Giants’ signings create crowd on pitcher’s mound
At one point in the offseason, Logan Webb was the Giants’ No. 2 starter behind Johnny Cueto.
In fact, with Tyler Anderson destined to be nontendered, Cueto and Webb were the only starters on San Francisco’s 40man roster projected for the 2021 rotation.
So president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi went to work. He offered a qualifying offer in November to Kevin Gausman, which was accepted, signed Anthony DeSclafani in December and signed Alex Wood in January.
Each month, Webb dropped a notch in the rotation, all the way to No. 5, but that’s not where the story ends even though manager Gabe Kapler said last week the righthander is “in the driver’s seat” for the final rotation spot.
Actually, the Giants are finalizing a contract with Aaron Sanchez, which The Chronicle reported this week, giving them five veteran starters and perhaps moving Webb to the back seat if not the trunk.
That’s not a knock on Webb as much as it is a nod to the front office for the reconstruction job.
“They obviously have experience and are still hungry.”
Buster Posey, on new Giants pitchers
The rotation doesn’t exactly compare with the Dodgers’, even before the Trevor Bauer addon, but it’s full of pitchers who have had an ample amount of bigleague success.
Webb can’t say that yet, but the decisionmakers have unending faith that the 24yearold eventually will blossom into a star even if it’s later rather than sooner.
Wednesday, after pitchers and catchers completed their first workout at Scottsdale Stadium, Kapler wouldn’t discuss how Sanchez’s arrival would affect the rotation plans because the deal wasn’t official yet. As for Webb, Kapler didn’t reject the possibility of his opening in the minors.
“Everything’s on the table,” Kapler said. “Logan Webb is going to be a better pitcher than he was last year. And you know what? He was pretty good for us at times last year. Just a matter of consistency. He has a lot of productive years ahead of him, and it would not surprise me to see 2021 be one of those productive years.”
It’s much too early to align the rotation, especially considering the recent injury history of the clientele. DeSclafani and Wood hope for bounceback seasons after losing time with injuries last year, and Sanchez missed the entire year following shoulder surgery.
Cueto is a 35yearold 2½ years removed from Tommy John surgery.
Even if Webb doesn’t open in the rotation, it’s a good bet he’ll get plenty of starts.
“I’m excited to work with these guys,” catcher Buster Posey said of the newcomers. “They all have the ability to make their way through the lineup a few times and can give guys different looks. They obviously have experience and are still hungry to prove themselves and get better.”
Like Gausman, DeSclafani throws a fastball in the mid90s, but while Gausman’s main secondary pitch is a splitter, DeSclafani’s is a slider. Wood, a lefty, is all about deception with his mix of sinkers, curves and changeups. Sanchez throws predominately heaters with a curvechangeup supplement.
Of course, no one ever knows what Cueto will throw. Sometimes even him. The hesitations, quick pitches and shimmies are designed to keep batters off balance.
As for Webb, a 93 mph fastball sets ups his variety of offspeed pitches. He had a rough 2020 (5.47 ERA), but the staff never lost confidence. One coach said Wednesday that Webb’s throwing session was the “best ’pen we saw all day.”
Lefty Caleb Baragar, an effective reliever as a rookie, worked his way through the system as a starter and wants another crack at it. As a result, he’ll be stretched out in camp but could return to the bullpen.
Kapler isn’t ruling out a sixman rotation for a stretch or using an opener, whatever would benefit the team over a long season. It’ll be important to closely monitor the starters’ innings buildup especially after a shortened season in which no one had more than 12 starts.
“Rather than putting any sort of artificial limitations on how many innings our starters will put down,” Kapler said, “I think we’ll examine it from every angle starting with how the pitcher’s feeling and how he’s doing in the trainer’s room and evaluate the objective measure like velocity and maybe spin rate as well.
“We’ll try to take everything into consideration and make the best daytoday decisions.”