eight-man bullpen. He pitched in 166 games during four seasons in San Francisco and had a 4.20 ERA in 35 games this year, pitching better lately as the Giants were trying to move him.
Jackson simply didn’t pan out for the Giants, who signed him as a complement to Duggar, assuming the prospect made the team. Jackson hit .242 with no homers and a .604 OPS in 165 plate appearances for the Giants and became a ghost on the bench.