Pretty soon, the Giants are going to have their Opening Day middle infield back.
San Francisco activated veteran Brandon Crawford off the injured list ahead of Saturday afternoon’s game, optioning rookie Brett Wisely back down to Triple-A. Crawford had been dealing with left knee inflammation and is getting reinstated a day after he became eligible.
Thairo Estrada, Crawford’s primary double play partner, is also nearing a return. Estrada, who fractured his left hand on July 2, is “not that far away,” manager Gabe Kapler said.
“We don’t have an exact timetable for a rehab assignment, but we just don’t see it as all that far off at this point,” Kapler said of Estrada. “Keeping it vague is probably the best thing to do here, because I don’t know if that’s a week from now, a little more or a little less.”
Estrada has been participating in baseball activities this week. Perhaps the biggest step for him has been using his recovered glove hand to field grounders and catch balls at full speed.
Crawford appeared to be healthy enough to return to the lineup on Friday against right-handed starter Kutter Crawford, but the team gave him an extra day to hit against some live batting-practice pitching. He isn’t in the starting lineup against Red Sox southpaw James Paxton, with Marco Luciano and Casey Schmitt hitting seventh and eighth.
Getting Estrada and Crawford back could be two major internal additions around the trade deadline. In the month of July, the Giants have had by far the least production out of their middle infield. Both Giants second basemen and shortstops rank last in wRC+ (13 and 5) in the month; 100 is league average.
With Crawford back on the roster, expect both he and rookie Marco Luciano to play the majority of innings at shortstop. Luciano has also taken some grounders at second base — both at Oracle Park this weekend and during spring training — but is primarily a shortstop. Casey Schmitt, who has largely struggled, is SF’s primary option at second with Wisely off the roster.
“We’re not in a position where we need Marco to be our second baseman,” Kapler said. “But having him feel a little bit comfortable there will, in the situation where maybe we need to come back in a game and he starts a game at shortstop and we just need some additional offense somehow, and that puts him at second base and Craw at shortstop. We think we’re going to get him confident enough to where he can handle that role and responsibility.”
Any iteration that involves Crawford, Estrada, and maybe even Luciano, would be an offensive upgrade over Wisely and Schmitt.
- Keaton Winn got good news on his sore elbow, with an examination revealing no structural damage. Kapler said the Giants hope to get the righty back on a mound as soon as possible.
- Friday night’s starter Logan Webb expressed some dissatisfaction with getting pulled from the game after 88 pitches, saying he still had more left in the tank. Kapler said a pitcher wanting to stay in the game is nothing new and he’d expect nothing less from Webb, the team’s ace.
“Logan’s a competitor,” Kapler said. “I love the fact that he’s a competitor and wants the ball at every turn. Wants to keep going back out there. Absolutely love it and respect it.”
