SAN FRANCISCO – Giants manager Bruce Bochy did more than write his first post-elimination lineup Wednesday. He cast the front office’s referendum on outfielder Marlon Byrd’s $8 million option.
Byrd’s option would vest with 15 plate appearances over the Giants’ final five games. It’s not going to happen.
Byrd isn’t in Wednesday’s lineup and Bochy said he wants to play outfielder Jarrett Parker and Mac Williamson as much as possible over the remainder of the week.
That doesn’t mean the Giants will cage Byrd through Sunday and let him fly away without a word. Far from it.
GM Bobby Evans echoed Bochy’s sentiments, saying the club has interest in re-signing Byrd for next season and that interest has been communicated to the 38-year-old outfielder.
“He’s been a great addition to our club and we have interest in bringing him back for next year,” Evans said. “When we acquired Marlon, our mindset was to do everything to win, and if we get eliminated, we do what we should do and that’s give our young players a chance to play.
“Right now, our mindset is to give our young players a chance.”
Bochy said he would talk to Byrd, who is hitting .275 with three home runs and 30 RBIs in 36 games (34 starts) since joining the Giants in an Aug. 20 trade with the Cincinnati Reds.
Byrd is hitting .409 with runners in scoring position and he possesses the kind of rare right-handed power that even plays to the opposite field at AT&T Park. The Giants could pick up Nori Aoki’s $5.5 million option and seek to platoon him with Byrd, whose power off the bench would be the kind of asset the Giants sorely lacked for most of this season. Parker has the club’s only two pinch homers this season, and he hit them within the past two weeks.
A weak bench came back to haunt the Giants, who outscored opponents in every inning except the first and ninth as so many of their comeback bids came up just short in one-run losses. And when starters like Joe Panik Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford went down with injuries, the bench thinned out even more as a result.
Of course, it was Hunter Pence’s oblique injury that prompted the Giants to acquire Byrd. But now that the Giants are drawing dead in the NL West, Bochy said he wanted to see more of Parker and Williamson.
“I’d like to get a better look at them,” Bochy said. “That’s going to be valuable for them, for us. For both of us.”
Yet when asked if Bochy needed to talk to Byrd, the manager said, “I haven’t filled out the lineup card every day yet.”
This one will require some interpersonal skill, since it's unlikely that Byrd would command a salary approaching $8 million on the open market. My take: I'd have to believe the Giants would have to present him with a two-year contract to make up for sitting him and preventing the option from vesting.
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Brandon Belt had knee surgery.
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Although it’s doubtful Madison Bumgarner will start Sunday’s regular-season finale, Bochy hadn’t spoken with his left-handed ace and held off making any announcements on the rotation.
Bochy did say that Tim Hudson’s final major league start Thursday would more or less amount to a bullpen game. Hudson, who couldn’t escape a wild second inning in his matchup with Barry Zito in Oakland, is expected to pitch just an inning or two Thursday.
Bochy spent a long time going over the pitching staff with pitching coach Dave Righetti and Mark Gardner, and said no relievers were being shut down. The only reliever with a major incentive is Santiago Casilla, who can vest a $6.5 million option with two more games finished.
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One regular who likely will play every game the rest of the way is third baseman Matt Duffy, if only because the Giants are especially thin at the position.
Remarkably, Duffy has become the new Pence. His streak of 112 consecutive games played (74 consecutive starts) is the third longest in the major leagues, behind the Orioles’ Manny Machado (155) and the Angels Kole Calhoun (147).
“It’s looking like his streak win run into next year,” Bochy said.
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Bochy was asked if he’d like to see any of the rookies or young players go to winter ball. He mentioned Kelby Tomlinson, so the infielder could add an outfielder’s skill set and perhaps become a super-utility presence – sort of what the Giants expected Duffy to be before he outperformed Casey McGehee to become the everyday third baseman.
Tomlinson is going to go to instructional league in Arizona, Evans said.
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Gregor Blanco was presented with the "Good Guy" Award by the BBWAA SF/Oakland chapter. It's well deserved, and I hope the honor is not irreparably harmet by the fact we gave it to Aubrey Huff in 2010.
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As Bochy mentioned, the Dodgers still have an outside shot to win home-field advantage for their NL Division Series with the Mets. So these games still mean something.
Wednesday’s start certainly means something for Mike Leake, who will be a 27-year-old hitting free agency after the season. The Giants have interest in re-signing him, too. So perhaps a perfect game wouldn’t be the best thing for the club’s negotiating leverage.
Lineups:
LF Crawford, SS Rollins, 3B Seager, RF Ethier, 2B Utley, 1B Grandal, C Barnes, CF Pederson, P Bolsinger.
CF Pagan, 2B Tomlinson, 3B Duffy, SS Crawford, RF Parker, LF Williamson, C Brown, 1B Noonan, P Leake.
The post Giants notes: Club makes the tricky decision to sit Marlon Byrd, but want to re-sign him; Tim Hudson's final start will be brief, Iron Duffman, etc. appeared first on Giants Extra.