Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants have not officially announced it. But Farhan Zaidi did everything else he could to signal that Logan Webb would start for the Giants on Saturday.
Webb, the Giants’ No. 5 prospect, has made just one start at Triple-A Sacramento. And yet, a pitcher whose season began with an 80-game suspension for testing positive for a PED, who has made just four starts above Low-A Augusta, may be on the mound this weekend in Arizona.
That’s how desperate the Giants have gotten for production out of one of the worst rotations in baseball, with Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija at the top and a mess of young pitchers trying to find their footing below them. And that’s how impressive Webb has been in his limited time.
“We’ve been excited about his progress. He’s definitely on our radar right now,” Zaidi said on KNBR’s “Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks” on Thursday. “We’ve got a need for a couple rotation spots. Like with all these young guys, if he can just throw consistent strikes, he has good stuff. … Fastball’s up to mid-90s, got a good breaking ball and he’s a really good competitor. You can definitely see him in our rotation in the near future.”
Asked if that future could be Saturday — when the Giants have “TBA” listed as the starter — Zaidi said, “I don’t want to steal that much of [Bruce] Bochy’s thunder.”
Webb went seven one-run innings in his lone Triple-A start Monday. Before that, the righty from Rocklin had two solid outings and one strange blow-up (3 2/3 innings, 10 runs but none earned). It sounds as if the 22-year-old will enter a rotation that still features the struggling Tyler Beede and, for the moment, Dereck Rodriguez.
Rodriguez started Thursday with a chance to lock down a spot, Zaidi said.
“Absolutely. We’re still on our pitching possibles,” rather than probables, Zaidi said. “Ideally you’ve got five guys, you’ve got a stable rotation, everybody really knows whose day it is. That’s how teams really get on a roll. … We have a need and would certainly like him to take the ball and run with it.”
