Vitello said<\/a>.<\/p>\nSchmitt was left as the Giants\u2019 best option at first with Eldridge, a 21-year-old considered among the best first base prospects in the game, beginning the season in Triple-A (where he homered in two exhibitions following the decision). Jerar Encarnacion, another right-handed option on the bench, would be a downgrade defensively, Vitello said.<\/p>\n
The Giants\u2019 Luis Arraez signed a $12 million, one-year deal in the offseason, but he has not started at first yet. Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best thing about Jerar is I think he\u2019s got an extra sense of motivation to improve at that position,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cCasey right now is probably a little ahead of him defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants believe Devers can be an above-average defensive first baseman, but they are exercising caution with hamstring tightness that cropped up midway through spring training.<\/p>\n
Devers has played the field just once \u2014 in a March 13 exhibition\u00a0\u2014 since he was scratched from their Feb. 27 spring game with tightness in his left hamstring. He went through pregame drills at first base before Friday\u2019s game against the Yankees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if he had to [play the field] today, he definitely could. I know he\u2019d be willing to,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cBut for us it\u2019s a little bit more about communicating with the medical staff and ultimately taking that info into our conference room as coaches and deciding what is the best move for 162. \u2026 If we felt that was our best lineup with him over there and it was a playoff game, I think we\u2019d do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the discomfort has \u201cfaded\u201d and is \u201cdefinitely a completely different deal from when we were in Arizona until now,\u201d according to Vitello, Devers is still feeling the hamstring tightness \u201ca little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust making sure that we\u2019re setting him up for success down the road,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cI\u2019m not a big fan of the ole two steps forward, one step back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giants manager Tony Vitello is trying to set up his starting rotation for success during the early part of the season. AP<\/p>\n
Giants starting rotation plans<\/p>\n
Buster Posey opted not to get creative with the Giants\u2019 Opening Day roster, despite the team having two days off within the first five days of the season.<\/p>\n
Where the Giants might take advantage of the unique schedule is with their starting rotation. Tyler Mahle will start the final game of this series Saturday, but the Giants could skip Adrian Houser or Landen Roupp in favor of Logan Webb and Robbie Ray a second time through.<\/p>\n
Webb could start on regular rest in the first game of the Giants\u2019 series against the Padres, with Ray going on regular rest to close the series Wednesday. Either Roupp or Houser would likely make their season debut in the middle game of the set Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have a traditional start [to] the season, five days in a row, so just line up your guys the way you want,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cThere\u2019s a good chance we mix and match a little bit different with those first five guys because of the extra off days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hayden Birdsong has surgery<\/p>\n
The operation to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in Hayden Birdsong\u2019s right elbow took place Wednesday, the Giants announced. Dr. Keith Meister performed the procedure, which the club said was a success. Birdsong, 24, will begin the rehab process this week at the Giants\u2019 facilities in Arizona and is expected to miss the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying to check in [and] comfort as I\u2019m supposed to be the coach, but Hayden kind of turned into a coach on me,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cJust with some advice and well wishes for the opening series. He gave me a piece of advice I\u2019m going to take more to heart today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 There\u2019s the slugger expected to hold down the position every day, the top prospect who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,2178,162,4,18513,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-647394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-opening-day","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-san-francisco-giants","15":"tag-sanfrancisco","16":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","17":"tag-sf","18":"tag-sf-giants","19":"tag-sfgiants","20":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116303352756335419","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}