The front office is sticking with experience in the early going.
The San Francisco Giants need a long man who can go long now and so it seemed like that put Landen Roupp or Sean Hjelle on the shuttle back to Triple-A Sacramento today ahead of the team making room for the recently acquired Mitch White. Maria Guardado reports on Twitter that it’s Roupp getting the call:
The Giants activated Mitch White and optioned Landen Roupp to Triple-A Sacramento.
— Maria I. Guardado (@mi_guardado) April 23, 2024
Roupp’s last appearances was in the blowout loss against the Diamondbacks on Friday night when he allowed 4 runs (3 earned) in 1.2 innings pitched with a walk and a strikeout. His last four games, have been mixed: two shutout appearances totaling 3 innings and two blown up appearances (6 R) totaling 2.1 IP.
Let’s not forget that this is a kid who blew them all away in Spring Training, striking out 13 in 8 innings and allowing just 2 runs. It’s the optionality that hurts him the most, but Statcast shows that the batted ball data points to a bad near-term anyway, with a .317 expected batting average and .550 expected slug on just 34 batted balls (in 191 pitches).
He’ll be back, and with the send down he’ll get a chance to start or bulk up to be an innings eater in the event either White or Hjelle doesn’t work out. On the other hand, White hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since April 12, so he could be a little rusty against major league hitters. Still, the Giants have made this move to gain even a little bit of an advantage over the next week or so, as White’s batted ball data is slightly less scary: .298 expected batting average and .536 expected slug.
The Giants are also swapping out a sinker-curveball guy for a four seam-sweeper guy, and that slight adjustment to the bullpen arsenal might pay dividends as much as a fresh arm with some major league experience might.