Giants Talk: Why San Francisco promoted outfield Jonah Cox from Double-A

“Giants Talk” hosts Cole Kuiper and Alex Pavlovic react to Jonah Cox’s promotion and break down his debut with San Francisco.

Giants Talk: Why San Francisco promoted outfield Jonah Cox from Double-A originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Video Transcript

Other Giants moves.

The Giants call up Jonah Cox from Double-A, entirely skipping Triple-A, and he’s already leading the team in batting average, OPS, and everything, hitting a astounding 141.

Yeah.

A position player.

So- Off a position player Weird one.

I think I saw he’s, like, the first in since like 1920 or something.

I don’t know what, Let’s see.

We had this I saw this in our, in our Slack.

Jonah Cox is the only Giants batter since 1920 with a hit in his first career plate appearance, and that plate appearance was against a position player.

Exactly.

And that’s as far back as our, our, stats company can check.

So, history.

Making history.

what did we think of this move?

Certainly wasn’t something I expected.

I know you have your eye on the, the farm system a little more keenly than I do.

Probably, you have your eye on pretty much everything a little more keenly than I do, but this caught me completely out of left field.

I was surprised.

because you, you go back, it’s like, you know, Matt Duffy did this a long time ago.

Miguel Gomez in 2017 was the last one to do it, and it’s a really interesting one, and it’s one that I don’t think there’s gonna be a middle ground on this in a few weeks.

Mm-hmm.

There’s Either this is a You know, it sounds like he’s gonna start Monday.

Either this is lightning in a bottle and like, you know, something, a desperate speed element that they need.

you know, we should give this He w- they got him in the Ross Stripling trade a couple years ago.

He’s not really much of a prospect, just a speed guy, a good a- good defensive outfielder, and this year just kind of took off.

he was hitting 400 in, in Double-A, so very impressive.

just it, to make that jump, like, you don’t see that much for anybody.

Yeah.

And you don’t see it in the Giants organization.

And they’ve made such a big deal about being slow with guys, and we’ve talked about some of the guys last year who you’re like, “It feels like time for a promotion.”

And I mean, we, we saw the Bryce Eldridge thing this year.

So to jump this guy, it’s, it’s He better play.

I think that’s what I would say.

Like, don’t jump him past Triple-A to, to come sit on the bench.

Yeah.

Is, is one of the things here that his main tool being speed, speed isn’t really something you develop in Triple-A or even in the majors.

You have it or you don’t, and this guy certainly has it.

Yeah, I think, you know, the, the thing about him is, like, he’s, he hasn’t really been a, a big time He hasn’t at all been a big time prospect.

Mm-hmm.

he’s a little bit old for his league.

He’s turning 25 this season.

So even in Triple-A he would’ve been on the older end.

he is a, a speed guy, and yeah, the speed’s gonna be there no matter what.

So I, I don’t think, like, this isn’t This is much different than a, than an Eldridge.

This is different than like a, you know, even like a Jess Rodrguez.

you’re not, there’s not, I don’t think, as much risk of stunting the development.

At the same time, they do keep making these moves and it’s like Eldridge and Rodrguez come up, and now we see Rodrguez barely plays.

Mm-hmm.

and Barracotto’s here, doesn’t really play.

Jonah Cox is here.

Like, is he gonna play or is it gonna be, you know, Drew Gilbert for a few days, and then Harrison Bader comes off the IL, and you’re like, “Okay, we’re back to off to Triple-A you are.”

Yeah.

And I think the concern there then is like, you know for me it’s not as much development, it’s just, like, it’s almost a waste.

Like, we, we make the Wade Mekwer jokes, but they did start Wade Mekwer’s clock before they had to.

Yeah.

And at some point you lose him because he’s, he’s here.

And, yeah, it’s not the ideal development path.

but they felt like they needed the help, and obviously Bader’s hurt and, sounds like he can help.

I, I, I guess the fear would be you just look up and it just feels like they’re kind of throwing these guys out.

Like, “Hey.”

Mm-hmm.

“Lost two games.

Here comes Jonah Cox.”

Like, “Rough road trip.

Here come Eldridge and Rodrguez.

rough times.

Here comes Barracotto.”

So- Yeah there’s been a little bit of that this year, I think.

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