Team will finish season in bubble
Giants preparing to enter quarantine ahead of possible playoff run
The Giants will play their final eight games of the season at Oracle Park, but players who have been living in apartments or houses around the Bay Area will not be able to do so for much longer.
With the Giants in contention for a postseason berth, they’ll join other teams with a chance to make the playoffs and move into a hotel across the street from the ballpark on Wednesday. MLB and the Players Association approved a postseason bubble in mid-September, giving franchises little time to work out all of the details necessary to ensure players enter a quarantine-like sit
uation in the week leading up to the postseason.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler praised first-year traveling secretary Abe Silvestri on Monday and said Silvestri’s “detail-oriented” nature leaves him with little concern over the process.
“We’re calling it a transitional period,” Kapler said. “The idea is to test, protect and give us our best chance at being healthy and strong into the postseason. That would be the collective goal.”
If the Giants advance into the postseason and play into October, Monday and today will mark the team’s final days outside of MLB’s bubble until the club finishes a playoff run.
If the Giants earn one of the two National League wildcard berths, players will travel on team buses and a team plane for a first-round postseason series, but will not be permitted to leave a team hotel unless they are departing for the ballpark. That’s a policy MLB instituted early in the regular season after the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals each had significant disruptions in their schedules due to COVID-19 outbreaks, but the postseason rules require teams playing in their home cities in the first round to adhere to the same restrictions.
After the first round of the playoffs, MLB will hold each subsequent series at neutral sites with National League series taking place at MinuteMaid Park in Houston and Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
If the Giants are eliminated from postseason contention before the final day of the regular season, players will be allowed to return to their residences in the Bay Area.
“I certainly understand the protective nature of taking a step like this,” Kapler said. “I think we want to continue to raise the bar for ourselves. We’ve talked about that pretty consistently, just taking every measure necessary.” ASSISTANT COACH NAKKEN IS ANSWER ON ‘JEOPARDY’ >> San Francisco Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken has spent the year making history as she became the first woman to be hired as a fulltime coach for a Major League Baseball team.
On Monday, hundreds of
thousands of people who may not have known her story learned a little bit more about Nakken.
The Giants’ assistant was featured in a question on “Jeopardy!”, one of the most famous game shows in the history of television.
In a category titled, “The Good Stuff,” the $800 question read, “Ex-Sacramento State softball star Alyssa Nakken didn’t have to go far to be the first female coach in MLB with this NL team.”
The answer, of course, was, “Who are the San Francisco Giants?”
GIANTS WELCOME BACK DICKERSON >> The Giants activated outfielder Alex Dickerson from the paternity list Monday and cut veteran switch hitter Justin Smoak.
The Giants acquired Smoak to replace another struggling veteran, Pablo Sandoval, on the roster, but never found consistent opportunities to give Smoak at-bats. The former Blue Jays and Brewers slugger went 0 for 6 before being designated for assignment Monday.
Kapler said the club couldn’t carry a player such as Smoak or Sandoval at this point in the season because
Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski are currently unable to play the field due to injuries. Slater has an elbow issue that’s limiting him to designated hitter and pinch-runner duties while Yastrzemski was out of the lineup on Monday for a fourth consecutive day due to a right calf strain.
With Smoak limited to playing first base defensively, the Giants ran out of room for him and prioritized keeping utility infielder Daniel Robertson on the 28-man roster.
SHARK SIGHTING? >> The Giants will wind down activity at their Sacramento alternate
site on Tuesday, but not before veteran right-hander Jeff Samardzija pitches in one last scrimmage.
Samardzija has been sidelined since August 7 with right shoulder inflammation and has only pitched in three games this year due to injury. The right-hander has likely been healthy enough to return for the last week, but the Giants haven’t had space on their pitching staff to find a spot for him.
With his five-year, $90 million contract set to expire at the end of the season, Samardzija’s days with the franchise are coming to an end. Kapler did say the Giants are still considering bringing him back for one last start and are targeting Friday’s doubleheader against the Padres as a possibility.
Samardzija would likely pitch in Game 2 against San Diego as the Giants could make him their 29th man for the game, but the first-year manager said the team hasn’t mapped out its rotation beyond today when Drew Smyly will start against the Rockies.
If the Giants don’t bring Samardzija back this season, he’ll finish his tenure with the club 33-45 with a 4.22 ERA.