The Giants' 40-man roster crunch is coming. Where it stands before Beck, Cobb, others return (2024)

The Giants are about to have a gnarly 40-man roster crunch. You might have read about it on this site in reference to Hayden Birdsong, or you might have read about it in the San Francisco Chronicle, and it’s about to become a much bigger deal. The following players don’t currently count against the 40-man roster because they’re on the 60-day IL, but they will have to be added back (or designated for assignment) when they’re healthy:

• Tristan Beck
• Alex Cobb
• Robbie Ray
• Tom Murphy

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There are others, like Austin Warren and Ethan Small, whose status is more uncertain, both in terms of health and long-term future with the organization, so focus on those four. I’m not going to start playing roster chess and speculate who might make room for these players, if only because those exercises assume that nobody else will need to go on the 60-day IL. You’ve watched the 2024 Giants. You will make no such assumptions.

Instead, consider this more of a primer on the Giants’ 40-man roster. Who are the players on it? Why are they there? Are they contributing to the roster crunch?

To do this, we’ll separate the players into different categories.

Players the Giants were/are counting on

An important disclaimer as you go through this group: This is not the same thing as “deserves to be on the 40-man roster” or “is impossible to remove.” We’re not here to debate the merits of these specific players. This is just a grouping of players who very clearly fit into the season-long plans of the Giants at some point, either in the recent past or present.

Catchers (2)

Patrick Bailey
Blake Sabol

Infielders (5)

Matt Chapman
Thairo Estrada
Wilmer Flores
Brett Wisely
LaMonte Wade Jr.

Outfielders (5)

Michael Conforto
Heliot Ramos
Austin Slater
Mike Yastrzemski
Jorge Soler

Pitchers (10)

Camilo Doval
Kyle Harrison
Jordan Hicks
Sean Hjelle
Luke Jackson
Taylor Rogers
Tyler Rogers
Blake Snell
Ryan Walker
Logan Webb

Some of these players have only recently been promoted into this category, like Hjelle, Ramos and Wisely. They can be relegated like East Bonningtomshire FC if they go into an extended slump, but they look extremely steady for now.

Young players who were added directly ahead of the Rule 5 Draft

If these players weren’t added to the roster when they were, they would have been eligible for the Rule 5 Draft, and the Giants considered them a threat to be selected. For example, if they didn’t add Marco Luciano to the 40-man in November 2022, it’s possible that the Nationals or A’s would have drafted him and kept him on their roster for the entire 2023 season. After that season, they could send him up or down at will like a normal prospect. It’s what the A’s did with Ryan Noda and what the Giants did with Sabol last year.

Infielder (1)

Marco Luciano (2022)

Outfielder (1)

Luis Matos (2022)

The Matos decision was one of the trickier ones in recent memory because it followed a disappointing season in the low minors. If they added him, they would keep him away from teams that were still fans of his youth and scouting report, but it also meant that they’d have an outfielder who was very unlikely to make the majors until 2024, at the earliest.

As it turns out, he hit so well in 2023 that he was up ahead of schedule. There’s a chance that he’ll permanently get off the I-80 express soon, if not this season.

Pitchers (5)

Trevor McDonald (2023)
Erik Miller (2023)
Randy Rodríguez (2021)
Kai-Wei Teng (2023)
Keaton Winn (2022)

Miller and Rodríguez both show the potential to become high-leverage relievers, and follow the same path that Ryan Walker took from last season to this one. Winn is having a disastrous season, but he still figures into the long-term plans.

Teng is having an unbelievably tough time in Triple-A Sacramento, regressing in every meaningful way. McDonald missed the first month-and-a-half of the season, but now he’s in High-A Eugene and missing bats (and the strike zone, but give him time). It wouldn’t be unthinkable that either one of them could be traded, or that the Giants are reasonably confident they might pass through waivers.

