SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Tony Vitello’s big day looms ever so closer.
The Giants concluded spring training with a 10-7 win over the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday afternoon at Scottsdale Stadium, their 19-9 record being the second-best in the Cactus League behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now, all that stands between Vitello and his first regular-season game as a professional is three exhibitions — one against the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats on Sunday and two against Sultanes de Monterrey of the Mexican League on Monday and Tuesday.
“When you come out here, it’s a party,” Vitello said of his first spring. “The weather’s great — it got a little hot — but these spring training games are a lot of fun and you get to see a lot of the future stars of tomorrow, but also see that game against USA and some of the best players in the league. … Next time around, I’m going to try and do a better job of getting my sleep during the non-baseball hours, but the baseball part was a lot of fun.”
Vitello had never attended a spring training game before becoming the Giants’ 40th manager in franchise history, never mind navigating a full six-week spring training in the desert.
The rookie manager was satisfied with how the spring went overall, noting that there were small things he would like to do differently or more efficiently next time around. He praised catching coach and major league field coordinator Alex Burg for creating the day-to-day schedules, as well as bench coach Jayce Tingler for implementing them.
“They fed off each other really well,” Vitello said. “I think a lot of people felt like the attention to detail was at an all-time high with those two. … It was huge. To be honest with you, we’ve talked about infield play, it’s obvious you can lean on a guy like (Ron Washington), but with Burgy, it’s his first year doing this.
“With Jayce, because of the relationship, knew exactly what I was getting into there. I want to be involved, I like to get active, but there’s not a soul out there — it’s human nature. You like when pressure or extra work is taken off your plate, and I think those two probably did it as much as anybody.”
San Francisco departs Arizona with several important roster decisions yet to be made.
The biggest roster-related domino fell on Thursday evening when the Giants optioned top prospect Bryce Eldridge to Triple-A Sacramento. Eldridge’s exclusion from the Opening Day roster provides a clearer path for Luis Matos and Jerar Encarnacion to both make the team out of camp, but non-roster invitee Jared Oliva continues to make a compelling last-minute push.
Oliva, 30, wrapped up an excellent spring by going two-for-three with a three-run home run against the Guardians. Along with an impressive .375/.444/.550 slash line over 46 plate appearances, Oliva’s 14 steals on 15 attempts led the Cactus League by a wide margin.
Despite Oliva’s eye-opening spring, the Giants may still choose to lean with Encarnacion and/or Matos since they’re both out of options. Still, Oliva’s elite basestealing ability — he swiped 57 bags on 63 attempts in Triple-A last season — could land him in San Francisco at some point this season.
“He’s made a great (impression) overall,” Vitello said. “It’s nice to see that swing for sure and the result was great overall, but you have to decompartmentalize, if that’s the right way to say it. You’ve got a bunch of good days for some guys, and some days, you don’t catch a break or it’s not your day. The whole story for him was he’s a huge threat on the bases.”
The Giants’ Opening Day bullpen has yet to be finalized either, and while Trevor McDonald made a strong early case to begin Cactus League play, the right-hander has struggled in his last three outings.
Over McDonald’s first three outings, he tossed six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts. Over his last three outings, by contrast, McDonald has surrendered nine runs over 5 2/3 innings, five of which were allowed on Saturday against the Guardians.
“The good and the bad, you’ve got to kind of let the sample size play out,” Vitello said. “I would argue even in spring training, for a lot of guys, it ends up not being the best or most appropriate sample size. Everybody has a different offseason leading into this that tells a little bit of the story, too. I think his whole body of work was pretty good. Outing wasn’t so good today, but that’s going to be a part of things. When you do have the outings that aren’t ideal, you’ve got to figure out a way to weather the storm and get things under control.”
Worth noting
Rafael Devers has exclusively been used as a designated hitter since returning from left hamstring tightness, but Vitello expects Devers to play an exhibition game at first base before Wednesday’s season opener.