Summer is Here and the Bats are Alive!

SF Giants Minor Lines, May 24-26, 2024

Baseball journeys, it seems, are never truly over. Way back in 2020, the Giants signed a minor league free agent who had spent his entire career up to that point in the Royals’ system, advancing from rookie ball to Double-A over the course of seven seasons. Gerson Garabito would spend the post-pandemic season of 2021 filling needs in the upper minors for the Giants, throwing 44 mostly unremarkable innings as a swingman in Richmond, followed by another 42 equally unremarkable innings as a swingman in Sacramento. He threw hard, but somewhat erratically, and ended the season with a 4.50 ERA.

After that, Garabito fell off the baseball map almost completely. He would only appear in winter ball leagues for the next few years, first in Venezuela, and then, in the winter of 2022-23, in the extremely obscure Nicaraguan Winter League — pretty much the last outpost of the professional baseball frontier. But this past winter, he caught on with Aguilas in the prestigious LIDOM, in the Dominican Republic, and there, he began catching outs, eyes, and interest. I had a scout I know shoot me a text from the DR to ask what I remembered of his time Richmond (not much to be honest!). In the end, Garabito parlayed his LIDOM season into a free agent deal with the Rangers. He threw lights out ball for Round Rock in the PCL (2.05 ERA, thank you very much), and yesterday, the long forgotten Garabito finally made his major league debut as the starting pitcher for the defending World Champions, at the ripe old age of 28 years, 281 days young — the 23,205th player in major league history.

(I do remember that he had a lot more hair back in Richmond!)

This site — and the fans who read it — are all in the business of prognostication: “what will this player turn out to be?” “What does that player need to do to get over the hump?” When the truth is that there will be so many twists and turns and changes and evolutions and aches and pains and surgeries and days when suddenly the body feels good again — that trying to scratch the barest of outlines out for any player is a fool’s errand. They will be who they become as circumstance allows, and more than that we cannot say. We can only appreciate the effort they make to get there.

Congrats to Gerson, and to everybody who keeps chasing down that dream. Who knows what tiny adjustment will make all the difference.

HITTER of the WEEKEND: Grant McCray (Rich), 6 for 12, 2 2b, 3b, 2 BB, 3 R, 2 RBI, SB (6), 1 SO
PITCHER of the WEEKEND: Joe Whitman (SJ), 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K

Happy Memorial Day folks! On this traditional, though anecdotal “start of summer,” the bats have begun to awaken from their winter slumber, and the scoreboard has begun to spin like a slot machine. Put the burgers on the barbie, open a beverage of your choice, and let’s get to some ball! The season is still young….but it’s starting to take on its character.