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Young player who was added late in the season, in large part because of the Rule 5 Draft

Infielder/Outfielder (1)

Young players who were added in the first half of the season before they were Rule 5-eligible that offseason

Infielders (2)

Casey Schmitt (2023)
David Villar (2022)

Both third basem*n forced their way onto the roster with strong Triple-A performances. Schmitt was the better prospect at the time of his call up, and he was likely to be added after the season, regardless of what happened in Triple A. Villar needed to hit his way into 40-man consideration, and he did, with a 1.022 OPS and 27 homers in just 298 at-bats. A relatively slow start wasn’t ideal for his short- or long-term future with the club, but he’s back on the active roster after an absurdly hot June for the River Cats (.386/.451/.818).

Pitchers (2)

Mason Black (2024)
Landen Roupp (2024)

Here’s where you really start to get into the woulda-coulda-shouldas. The Giants were likely to add both pitchers after the season, and they needed to replace the bulk innings that they lost when Tristan Beck went on the 60-day IL. Roupp got a late start this spring training, but he was the talk of camp when he got going. He landed on the IL after he went down to Sacramento at the end of April, and he’s only now making rehab appearances in Rookie League (looking good in two outings).

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The need for bulk innings didn’t go away, so they selected Black’s contract. When he was added to the 40-man roster, he had a 1.01 ERA in six PCL starts.

Both pitchers made sense at the time. A lot of sense. But it’s June 25 and the Giants have a two-man rotation in part because they aren’t getting contributions from either Black or Roupp. Roupp might be on his way at some point, but Black has allowed 17 earned runs in his last three games (7 2/3 innings).

If/when the Giants get Beck, Cobb and Ray back, the 40-man roster will be crowded, and that’s in large part because of the solutions the Giants were forced to find when they were gone.

Added to fill an immediate need

Catcher (1)

Curt Casali (2024)

Infielder (1)

Nick Ahmed (2024)

Pitchers (3)

Spencer Bivens (2024)
Raymond Burgos (2024)
Spencer Howard (2024)

Maybe Ahmed should be in the first category, and maybe Casali should too, depending on how Tom Murphy is or isn’t progressing, but this is the section where you shouldn’t overthink it. Trenton Brooks was in the first draft of this article, for example.

Both Bivens and Howard have had their moments, and you don’t have to hurt your brain imagining how they could help in the short term, if not the long term. You might say the Giants are enjoying Spencers Gifts. It would be surprising to see them removed from the roster. It would not be a surprise to find that my editor nixed this whole paragraph just because of that joke.

Added midseason, despite not being eligible for the Rule 5

Outfielder (1)

Wade Meckler (2023)

With the benefit of hindsight, this one is so obvious. But, man. Sometimes you want a team to take a risk like this, even when the potential downsides are so obvious. Meckler started the 2023 season hitting .439 for Eugene, so they moved him up to Double-A Richmond, where he hit .336. “OK, hot shot,” they said. “Let’s see how you handle Sacramento.” So Meckler hit .400 there.

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More context: After being right around the middle of the pack in most offensive statistics, including runs scored, the Giants hit .209 and averaged 3.32 runs per game in July. They were off to an almost identical start for the first 11 games in August.

What were the Giants supposed to do? Can you imagine the reaction to a quote from Farhan Zaidi that said, “Look, we don’t need to add him to the 40-man roster for several years, and if he doesn’t work out right away, he might lead to a bit of a roster crunch in 2024”? Fans might have printed up “Roster Crunch” stickers to put on their Cracker Jack in protest.

Meckler had a great spring this year, and he probably would have been up again if not for a hit-by-pitch that broke his hand. He’s still building up strength, and maybe he’ll join the mini-youth brigade soon.

But there are risks that come with adding a player to the 40-man roster so soon after he’s drafted. Here’s one of them.

That’s the story of the current 40-man roster, and, really, the roster crunch isn’t that crunchy. The Giants will figure it out. Or maybe the baseball gods will figure it out for them. But if you’re hearing about an impending roster crunch, here’s how the Giants got there. Second-guessers, start your typing fingers.

(Top photo of Wade Meckler: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

Grant Brisbee is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering the San Francisco Giants. Grant has written about the Giants since 2003 and covered Major League Baseball for SB Nation from 2011 to 2019. He is a two-time recipient of the SABR Analytics Research Award. Follow Grant on Twitter @GrantBrisbee