SF Giants re-sign 4 to minor league deals

Two weeks ago, the SF Giants put through a flurry of roster moves - designating seven players for assignment to open space on the 40-man roster as well asadding six players to the roster to protect them from the upcoming Rule 5 draft. A few days later, the seven DFA'd players and three others all elected free agency after not being tendered contracts.

Recently, the Giants' official transactions page was updated to reflect that four of the 10 had agreed to remain in the organization on minor-league contracts.

Three of the four are right-handed pitchers: Mauricio Llovera, Sam Delaplane and Drew Strotman. The other is third baseman Colton Welker.

Re-signing injured players typical

It was expected that at least some of the group would re-sign as minor leaguers; most of those players finished the regular season on the 60-day injured list and were added to the 40-man as a procedural move as the 60-day list is not available in the offseason. Players who missed a season or will miss the next often are designated for assignment but then signed to a minor-league deal to give them a place to rehab and possibly progress toward the Major Leagues.

Indeed, three of the four were coming off injuries that cost most or all of the 2022 campaign: Llovera, thanks to a forearm strain, made the last of his 17 MLB appearances on July 15 before being put on the injured list; Delaplane was out for most of 2021 and 2022 thanks to Tommy John surgery in April 2021; Welker had left shoulder surgery this past June but was released by the Colorado Rockies in July before San Francisco picked him up and stashed him on the 60-day injured list.

Strotman was the outlier in the injury group. He pitched in a total of 42 games out of the bullpen for the Triple-A affiliates of the Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers in 2022 but was simply placed on waivers by the Rangers after the season and claimed by the Giants (along with catcher Meibrys Viloria, also DFA'd by the Giants), possibly with the intent of releasing him and then offering the minor-league opportunity.