SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 A day after an erratic outing where his velocity noticeably dropped, the Giants placed right-handed Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3 on the 15-day injured list with right arm fatigue.<\/p>\n
Right-hander Blade Tidwell, who played under Tony Vitello at Tennessee, was called up in a corresponding move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think looking back on it, I think he had an opportunity to maybe communicate some stuff to us, and we also had an opportunity to see things a little quicker,\u201d said manager Tony Vitello. \u201cOther than that, I feel like we\u2019re in a decent spot. He\u2019s had some issues that he\u2019s familiar with. Right now, it\u2019s just a strain and he\u2019s going to get checked out. So, I\u2019m hoping for best-case scenario which, I know for him personally, is to be available to pitch in a day or two. But hopefully, we\u2019ll get to that point sooner than later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Butt\u00f3, 28, faced eight batters and recorded just one out in his relief appearance against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday afternoon, allowing four runs and walking four batters. The right-hander\u2019s velocity was concerningly low, and he barely touched 90 mph by the end of the day.<\/p>\n
Last month, Butt\u00f3 helped Team Venezuela win its first World Baseball Classic title alongside second baseman Luis Arraez, pitching a scoreless inning in the final against the United States. When Vitello was asked about the potential impact of the WBC, he responded that every instance is case-by-case.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also think it\u2019s going to be hard to identify that. Because if you\u2019re not throwing in one spot, you\u2019re throwing in the other \u2014 and vice versa,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cI\u2019m well-aware which one\u2019s more intense. \u2026 So, it\u2019s hard to exactly quantify, but it is something that you could come up with theories. My biggest concern is I just don\u2019t want worst-case scenario with him, where he\u2019s out for a big long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with Butt\u00f3, two-time All-Star Logan Webb made two starts for Team USA, allowing one run over 8 2\/3 innings. Webb has allowed nine runs over 11 innings (7.36 ERA) with 12 strikeouts to five walks in his first two starts, but doesn\u2019t believe the WBC has impacted him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was waiting for that question,\u201d Webb said on Tuesday with a smile. \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so. I signed up for that. It\u2019s what I chose to do. There\u2019s some different travel and different atmospheres that I went through \u2014 adrenaline \u2014 but if I was tired, hypothetically, it\u2019s my own fault. I feel great right now. It\u2019s not that. Like I said, I think I\u2019m a little off. I\u2019m trying to figure it out as we go. Luckily, it\u2019s a long baseball season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tidwell and outfielder Drew Gilbert were acquired last July by the Giants in the trade that sent Tyler Rogers to the New York Mets. The right-hander made his major league debut with the Mets last season, allowing 15 earned runs over 15 innings in four appearances, but he has yet to appear in a game with the Giants.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone wants to play in the big leagues and it\u2019s great to be here,\u201d Tidwell said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little extra special because Tony was my manager in college.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tidwell allowed seven runs over 6 2\/3 innings (9.45 ERA) with 13 strikeouts to six walks during spring training and was part of the first wave of significant cuts. He made his season debut with Triple-A Sacramento on Sunday, pitching 2 2\/3 scoreless innings with three strikeouts to one walk.<\/p>\n
Vitello said that Tidwell could pitch in a swingman role, but added he could use Tidwell in other roles, including high-leverage situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlade, right now, is probably best suited to come in and get three outs for us, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s past his conditioning to go out there, at the very least, up and down twice,\u201d Vitello said.<\/p>\n
Vitello sets tentative date for Devers\u2019 return to first base<\/p>\n
Rafael Devers has been limited to designated hitter as he manages lingering hamstring tightness, but Vitello said Devers could make his return to first base by the Giants\u2019 next homestand \u201cat the very least.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants\u2019 next homestand begins on April 21 against the Dodgers, but Devers could make his season debut at first base before that meeting with Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
With Devers still at designated hitter, Vitello started Casey Schmitt at first base over Jerar Encarnacion, who has only had one at-bat this season. On Wednesday, Schmitt failed to haul in a pair of throws from third baseman Matt Chapman. Chapman, in a moment of frustration, told Schmitt to \u201ccatch the (expletive) ball\u201d during a fifth-inning mound visit, but both sides said they hashed things out.<\/p>\n
When Vitello was asked if starting Schmitt at first was a vote of confidence after Wednesday\u2019s misplays, Vitello responded that there\u2019s \u201cno agenda with the lineup other than trying to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmitt was originally assigned an error after failing to catch Chapman\u2019s throw in the first inning of Wednesday\u2019s game, but it was announced on Thursday morning that the error had been re-assessed to Chapman. That scoring change gave Chapman two errors from Wednesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 A day after an erratic outing where his velocity noticeably dropped, the Giants placed right-handed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,2178,162,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-659897","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-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-giants","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-giants","18":"tag-sfgiants","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116338077905727936","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659897","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=659897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}