Back in June, I thought it would be fun to check in on everyone the Giants had let go during the season, as well as Jay Jackson (Feel better, pal!) and Alex Dickerson (lol). From late June to October, though, it turns out that the Giants not only cut and traded more players, but also the players who they had already cut and traded went on to get more playing time.
So let’s check in on them again. This is every player who left the Giants’ organization this year whose departure was listed on their website’s Transactions page, and what they did afterwards.
The good
Michael Plassmeyer — 82 IP, 26 R (22 ER), 82 K, 23 BB, 2.41 ERA for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, 7.1 IP, 3 ER, 7 K, 1 BB, 3.68 ERA for the Phillies
Prelander Berroa — 52.1 IP, 15 R (14 ER), 81 K, 32 BB, 2.41 ERA for the Everett AquaSox, 35 IP, 17 ER, 53 K, 25 BB, 4.37 ERA for the Arkansas Travelers
Hunter Harvey — 2 scoreless innings for the Rochester Red Wings, 39.1 IP, 12 R (11 ER), 45 K, 12 BB, 2.52 ERA for the Washington Nationals
Stuart Fairchild — .273/.2338/.512 in 136 PAs for the Louisville Bats, .279/.374/.523 in 99 PAs for the Reds
Matthew Boyd — 13.1 IP, 2 ER, 13 K, 8 BB, 1.35 ERA for the Seattle Mariners
Plassmeyer went to the Phillies in the Austin Wynns deal, and they both had perfectly nice seasons afterwards. Berroa went to the Mariners in the Donovan Walton deal, and Walton did not have a perfectly nice season afterwards. The Giants never gave Harvey a chance, weren’t impressed by Fairchild in the very brief chance he got, and didn’t have the chance to use Boyd in a game since he was injured for the entire time he was a Giant.
The fine
Michael Papierski — .298/.421/.532 in 57 PAs for the Louisville Bats, .159/.242/.207 in 93 PAs for the Reds
Kevin Padlo — .301/.360/.466 in 114 PAs for the Tacoma Rainiers and Indianapolis Indians, .095/136/.143 in 22 PAs for the Mariners and Pirates
Will Toffey — .242/.350/.420 in 388 PAs for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs
Luke Williams — .235/.290/.313 in 124 PAs for the Marlins
Kervin Castro — 13.2 IP, 2 ER, 18 K, 7 BB, 1.32 ERA for the Iowa Cubs, 10.2 IP, 9 ER, 7 K, 5 BB, 7.59 ERA for the Chicago Cubs
Other than Toffey (perfectly acceptable in AAA, but nothing that would get him called up) and Williams (at the lower end of acceptable in the majors), these guys all did nice jobs in the minors, got called up, and didn’t impress anyone as major leaguers. Will the Giants regret letting them go? Maybe, but not this year.
The bad
Darin Ruf — .152/.216/.197 in 74 PAs for the New York Mets
Curt Casali — .125/.300/.225 in 50 PAs for the Seattle Mariners
Mauricio Dubon — .208/.254/.294 in 216 PAs for the Houston Astros
Caleb Baragar — 47.1 IP, 31 R (29 ER), 50 K, 29 BB, 5.51 ERA for the Reno Aces
Jaylin Davis — .203/.312/.335 in 346 PAs for the Worcester Red Sox, .333/.407/.375 in 27 PAs for the Boston Red Sox
Corey Oswalt — 36 IP, 27 ER, 22 K, 13 BB, 6.75 ERA for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and the Albuquerque Isotopes
Alex Blandino — .203/.399/.341 in 188 PAs for the Tacoma Rainiers
Mike Ford — .172/.368/.207 in 38 PAs for the Seattle Mariners, then DFA’d, then .238/.396/.381 in 53 PAs for the Gwinnett Stripers, then .000/.125/.000 in 8 PAs for the Atlanta Braves, then .217/.250/.261 in 24 PAs for the Salt Lake Bees, then .231/.293/.374 in 99 PAs for the Los Angeles Angels
Cory Abbott — 28.1 IP, 20 R (16 ER), 34 K, 17 BB, 5.08 ERA for the Rochester Red Wings, 48 IP, 30 R (28 ER), 45 K, 25 BB, 5.25 ERA for the Nationals
Carlos Martinez — 4.1 absurdly bad innings for the Worcester Red Sox, followed by an 80-game suspension for PEDs
Raynel Espinal — 23 IP, 16 ER, 26 K, 10 BB, 6.26 ERA for the Iowa Cubs and Louisville Bats, 4.2 IP, 4 ER, 5 K, 1 BB, 7.71 ERA for the Cincinnati Reds
Tobias Myers — 13 IP, 24 R (23 ER), 11 K, 15 BB, 15.92 ERA for the Charlotte Knights
Trevor Rosenthal — 2 IP, 4 ER, 2 K, 3 BB, 18.00 ERA for the Nashville Sounds
Jeremy Walker — 21.1 IP, 16 R (14 ER), 14 K, 4 BB, 5.91 ERA for the Durham Bulls
Jose Godoy —.227/.290/.364 in 193 PAs for the St. Paul Saints and the Indianapolis Indians, .050/.136/.050 in 22 PAs for the Minnesota Twins and Pittsburgh Pirates
There are a lot of Minor League Guys here who are not particularly notable — The Churn demands the blood of the innocent, after all — but first, let’s go over the players who Giants fans would likely know. For now, the Ruf trade with the Mets looks like a steal for the Giants; Casali never got it going in Seattle; as popular as Dubon is in some corners of Giantsland, he just doesn’t hit enough to really regret the trade, even if Michael Papierski hasn’t been anything special either; Jaylin Davis had a nice start in AAA with the Red Sox and then got hurt and wasn’t the same; and this was the first time I even checked whether Trevor Rosenthal ended up pitching this year.
As for the rest of them, this is the price of the way the Giants do business right now. Some of these guys were around for a few months, some for a couple weeks, some not even for that long, but they all had their lives upended by the Giants, who never really cared enough to give them much of a chance (well, other than Baragar, who was in the system for several years, and you certainly can’t say the team made an uninformed decision there). Did that hurt their performances this year? I mean, it seems at least likely. Would they have been productive major leaguers without all that chaos? I mean, it seems fairly unlikely, to be honest.
Did any of this matter, in the end? Did all this energy and churn produce anything particularly notable for the team? With Luis Gonzalez falling apart after the All-Star Break and Alex Young not getting re-signed despite a nice year, the team doesn’t have a single long-term piece to show for all their machinations.
So was any of it worth it? Was any of it notable? No, it wasn’t. Will that keep anyone from paying attention to all of these moves when the Giants do something similar next year? No, of course not, because any of the players they pick up could be the next Mike Yastrzesmki. Did we learn anything? No, other than Don’t Panic Trade For Donovan Walton, which, to be honest, we’d already figured out.
The Giants moved all sorts of pieces around and didn’t go anywhere. Honestly, that’s a pretty good metaphor for the season they had last year. Plenty of things happening, but no real movement. Always something to watch, not necessarily something worth watching. It wasn’t fun for the guys who got DFA’d and claimed and DFA’d again. It wasn’t fun for us either.
Anyway, the Giants have Carlos Correa now, and he’ll fix everything.
LOL CORREA
Somehow attaching a 'heart' to this seems cruel.
What a flipping carney show. All they were missing was Eddie Gaedel.