The Giants have lost 51 of their first 78 games, and are on pace to become the first team in franchise history to lose more than 100 games in a single season.
What’s to blame for the team’s monumental struggles?
On Monday morning, a convenient theory emerged, as Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported new closer Mark Melancon “rubbed some teammates the wrong way” upon arriving in San Francisco with his insistence on changing the Giants’ relievers’ stretching routine.
The Giants signed Melancon for $62 million this offseason and expected him to become a clubhouse leader and the world’s best fireman, considering San Francisco’s bullpen burst into flames during the team’s late-season collapse in 2016.
While Melancon’s on-field performance hasn’t been up to the standard he and the Giants expected, he’s been forthright in acknowledging that he needs to pitch better for the team to have more success. Off the field, though? Melancon and manager Bruce Bochy aren’t buying the story that he’s created dissension among fellow relievers and the rest of his Giants’ teammates.
“It’s pole-vaulting over mouse turds, to be honest,” Bochy said.
Bochy went on to say that the changes Melancon has brought to the relievers’ pregame routine have been well received, and that’s he thought the issue, or lack thereof, was a “non-story.”
Melancon addressed the story in the clubhouse on Monday afternoon, and said he was shocked to learn that changes to the Giants’ stretching routine could create such a stir. The Giants’ closer said he felt like Allen Iverson –who once famously said, “We talking about practice,”– because he needed to address stretching.
“If this is the thing that we can point at and say this is the reason for the bad year so far, then please bring it on,” Melancon said. “We’re talking about stretching right? Stretching. I feel like Allen Iverson talking about stretching. Yeah, we’re still talking about stretching. I don’t want to talk about stretching, but if we’re talking about stretching, we can do it. That’s about it.”
Melancon has been upfront about his struggles this season and said that he’s impressed that the Giants’ players haven’t given up on their season even though the team has performed well below expectations. The team’s premier free agent acquisition went on to say that San Francisco has plenty of veterans and proven winners on its roster this season, and expressed confidence in their ability to reverse the team’s fortunes.
“Other” News
While the Melancon story dominated the Giants’ news cycle, Bochy offered plenty of other updates on Giants’ players who are either dealing with injuries or struggling with their on-field performance of late.
On Austin Slater, who left Sunday’s game with a tight right hip flexor: “I talked to Dave Groeschner, he thinks he’ll be available to pinch hit today, tomorrow then possibly could start on Wednesday. So good news there with him as far as this situation.”
On Madison Bumgarner, who made a rehab start in Arizona on Sunday: “He’s coming along fine. No setbacks so he’s here, he’ll take a pen I think tomorrow, he’ll take BP today and then his next start, I think five days from yesterday, he’ll be ready to go. I did talk to him in the office a little bit today and he feels great. We’re getting good news on him with where he’s at.”
On Jarrett Parker, who is on a rehab assignment with AAA Sacramento: “He’s coming along. Parker, all good on that end too. He’s doing his rehab getting his at-bats. He’s got what, 20 days there and we’ll have to make a call. If he’s ready, we’ll probably bring him up. If not, we may have to extend him.”
On Eduardo Nunez, who is on the disabled list with a strained hamstring: “He’s out there taking groundballs and doing some things, so hopefully Friday he’ll be ready to go.”
On Matt Moore, and whether he would consider skipping Moore’s turn in the rotation: “I think right now we’re better off pitching him. Shoot, he was so good in Atlanta it’s really I think important to keep him going. I don’t think he wants to take longer than five days to think about it or whatever or take a step back, there’s no health issues involved. So with that, the reason I think he needs to keep pitching and I think he’s really close, I do, because of some of these starts he probably just tried to establish the fastball a little too much and didn’t have great command of it and that’s why he got burned there early in the game.”
