It's beginning to look like (if we squint?) they moved on from Thairo to open up a spot for Marco Luciano to play 2B for the rest of the season. Now the manner in which they did this, to a Wilie Mac Award winner as you pointed out, was pretty harsh. No club chose to add Thairo on waivers (and pay the roughly $800 K left) and rather than simply giving Estrada his release (and the remainder of his salary) they opted to follow the rules to the letter and are requiring him to report to AAA for a few weeks to collect the salary they happily signed him to just a few short months ago. I believe Pavlovic in his reporting mentioned that current Giants players were surprised that Thairo wasn't given his release.
So why would they do that? "Because they can" is the answer, but I wonder what the motivation was. I cannot imagine it is any kind of punitive punishment for Thairo as everyone speaks highly of him. All I can come up with is that by sending Thairo to AAA they are avoiding the indignity of having to compete against the guy they're still paying? The Diamondbacks are in town and their All-Star 2B Ketel Marte is on the IL. The Diamondbacks weren't going to pay $800 K for Thairo Estrada knowing Ketel will be back, but would they pay the prorated minimum for a few games for an edge? I'd think they would. Looking ahead the Cardinals (Nolan Gorman in AAA) might also have been an option and , heck, the Padres signed Nick Ahmed so I suppose they shouldn't be overlooked either. It is the only motivation I can come up with - if you want Thairo you need to take the contract, otherwise we'll keep him becuase he hasn't reached 5 years of service time left. It sucks for Thairo, it raised some eyebrows in the clubhouse, but maybe that's a trade-off the FO is okay with as opposed to watching Thairo get a few hits off of Birdsong or starting a double-play off the bat of Marco Luciano?
I dig out a photo of Eldridge from a couple months ago and make it my Substack icon and he immediately gets promoted a level. Coincidence?
Anyway, now I'm franticly looking for an old Vaun Brown photo.
Please do it twice more next year for Eldridge lol the sooner the better
It's beginning to look like (if we squint?) they moved on from Thairo to open up a spot for Marco Luciano to play 2B for the rest of the season. Now the manner in which they did this, to a Wilie Mac Award winner as you pointed out, was pretty harsh. No club chose to add Thairo on waivers (and pay the roughly $800 K left) and rather than simply giving Estrada his release (and the remainder of his salary) they opted to follow the rules to the letter and are requiring him to report to AAA for a few weeks to collect the salary they happily signed him to just a few short months ago. I believe Pavlovic in his reporting mentioned that current Giants players were surprised that Thairo wasn't given his release.
So why would they do that? "Because they can" is the answer, but I wonder what the motivation was. I cannot imagine it is any kind of punitive punishment for Thairo as everyone speaks highly of him. All I can come up with is that by sending Thairo to AAA they are avoiding the indignity of having to compete against the guy they're still paying? The Diamondbacks are in town and their All-Star 2B Ketel Marte is on the IL. The Diamondbacks weren't going to pay $800 K for Thairo Estrada knowing Ketel will be back, but would they pay the prorated minimum for a few games for an edge? I'd think they would. Looking ahead the Cardinals (Nolan Gorman in AAA) might also have been an option and , heck, the Padres signed Nick Ahmed so I suppose they shouldn't be overlooked either. It is the only motivation I can come up with - if you want Thairo you need to take the contract, otherwise we'll keep him becuase he hasn't reached 5 years of service time left. It sucks for Thairo, it raised some eyebrows in the clubhouse, but maybe that's a trade-off the FO is okay with as opposed to watching Thairo get a few hits off of Birdsong or starting a double-play off the bat of Marco Luciano?