3 SF Giants players surprisingly excluded from Opening Day roster

The SF Giants finished a successful spring training as runner-up for the highly coveted Cactus League title (behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, of course), but some of the tougher roster decisions weren’t answered until the very last second, i.e. in the 24 hours leading up to Opening Day against the New York Yankees.

Naturally, the team wanted to keep their options open and spend every second they could analyzing all the information they collected over spring to make their final roster determinations. Here’s where the final roster lands for their season-opening series:

SF Giants set Opening Day roster with a few surprising omissions

A lot of these choices have been fairly obvious ones for at least the past week, especially after Bryce Eldridge was optioned last Thursday. Eldridge would make a lot of Giants fans’ lists of three players that were surprisingly left off the roster, but he doesn’t make this one.

There’s been a lot of talk about his need for cutting back on strikeouts, and it’s warranted - the lanky prodigy is still only 21 years old, with only 74 career games at Triple-A under his belt. Playing there every day, and honing his craft playing first base there, can help him build some momentum for when he inevitably gets called back up later in the season.

Now for three players who I was surprised didn’t make it past the final round of cuts –

Spencer Bivens

For a bullpen that seemed as utterly devoid of talent as this one heading into Spring Training, Bivens initially was perhaps the surest thing to make the squad behind Ryan Walker and José Buttó. He was with the team all year long last year, pitching to a respectable 4.00 ERA over 81 innings of work, which is quite a lot for a middle reliever.

He’s not one to blow batters away with his stuff, as he only struck out 61 in that run of work, but he also did a great job of limiting the long ball, only giving up six all year. Bivens had two options remaining, so from that perspective he’s nice depth to stash away in Sacramento. As a 31-year-old who had a lengthy run of moderate success with the club over the last two seasons, though, he has to be disappointed to not make the team. That Caleb Kilian won a roster spot over him is a surprise, even though Kilian performed slightly better in their limited spring samples.

Luis Matos

Matos entered spring training in a very tumultuous position, and his performance was very up-and-down, which seems to be par for the course so far in his career. Once a top prospect, Matos has shown tiny flashes of brilliance while struggling mightily to get on base over parts of three seasons with the Giants.

He’s still only 24, and the Giants gave him every opportunity to take a bench job and run with it this spring, as he led the team with 55 plate appearances. He hit two homers in that time, but only drew a single walk, which punctuates his extreme issues with hyper-aggressiveness at the plate.

In the end, the Giants decided Jared Oliva’s superior speed and defense were more valuable qualities to have on their bench than whatever contributions they could expect from Matos. The young outfielder is out of options and will have to be designated for assignment, so assuming another outfield-needy team will snap him up and hope a change of scenery does him some good, his tenure in the organization has come to an unfortunate close.

Trevor McDonald

McDonald was nails in his first three appearances in camp, only allowing two hits in six innings of work. That display was a continuation of the excellent finish he had to last season, and with Hayden Birdsong falling victim to Tommy John surgery, McDonald’s claim to a long relief role was practically written in pen. Unfortunately, that pen was apparently pretty dry, and no ink showed up on the paper where his name should have gone.

If his first three appearances this spring were Jekyll, his last three were definitely Hyde – he was tattooed for nine earned runs, including four homers allowed, in just 5.2 innings. The Giants had enough options behind him on the depth chart, including Kilian and Keaton Winn, to make burning one of McDonald’s options a defensible choice. He’s still right in the conversation for next man up whenever an injury pops up somewhere in the Giants’ pitching staff, and that’s practically assured to happen in the season’s first month or two.