The last vestiges of the Eduardo Nunez trade from 2017 exist in the form of reliever Gregory Santos, whom the Boston Red Sox signed as an amateur free agent allllll the way back in 2015. It wouldn’t be until 2021 that he’d make his major league debut with the San Francisco Giants and after 5.2 innings across 2021 & 2022, the Giants traded him away for pitcher Kade McClure, who did not pan out. Such is the mystery of Baseball. He’s now back with the Giants and will be on the major league roster for them tonight, taking the place of Blade Tidwell.
The 26-year old flamethrowing righty had a great 2023 season for the Chicago White Sox. He was a 1.5-fWAR reliever in 66.1 IP with a 52.5% groundball rate and a 3.39 ERA, but also a 2.65 FIP. He pitched just 14.1 innings over the past two seasons for Seattle, and were bumpy to say the least (5.02 ERA / 4.41 FIP). He’s allowed just 3 runs (all earned) in 11 innings for Sacramento so far with just 6 strikeouts. So, it’s weak contact when things are going well. Sort of a “best case scenario” Joel Peguero, perhaps. He’s the Giants’ ideal form of reliever, stretching back for at least the past decade: high velocity sinker (in this case, 97+) and 2,500+ rpm slider.
That’ll be an interesting change from Blade Tidwell from a stuff perspective. He has a six-pitch mix and gets a bit more swing and miss. On the other hand, the Giants might still see him as a starter, and with Adrian Houser pitching closer to his career averages and Tyler Mahle likely to hit the IL at some point, having a quality starter ready to go will be a necessity here very soon. But he looked great as a reliever.
For now, the Giants will hope that Santos can regain some of that 2023 magic and slide right into that bailout in the 5th inning or start the 6th clean role to make the 7th and beyond a fun game of Keaton Winn/Ryan Walker/Caleb Kilian/Erik Miller.
To clear a spot for him on the 40-man roster, outfielder Jared Oliva was transferred to the 60-day IL while he recovers from hamate surgery. Welcome back to the Giants and the big leagues, Gregory!
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