Giants beat: Despite injury, Slater may get atbats as DH.
The Giants just became a huge fan of the designated hitter.
Manager Gabe Kapler said Friday that he could see Austin Slater as the DH within a few days despite the whitehot outfielder being diagnosed with a flexor strain in his left elbow.
Slater missed his second consecutive start with the injury Friday night.
Kapler had said Slater felt soreness while hitting and throwing Tuesday night against the Astros. He got an MRI exam upon the team’s return to San Francisco.
While flexor strains are serious, they are less so for position players. Former Giants pitcher Matt Cain lost three months of the 2015 season with a similar injury, which accelerated his decline toward retirement. But Kapler noted that last year in Philadelphia, outfielder Jay Bruce played around a flexor strain “for some time.”
Similarly, the Angels will continue to use Shohei Ohtani as a DH in 2020 after he was shut down as a pitcher.
He returned from Tommy John surgery only to injure his flexor.
“A flexor strain for a position player is less challenging than for a pitcher because outfielders can monitor how often and how hard they throw,” Kapler said. “They might have one or two throws an entire game.”
Bruce went on the injured list for 23 days with his injury, which occurred Aug. 8, 2019, on one throw from the outfield on a ball that Mike Yastrzemski hit for a double. But Bruce lacked one option that Slater has: the everyday DH role in the National League.
Kapler said Slater swung in the batting cage Friday, hitting balls flipped to him by a coach, and the medical staff reported that Slater’s elbow felt better.
Kapler could not say when Slater might throw again.
“Right now we’re monitoring it and not projecting out too far,” Kapler said.
In other medical news, per the club:
Lefthanded starter Drew Smyly (left index finger sprain) has begun throwing on flat ground and will be reexamined this weekend.
Reliever Sam Coonrod (lat strain) threw a 30pitch bullpen session and will be evaluated by team doctors this weekend.
Starter Jeff Samardzija (right shoulder inflammation) is still not throwing and is doing rehab work in San Francisco.
Reliever Reyes Moronta (rightshoulder surgery) is throwing bullpen sessions at the alternate camp in Sacramento and doing all baseball activity under the hope he can return late this month or in early September.
Briefly: The Giants added righthander Jake Jewell to their alternate camp, giving their hitters another pitcher to face. Jewell, 27, threw 21 games for the Angels in 2018 and 2019. The Giants claimed him on waivers in January . ... Johnny Cueto entered Friday’s game with the fifthlowest career interleague ERA, at 2.76. Those ahead of him were Clayton Kershaw (2.26), Trevor Bauer (2.42), Max Scherzer (2.65) and Gerrit Cole (2.70).