SF Giants ship a pair of struggling pitchers with local ties in separate trades

The SF Giants recently designated both Daulton Jefferies and Mitch White for assignment. Both of these Bay Area natives struggled in their brief stints with the Giants, but they now have a chance for a new beginning on a different club.

SF Giants ship a pair of struggling pitchers with local ties in separate trades

This news comes via Maria Guardado who covers the Giants for MLB.com. It does not come as much of a surprise since both pitchers struggled in the brief amount of time they were on the Giants as bulk relievers.

Jefferies, who was born in Merced and went to Cal Berkeley, signed a minor league deal with the Giants last December. He made sense as a guy who pitched under Bob Melvin in Oakland and had shown some promise. He had a solid Spring Training with the Giants and made the team's fourth start of the year in San Diego but got knocked around for 9 runs, 5 of which were earned, in 2 innings.

He was sent down after that and did not pitch again in the big leagues until May 1st when he gave up 4 earned runs in 2 and 2/3 innings pitched in Boston. He was designated for assignment shortly after that.

The Giants traded Jefferies to the Pirates in exchange for outfielder Rodolfo Nolasco. Jefferies will be just the latest former Giants to join the Pirates organization.

San Jose native and Santa Clara University product Mitch White was acquired via trade earlier this year from the Blue Jays. He was seen as an experiment that could potentially work out as the Giants were trying to figure out the bottom half of their bullpen.

White struggled mightily to the tune of an 11.81 ERA in two appearances as a Giant. This included a brutal appearance in a rain-soaked Philadelphia when the Giants were down by a lot early and White just had to eat up innings. The Giants traded White to the Brewers in exchange for cash.

With Sean Hjelle showing the most promise as a bulk reliever thus far, it seems the Giants were comfortable letting White and Jefferies go.

It is a shame that things did not work out for either of these Bay Area natives with the Giants. Perhaps a change of scenery will help get them back on track.