Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants left the most difficult decision for last.
San Francisco made a series of moves before Wednesday’s series finale in Houston, recalling Trevor Cahill while bringing Dereck Rodriguez with him and optioning Conner Menez and Rico Garcia back to Sacramento to make room on the 28-man roster.
The 40-man roster, though, still needed space to allow Cahill, who is set to start, to fit in the group. The Giants have not publicly determined their move, which could involve placing Jeff Samardzija on the 60-day injured list. If not, they could designate for assignment players such as the recently acquired Luis Basabe, Melvin Adon or Chris Shaw.
That decision would have to be made before Cahill started, and the Giants were taking their time.
The Giants believe Cahill, who had been held back because of a fingernail issue, can give them 45-50 pitches, which necessitated Rodriguez as a possible lefty/righty piggyback option. The Giants saw Rodriguez throw an impressive bullpen session during the Los Angeles series, Gabe Kapler said, during which D-Rod was sitting at 92-94 mph on his fastball, a nice uptick.
“It’s a little bit more difficult to earn a promotion in today’s environment,” Kapler said over Zoom, and yet the Giants feel he has after another encouraging bullpen session Monday in Sacramento.
Menez is the surprise, as the young lefty has pitched well, but he threw 2 2/3 innings Monday, so Rodriguez is the better lengthy option for Wednesday’s game.
“For what it’s worth, the message to Conner was: ‘There’s really not much you can be doing differently. You’re doing a great job,’” Kapler said about Menez, who has a 2.38 ERA in 11 1/3 innings. “This is more about us getting an arm that can give us some length today, and it’s not going to hurt him to have a little bit of a blow and come back even stronger.”
The Sacramento stint figures to be longer for Garcia, who was electric to begin the season but has struggled of late. He was fortunate to allow just two runs in two-thirds of an inning Tuesday, when he allowed five hits to the Astros.