Phoenix – As expected, Brandon Crawford was activated by the Giants on Tuesday at Chase Field. As expected, Joey Bart was in the club.
But the rest of the moves offered some surprises, and put the Giants in a precarious position.
The Giants activated Crawford, left-footed Jose Alvarez, and Donovan Walton’s option to Triple-A. An MRI revealed that Kurt Casale He has a Class 2 slasher strain Which will likely keep him out of the house for at least a month, but Bart is on the taxi squad right now, not active.
That means Tuesday’s reserve catcher is Yermin Mercedes, which most raters don’t consider a big league catcher and also starts from DH. With Thairo Estrada on COVID IL, standby stops are… Evan Longoria and Wilmer Flores.
Teams generally don’t get into games thinking their catcher or shortstop is going to get hurt, but it does, and there’s a weird glitch on the menu at the moment. Gabe Kapler wasn’t worried before Tuesday’s game. He said BART will be activated soon.
“There is no reason to deviate from the thing that rarely happens,” Kapler said of the menu imbalance. “Did this happen yesterday to Kurt? Sure. Could it happen today? Sure. But then again, it’s one of those improbable things that you plan and prepare for but don’t go overboard with, if that makes sense.”
Crawford is an Ironman and said he feels physically comfortable after 10 days on IL to allow his knee and other ailments to heal. Bart was off the roster for other reasons, spending several days working on swing adjustments before running seven matches in Triple-A.
Kapler said there were some slight signs of progress in Triple-A, but admitted that in an ideal world the Giants would have given him more time there.
That’s not possible after Casale got nervous on Monday. He said it was his first slash and called it “gut pain.” Casale will return to San Francisco to begin rehab after an injury likely to keep him out of the house until August.
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At some point in this journey, the Giants hope to return to a more natural alignment. Estrada still has a sore throat but will be back on the pitch when it’s gone. Bart will soon join Wynns as an option in the catcher, possibly on Wednesday.
“There is a good chance that it will be activated for us in the next few days,” Kapler said. “(This) was just a good opportunity because Austin was about to catch today’s match anyway to have Jermine in the lineup again in the DH and see where we are after the match.”
