Making a pitch to stay in S.F.
It’s merely 3 starts, but the 32-year-old doesn’t look ready to cede starting role
DENVER — Here is a simple premise: A 33-year-old healthy pitcher who can throw a 90mph fastball and mix in at least two secondary pitches can succeed as a major-league starter if he also has good command.
That premise is indisputable. It also helps explain why Matt Cain has allowed two earned runs over his past 12 innings and helped the Giants to two of their six victories, including Tuesday night’s 2-1, 11-inning win at Kansas City.
Which leads to this admittedly premature and provocative question: What if this really isn’t Cain’s final year with the Giants? What if they bring him back in 2018 even though 2017 is the final season of a six-year,
$127.5 million contract that turned into a boondoggle because of his arm health.
OK, this really is putting the cart way before the Horse. Two good starts is too small a sample and might not even buy him his next turn, which would be against the Dodgers on Monday at AT&T Park.
Manager Bruce Bochy said last week that he and pitching coach Dave Righetti have mapped the rotation through the end of the first half, and Bochy has dropped hints that Ty Blach could be moved in, perhaps so the Giants could throw three left-handed pitchers at an L.A. team that flails against them.
The Giants’ willingness Tuesday to designate catcher Tim Federowicz and keep optionable lefty Steven Okert in the bullpen is a sign they might transition Blach to the rotation.
Also, Blach and Tyler Beede seem poised to join this rotation, if not now, certainly by 2018, rendering Cain superfluous.
But there are unanswered questions: How would Blach do in the rotation long term? Will Beede’s stuff translate at the major-league level? Most of all, will Johnny Cueto opt out of his contract?
If Cain’s starts against the Rockies and Royals prove to be more of who he is in 2017, the idea of his return in 2018 is not so farfetched, although it would have been after he was 4-8 with a 5.64 ERA during a supposedly healthy 2016.
His return next year under the $21 million team option in his contract does seem farfetched, but the front office might argue it already has $7.5 million committed to Cain for his option buyout, so exercising it really would add $13.5 million to the 2018 payroll, not $21 million.
Tim Lincecum’s final contract, at two years, $35 million exemplified this line of thinking, although the rotation was far more barren when that deal happened (and the end result should be more of a cautionary tale than a precedent).
The Giants could decline Cain’s option and try to re-sign him at a lower price. Given his dedication to an organization that paid him handsomely for four unproductive years, he might feel an obligation.
Cain has miles to go to state his case, but the Giants like what they have seen so far. He has improved from start to start and threw one of his best games in years against the Royals.
“I think he was outstanding, really very good,” acting manager Ron Wotus said. “They’ve got a tough lineup that’s lefthanded strong, big boppers from the left side, and he pitched inside really well.”
Cain four-hit the Royals over seven innings by doing what he consistently had failed to accomplish since his return from two elbow issues, the ability to mix his pitches and move them around the plate to keep hitters from gearing up for the kill.
“We did a good job moving in and out so they couldn’t sit on the outside pitch,” Cain said. “We did a good job of showing we could go inside for strikes and move them off the plate so they couldn’t sit on one side.”
In spring training, Cain admitted that in 2016, when he supposedly was healthy, his arm still was not right. He could pitch, but he might be sore the next day. That issue is gone, allowing him let it loose not only in games but between starts.
He discovered that in the Cactus League.
“It was a big benefit knowing, going into it, so I could worry about throwing strikes and having a game plan against guys instead of worrying about how bad I was feeling.
“There’s peace of mind waking up in the morning knowing your body is OK and will be in the four or five days in between.”