SAN FRANCISCO– With Johnny Cueto returning to action on Friday, Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy announced on Wednesday evening that the team will be using a six-man rotation.
Less than 24 hours later, that plan has already hit its first bump in the road. Madison Bumgarner — the unquestioned ace of the six-man staff — was scratched from Thursday’s start against the St. Louis Cardinals with flu-like symptoms. Matt Cain will start on the mound in Bumgarner’s place.
While Cain has seemingly been a staple in the starting rotation for over a decade, the 32-year-old is not part of the six-man staff that Bochy and the Giants will be rolling out. The scheduled order of the rotation to start on Thursday consisted of Bumgarner, Cueto, Chris Stratton, Jeff Samardzija, Matt Moore and Ty Blach.
The order of the rotation will likely be shaken up when Bumgarner returns to full health and is inserted back into the rotation. That could be as early as Sunday, Bochy said prior to Thursday’s game.
Bumgarner’s scratch won’t affect the scheduled Friday night start for Cueto. A forearm strain has caused Cueto to miss seven weeks, with his last start coming on July 14 at San Diego.
With Johnny Cueto’s return becoming inevitable over the past couple of weeks, questions arose on whose place he would take in the rotation.
The answer? Nobody.
While it’s never ideal to take away starts from the top arms in the rotation, a six-man rotation – at least for the moment – seems to make sense for the Giants, who are out of playoff contention and need to find out more about multiple starters prior to the 2018 season.
Cueto, of course, has only made one start since the All-Star break and the Giants need to give the veteran some starts in the season’s last month and hope he takes some momentum going into the offseason.
Bumgarner has quickly reestablished himself atop the rotation after missing three months from a dirt bike accident. Samardzija leads the National League in innings pitched, and he could benefit from a rest down the stretch.
Although he has had a season to forget, Moore isn’t being removed from the rotation. The Giants have given no indications that they won’t give Moore every chance to prove himself before the end of the season, with the organization holding a $9 million option on the left-hander in 2018.
Blach has arguably been one of the biggest surprises of the season for the Giants. After Bumgarner landed on the disabled list, Blach took his spot in the rotation and proven himself to the point of sticking in the rotation, even after Bumgarner returned.
That leaves Stratton, who many pegged early as the guy that Cueto would replace in the rotation. To Stratton’s credit, however, he’s forced the Giants’ hand with his impressive streak on the mound, going 2-1 in his past four starts, allowing just four runs in 23.2 innings pitched. Even with Cueto returning, the Giants still want to get a further look at Stratton and gain a further assessment of whether or not he can be part of the organization’s long-term vision.
It’s uncertain if the Giants will ride out a six-man rotation all the way to the end of the season. One thing that is certain, though, is that with more off days and September call-ups on the way, the starting rotation will have a lighter work load in the final month of the season.