SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Sometimes Opening Day rosters decide themselves. A tight back here, a broken bone there. An option here, a reassignment there. Next thing you know, you have 26 players in place.
The Giants broke camp in Arizona on Saturday with some roster clarity but also with bad news from the trainers’ room: Designated hitter Jerar Encarnacion was diagnosed with a fractured left hand, the result of jamming his ring finger on a play in right field, and will open the season on the injured list.
“Four or five weeks,” Encarnacion said when asked how much time he was told he’ll miss.
It’s a major blow to the offense that could have used the 6-foot-4, 250-pounder’s power bat — especially after his impressive training camp in which he hit .302 and led the Giants with seven doubles and 14 RBIs in 20 games.
Encarnacion said he was told it’s a hairline fracture. Asked if surgery is possible, manager Bob Melvin said, “I think anything is on the table.”
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Melvin mentioned Luis Matos and Wilmer Flores as possible DH candidates. Both had been serving in platoon roles, Matos in right field with Mike Yastrzemski and Flores at first base with LaMonte Wade Jr. Other options are expected to emerge.
”We could spread it around. … It may be as easy as playing the hot hand,” Melvin said.
The news is better for center fielder Jung Hoo Lee, who has been shelved the past week with back spasms. He returned to the field Saturday to work out and do some baseball activity and afterward said he’ll play Sunday night when the Giants face their Triple-A team in Sacramento.
“If everything goes well tomorrow and in the Tiger series, I think there’s a good chance he could start in Cincinnati,” Melvin said of the Giants’ season-opening series. “I’m not guaranteeing anything. He has to get through these games and be physically well.”
Meanwhile, lefty Kyle Harrison was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento, a move that officially trimmed the competition for the final rotation spot to Hayden Birdsong and Landen Roupp, though both could make the roster if one is moved to long relief.
With Roupp’s experience in the bullpen last season, he could make an easy transition to a relief role with Birdsong (who has enjoyed an exceptional spring) sticking as the No. 5 starter. However, Roupp will start for the Giants Sunday in Sacramento while Birdsong is scheduled to be the first reliever.
Harrison, the pride of Concord’s De La Salle High School, is the odd man out, but it’s no surprise because he was behind the others’ progressions throughout camp. He spent the offseason rehabbing his shoulder, had to overcome an illness that left him more than 10 pounds lighter early in camp, and didn’t have much zip on his fastball until his latest outing.
“When you talk about the competition for the five spot, he was never really in it based on the starting point and where he is right now,” Melvin said. “We need to get him up to speed, get him more innings and get him stretched out longer in games. It was always more between Roupp and Birdsong.”
Pitcher Keaton Winn also was optioned, and Joey Lucchesi was reassigned to minor-league camp. Lucchesi’s absence means the Giants will have just one lefty in the bullpen, Erik Miller, a decision management is comfortable with because of the right-handed relievers’ success rate against left-handed batters.
In the Giants’ final Arizona-based exhibition, a 7-7 tie with the Diamondbacks, Justin Verlander pitched his final tuneup and coughed up five runs on nine hits in five innings. While it was his worst outing of camp, the 42-year-old future Hall of Famer had reasons to feel encouraged entering the season.
“I’m healthy,” Verlander said. “That was the biggest thing I wanted coming out of this. I thought the stuff has been kind of trending in the right direction. I thought today was another step in the right direction. I was a little erratic, though, and probably threw a couple of pitches in situations I shouldn’t have. But I felt pretty good about another step forward, health- and movement-wise.”
The Giants finished the Cactus League 19-6-4, the best record in the majors, and have three exhibitions remaining before Opening Day on Sunday at Sacramento, and Monday and Tuesday against the Tigers at Oracle Park.