Giants less likely to trade from rotation after Anthony DeSclafani Injury

Within the past week, multiple reports have emerged about the Giants receiving interest in their starting pitchers. There was some thought that San Francisco could deal a back-end starter for help elsewhere on the roster.

President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi downplayed that possibility when meeting with the SF beat last night (link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Area). 

Pointing to the recent placement of Anthony DeSclafani on the 15-day injured list (plus an injury to Triple-A righty Keaton Winn), Zaidi said the front office is “kind of in a different position than we were even a week ago” with regards to the pitching. As a result, he stated “it’s less likely we explore something there. It kind of feels like we have just enough pitching to be comfortable and to have some options, but we’ll see what happens over the next day.”

At the same time, it doesn’t seem the Giants are anxious to add rotation depth either. Asked about that possibility, Zaidi noted the club’s success when deploying openers and/or bullpen games. He’s also spoken previously about his comfort with the likes of Alex Wood, Sean Manaea, Ross Stripling and Jakob Junis behind staff ace Logan Webb. At the beginning of July, the baseball operations leader said the Giants were likely only to get involved for potential top-of-the-rotation arms — which are generally lacking in supply this deadline season anyhow.

Still, the loss of DeSclafani deals something of a hit to the group. The righty hasn’t had a great season, carrying a 4.88 ERA with a below-average 18.9% strikeout rate. He trails only Webb and Cobb on the team in innings pitched, though. DeSclafani is battling a flexor strain in his throwing elbow. The team announced last night the righty was headed for a second opinion (relayed by Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle). There’s a possibility the injury will end his season, though the results of further imaging will obviously determine that.

While the Giants might be quiet on the pitching front, they’ll surely continue working the phones over the next six-plus hours. San Francisco has been searching for middle infield help for some time. Thairo Estrada is headed out on a minor league rehab stint, perhaps reducing the urgency to add there, but there’s still room for an acquisition given Estrada’s and Brandon Crawford’s recent health concerns.