With starter Cueto hurt, reliever Doval called up
With Johnny Cueto going on the injured list Friday and Logan Webb migrating from the bullpen back into the rotation, the Giants called up Camilo Doval for the first time.
Doval said he was “laughing with joy” when he got the news, and his first call was to his mom in the Dominican Republic. He won’t have any family on hand for the Giants’ weekend series in Miami, but, with Erwin Higueros interpreting, Doval said the Giants scout who signed Doval in the Dominican, Gabriel Elias, will be there Friday night.
Doval, 23, has a 3.31 ERA and 233 strikeouts in 1631⁄3 minorleague innings, and he will help balance what is a lefthandedheavy Giants bullpen. He’s ranked as the team’s 22nd best prospect by Baseball America, and he had a nice spring, putting up a 1.80 ERA in five Cactus League appearances, striking out seven, walking two and hitting two.
“Obviously it’s a pleasure to have him on our roster and very exciting that he has an opportunity potentially to make his majorleague debut at some point in the next couple of days. We feel like he’s ready for this opportunity,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “There is plenty of life in the arm and plenty of movement on the slider, so it is really just kind of managing emotion and ensuring that all of the things that he worked on during spring training like making good throws to the bases and controlling the running game are intact.”
Doval’s fastball has registered as high as 102 mph and he also has a good slider. When asked about his velocity, he said, “I concentrate on throwing strikes, and when I let the ball go, it just happens to go 100 mph, and I’m like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe it just went 100 mph.’ ”
Cueto went to the 10day IL, retroactive to Thursday, with a grade 1 lat strain and he will miss at least least two starts, which Kapler confirmed Friday. Cueto said he felt some discomfort on his final two pitches in his outing Wednesday and “it wasn’t too alarming,” he said, with Higueros interpreting.
⏩ The Giants will activate lefthander Alex Wood from the IL to start Sunday at Miami, so Doval’s time in the bigs might be short unless the team decides to send out extra outfielder Steven Duggar, who was called up earlier in the week when LaMonte Wade Jr. went on the IL with an oblique strain.
The team had been going with seven relievers until Webb came out of the rotation for one day, and Doval keeps them at eight, which is generally the Giants’ preference.
Webb is likely to slot into the rotation Monday or Tuesday at Philadelphia.