Giants center fielder Harrison Bader, shown in a game last month, didn’t play Friday because of a hamstring issue. He is expected to be ready for the season opener on Wednesday, manager Tony Vitello said.
Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Harrison Bader was the lone expected starter left out of the San Francisco Giants’ lineup for Friday’s game against the Kansas City Royals.
He’s dealing with left hamstring tightness, the team announced, and is day-to-day. Manager Tony Vitello doesn’t like to make definitive statements, but he’s confident the Giants’ center fielder will be ready for Opening Day on Wednesday.
“He’s doing good. If you ask us, he’s doing good and moving along and getting in a comfort zone,” Vitello said. “I don’t know for a fact, but if you ask him he’s not doing good because he wants to do what he wants to do and that’s being on the field all the time.”
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Bader, signed to a two-year contract this offseason, is batting .316 with a home run in nine Cactus League games. He played for Team Israel, eliminated in the pool round of the World Baseball Classic.
The rest of the Giants’ projected starters did just fine in the Cactus League’s penultimate game. Matt Chapman hit his third home run of the spring, a game-tying two-run blast in the third inning. Then Luis Arráez struck a single into shallow center field and scored on Willy Adames’ double and Jung Hoo Lee poked an RBI single into right field. The Giants won 5-2.
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All is in motion. Friday, the roster narrowed and the Opening Day outlook grew a bit clearer.
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The Giants made three more cuts, reassigning infielder Osleivis Basabe, right-handed pitcher Gregory Santos and outfielder Victor Bericoto.
The Giants have 39 players in big-league camp. There’s a good chance that players cut this deep in spring training will have their number called by San Francisco at some point in the season. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Santos and Bericoto, in particular, down the line.
With Bericoto out, Jerar Encarnacion, Luis Matos, Will Brennan, Drew Gilbert and non-roster invitee Jared Oliva are the outfielders who remain in contention for a bench spot. Encarnacion and Matos are out of options, so not including them on the Opening Day roster would risk losing both.
Including both on the roster, though, would tilt the bench very right-handed. Brennan and Gilbert are the left-handed hitters who remain and Oliva is an intriguing option, getting on base and stealing 14 bags this spring.
The Giants have three non-roster pitchers still vying for a bullpen job: Joey Lucchesi, Caleb Kilian and Michael Fulmer. Trevor McDonald and Carson Seymour are among the younger pitchers contending for the bullpen, and Seymour inched himself closer to a role on Friday. He recovered from a two-walk seventh inning with an easy 1-2-3 eighth with a strikeout.
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Seymour has a powerful sinker/four-seam fastball and slider this bullpen needs. Folks in the front office are pushing for Seymour to start with Triple-A, while others see him as a potential late innings option or, at least, someone who can eat a few innings as he did on Friday, Vitello said.
“I see him as kind of a swing guy,” Vitello said. “I think everybody’s right, as long as he’s the guy he was in the second inning. … For Seymour to be as big as he is and have the imposing stuff he does, it just makes complete sense for him to attack the plate the way he did in the second inning.”
Santos consistently threw 100 mph and has the stuff to make an impact out of the bullpen. But a personal matter kept him out for a decent chunk of camp, and when he returned he didn’t have his best command.
“I really think utilizing his stuff,” Vitello said, asked what Santos could work on. “It’s an easy answer, but a true answer, but getting into rhythm. It’s why we were in heavy pursuit in the offseason.”
Barney Nugent: Bericoto is this year’s Barney Nugent Award winner, given to the player in his first big league camp “whose performance and dedication in Spring Training best exemplify the San Francisco Giants’ spirit,” the team said in its announcement.
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Vitello has described Bericoto as “hitterish” and he lived up to the name this spring, batting .429 with 14 RBIs, three home runs and three doubles in 20 games. The 24-year-old exemplified that name when he took his bat with him to give his speech to the team following his award win.
Bericoto’s standout spring at the plate and his positional versatility make him more viable for a big-league call up. In the minors, he played first base in addition to the outfield.
“It was awesome and in general because it’s deserved,” Vitello said. “He ran away with those votes even though guys like Parks Harber went about their business every day, which is the spirit of the award and showed some things on the field to get excited about. The thing about it is that if you’re in there, he brought his bat up there with him. He’d been hitting in the cage so it shows he’s a good worker.”