The San Francisco Giants waited longer than usual to announce their first round of camp cuts this Spring Training, which is perhaps partially due to a new coaching staff wanting to get familiar with everybody, but probably mostly due to the roster logistics required after losing players to the World Baseball Classic. But once they got the cuts started, they just kept coming.
On Tuesday — their final off-day before the season starts in eight days — the Giants announced their fourth wave of camp cuts, following their flurry of reassignments in the past few days. This time it’s just a pair of players: right-handed pitcher Blade Tidwell, who was optioned to AAA Sacramento, and first baseman Jake Holton, who was reassigned to Minor League camp. For anyone confused by the verbiage of those differing cuts, it’s simply because Tidwell is on the 40-man roster and Holton is not.
Tidwell, who was part of the Tyler Rogers trade at last year’s deadline, impressed in his first Spring Training with the organization, while also not looking ready for an MLB job. The small sample size did him in, as he got tattooed with a 9.45 ERA in 6.2 innings across five appearances, but he showed absolute gas with a fastball that tickled the periphery of triple digits, while striking out 13 batters in those 6.2 innings (he also walked six batters). In addition to those five Cactus League appearances, he pitched for the Giants in their exhibition game against Team USA, and while it didn’t go well — he ceded five earned runs in 2.2 innings — he had some impressive pitches, and struck out stars Roman Anthony and Gunnar Henderson.
He’ll start the season in Sacramento’s rotation, along with a few other high-profile arms for the Giants. It seems all but certain that, health permitting, we’ll see Tidwell in San Francisco at some point this year, perhaps filling in for the Giants rotation, or perhaps in a role as a heat-throwing high-leverage reliever.
Notably, while this is the fourth round of cuts, Tidwell was the first player that the Giants have optioned this spring. That speaks both to the unresolved camp battles at play, and the smattering of players on the 40-man roster who don’t have options.
As for Holton, he got a lot of playing time as an NRI, appearing in 19 games and getting 37 plate appearances. He didn’t hit very well, though, as he went 7-34 with two extra-base hits, seven strikeouts, and one walk, for a .680 OPS and a 71 wRC+, with fairly soft contact. Holton has spent the last three seasons (plus the end of 2022) in AA for the Detroit Tigers, but it seems likely that he’ll begin this year with his first taste of AAA, and will likely serve as emergency depth a la Trenton Brooks two years ago.
The Giants began camp with 19 NRIs, and are now down to 10 (they’ve assigned 10 to Minor League camp, while adding one in Joey Lucchesi). Add in Tidwell’s optioning, and the team has trimmed its roster to 49 players … which means they still need to make 23 cuts (or IL placements) before next Wednesday.
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