Spring Injuries Already Filling Out Giants’ Opening Day Roster

It wouldn’t be San Francisco Giants’ baseball without injuries, right?

With Freddy Sanchez‘s recovery not coming along as fast as the Giants’ brass would have hoped and Aubrey Huff‘s already creaky back, it appears that some of the tougher roster decisions going into the regular season might be answered for them.

As Sanchez continues to lack the ability to get on the field from a defensive standpoint, it’s getting more and more evident that he’s going to open the year on the disabled list, clearing a spot for one of the pint-sized infielders in Mike Fontenot, Ryan Theriot and Emmanuel Burriss. You could have safely assumed the first two would have made the roster if Sanchez was healthy, so the hot hitting Burris should claim Sanchez’s spot if when he lands on the DL. One of the three (either Theroit or Burriss) would be pink slipped once Sanchez returns healthy, but it leaves the tough decision that Bochy says he’s facing (har, har) about not bringing Emmanual out of camp.

In addition to Sanchez, Aubrey Huff has been having his issues, namely a back injury that has kept him out of action for a few days. Huff has said that he’s feeling better and he hopes to return to action soon (possibly as soon as tomorrow) but back injuries can be linger-some and tough to recover from without rest, which if that becomes the case, opens the door for Brandon Belt who’s had a fantastic Spring so far and certainly deserves a spot on the big league roster. Of course, Belt sitting on the pine is absolutely worthless, so it needs to be a starting spot which he isn’t going to find without Huff injured – at least for now.

The Giants catching situation is a bit messier, considering Bochy’s love of all things squaty and the injury concern to Buster Posey. It doesn’t make much sense to carry more than two catchers (Posey included) on the roster, though, sad as it is to say I wouldn’t be shocked if they carried all three (Stewart, Whiteside and Posey) on the roster to start the season until they’re fully sure of Posey’s recovery. I hope it doesn’t come to that, especially with Hector Sanchez available in Fresno if a third catcher was needed – but I guess we’ll find out soon.

Barring some miraculous recovery in the next few weeks, it appears the Giants are going to open 2012 less than 100% – which has pretty much become the norm in Giant land.