Reliever Smith needs elbow surgery
Specialists recommend season-ending Tommy John procedure
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The season won’t begin for another 10 days, but the Giants bullpen is getting hit hard already.
Left-hander Will Smith has received two opinions recommending that he undergo Tommy John surgery, and he is leaning toward having the reconstructive elbow procedure, manager Bruce Bochy said.
The surgery would end Smith’s season before it began and likely imperil the start of the 2018 season as well.
Smith wanted to speak to his agent before making a final determination. But both Giants orthopedist Dr. Ken Akizuki and Dr. Neal ElAttrache of the KerlanJobe Clinic in Los Angeles have recommended surgery over an attempt to rehab the partially torn ulnar collateral ligament.
Smith’s injury is a major loss for a bullpen that blew a franchise-record 32 saves last season — most of them before the ninth inning — and was counting on the left-hander’s durability and versatility to build a bridge to $62 million closer Mark Melancon.
“We’ll have to have somebody step up in the seventh and eighth innings,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “That was going to be Will’s role with his experience and his ability to go through lefthanders and right-handers. He’s a guy we were leaning on to be one of those guys.
“That’s a big piece of the bullpen we have to replace.”
Left-hander Steven Okert hasn’t allowed a run this spring, and left-handed starter Ty Blach could become an important relief presence if Matt Cain can hold down the No. 5 spot in the rotation. Left-hander Josh Osich has the power stuff to pitch in a setup role but is coming off a rough season and has been inconsistent this spring.
The loss of Smith probably means that Bochy will rely at times on right-handers Hunter Strickland and Derek Law to retire some left-handed batters.
“We’re not ruling out anybody,” Bochy said. “We’ve got seven or eight games here. We’ve got to figure out where guys line up out there.”
Smith, 27, will make $2.5 million after going through the second of his four arbitration years. He remains under club control through 2019 — one of the reasons the Giants didn’t hesitate to trade backup catcher Andrew Susac and right-hander Phil Bickford, a former first-round pick, to acquire him from the Milwaukee Brewers at the trade deadline last season.
Smith’s durability was attractive to the Giants. He led the N.L. with 78 appearances in 2014 and pitched in 76 games the following season. But he developed a sore elbow early in camp and received two weeks of rest and rehab. Smith was pitching in his second exhibition game this spring last Monday when he gestured toward trainers after throwing a pitch against the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch.
The Giants subtracted the first veteran infielder from a crowded bench competition, granting Gordon Beckham his release so he could pursue other opportunities.
Beckham, 30, requested his release after Giants officials informed him that he would not make their opening-day roster. The club almost certainly had no intention to keep Beckham beyond Tuesday, when he would have been owed a $100,000 retention bonus. Nonroster veteran Aaron Hill remain in camp along with Jimmy Rollins, who is batting .088 this spring.
Matt Moore threw his first stinker of the spring, somehow wedging four runs on four hits and two walks plus a balk and a wild pitch into 1 2 ⁄ innings in the team’s 3 9-2 loss to the Mariners on Thursday night.
Brandon Belt was a healthy scratch from Thursday’s lineup. He’ll play instead on Friday so he can get a look at Colorado Rockies right-hander Jonathan Gray. Conor Gillaspie shifted from third to first and Jae-gyun Hwang picked up a start at third base, instead.