SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Every young pitcher will be scrutinized when they are seeking to carve out a place in a major-league rotation. Kyle Harrison’s criteria is just a little narrower than most.
The San Francisco Giants’ 23-year-old left-hander has proven he can throw strikes. He’s proven he can land his breaking pitches. He’s proven he can get back into a bad count. He’s proven that his arm angle and release point — the second-lowest among left-handed starters after the A’s JP Sears — give him a deceptive advantage. He’s proven he can compete against a major-league lineup with something less than his best stuff. All of those traits give the left-hander an extremely high floor and the closest thing the Giants have to incumbent status for the final place on their starting staff.
But when you receive as much prospect hype as Harrison did, when you strike out 452 batters in 279 1/3 minor league innings and when you are punching out pro hitters at an age when you’d otherwise be standing in a college dorm cafeteria line, nobody cares about your floor. It’s the ceiling that everyone obsesses over.
Harrison can be a very good major-league pitcher with a 91-92 mph fastball. But if he can goose that velocity back to 95-96, then he’s Chris Sale.
In his spring debut on Friday, Harrison was very good. He was not Chris Sale. And for now, he’s just fine with that.
“People are so obsessed with the idea of me and velo,” said Harrison, who touched 93 but sat 91-92 in two scoreless innings against the Milwaukee Brewers at Scottsdale Stadium. “That’s the thing: I don’t need the velo to get the swing-and-miss. The analytics show that. And I know it’ll get there. … The shoulder is right, body’s feeling good, so now I don’t want to rush anything. I just want to go out and compete and I did that today. The velo will naturally come. It’s good to see it’s gradually been going up in live sessions to the game.
“We’re going to do it the safe and right way. I’m feeling great so that’s all I can ask for.”
If there’s any doubt being created that Harrison will open as the Giants’ No. 5 starter, it’s because his nearest competition is bringing the goods. Right-hander Landen Roupp was near dominant in Thursday’s exhibition against the Mariners at Peoria, using his curveball like a fastball while pitching to both sides of the plate and utilizing a new cutter to keep the ball off the barrel. Right-hander Hayden Birdsong followed Harrison on Friday and hit an easy 98 mph for the second consecutive outing while striking out three in two scoreless innings.
Hayden Birdsong had a 4.75 ERA with 88 strikeouts in 72 innings last season. (Rick Scuteri / Imagn Images)
Although Birdsong hasn’t been used as a reliever, Roupp gained a bit of experience in that role last season and was a surprise inclusion on the Opening Day roster. That’s the course he appears to be on this spring if he’s not in the rotation. Birdsong, 23, reached the majors last season after just two starts for Triple-A Sacramento and a case could be made that more development time at that level wouldn’t be the worst thing for him.
In terms of exhibition workload, Harrison is one turn behind the other two pitchers. But Giants manager Bob Melvin said he was encouraged by the left-hander’s debut and considers him all caught up.
“Harry’s first game looked really good,” Melvin said. “I think (velocity) is going to climb for him. His (early) bullpens, he was sick, got off to a slow start. It’s been better than his bullpens. I thought the ball had some life on it. Sometimes it’s not going to be 95-96, but it’s going to have some life. When he’s throwing his off-speed for strikes and mixing all his pitches, his fastball will play better.
“His fastball will always play more than the velo says but when it is up to 95-96, that’s when he gets a ton of swings up in the zone. Today he was down in the zone and still had good life on it.”
Harrison, who struck out three, wasn’t happy with the pair of hits he gave up on cutters over the plate. It’s a pitch he’s throwing to replace the slurvier breaking ball that might have helped him steal some backdoor strikes to right-handed hitters but proved to be an easy take whenever it would start on the plate and break inside.
“I felt it wasn’t setting up anything,” Harrison said. “I felt I needed a blend of a harder slider-cutter thing. It didn’t go too well today but that’s why you throw the bullpens and put in your work. But I’m excited about this pitch. It has potential. I just need to hit my spots.”
An effective cutter would help his fastball play up, too — no matter how hard he’s throwing it. And if you believe that opposing swings will always provide more valuable feedback than radar gun readings, then Harrison’s fastball was plenty impressive as-is on Friday.
“The heater, I love the shape of it,” Harrison said. “I don’t how that one was put in play. So that’s great for me.”
The Giants had a lot to write home about in a 9-2 victory over the Brewers. Logan Webb, Harrison, Birdsong, Ryan Walker and Randy Rodríguez combined to strike out 12 batters. Matt Chapman and Wilmer Flores hit home runs on consecutive pitches from former All-Star right-hander Freddy Peralta, then LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski went deep a few innings later. Willy Adames hit a two-run single against his former club while boosting his spring average to .455.
Perhaps the best part of Melvin’s day was writing a lineup that included his forecasted Opening Day infield for the first time. The Giants had their $333 million left side of Chapman and Adames starting together for the second time this spring. And second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald, who had been slowed by some back stiffness early in camp, made his exhibition debut alongside them.
“I got everyone involved today,” Webb said, smiling. “Got Willy involved, Chappy involved, Fitzy got a couple. Yeah, I don’t think many are going to get past that group. It was good to finally have them behind me.”
Adames and Chapman made a heads-up play in the fourth inning after Harrison gave up a leadoff double to Brewer Hicklen. The next batter followed with a groundball that Adames fielded to his backhand. Chapman communicated right away that he had the bag covered and Adames threw to record the fielder’s choice.
“We were on the same page,” Adames said. “We anticipated it. When you anticipate plays like that, you make them look easy. You’ve just got to be ready for it.”
Said Chapman: “He’s a pretty savvy guy. It’s not going to take much for us to get on the same page.”
Chapman and Adames have the potential to be a value-add for more than the pitching staff. Their experience and communication skills are bound to make a positive impact for Fitzgerald, who played a serviceable shortstop last season but had several moments when pop-ups dropped or he collided with a less experienced infielder. Those issues probably won’t be as pronounced this season.
“We saw last year once he got an opportunity to play in one spot, he did his best work,” Melvin said. “So my guess is it’s going to be the same at second base. He’s put in months of work before spring training. So I think he’s pretty comfortable there.”
The Giants believe that Fitzgerald’s arm will play better at second base. There aren’t many 6-foot-4 defenders at that position, but Giants hitters of a certain generation lost plenty of hits when the Rockies’ DJ LeMahieu leaped to snag line drives or raced into shallow right field in the cause of blooper abatement.
“He’s just a good athlete,” Chapman said. “He’s got quick feet, he’s got good hands, he’s got a good arm, he has all the tools. Just now, the plays aren’t going to be as demanding on him, and I think that’s going to allow him to shine.”
Playing against your friends and former teammates is hardly a burden, but there was clearly some emotional heft involved when Adames faced the Brewers for the first time after helping lead them to the NL Central title last season. He wiped away wet eyes at his locker when a group of Brewers beat reporters asked him about the death of beloved Hall of Fame announcer Bob Uecker.
“When you’re around people like him, they make you become a better person, to be as genuine as you can and try to treat everybody the right way and just be respectful and … I don’t know, man, to just give love,” Adames said of Uecker. “And I feel like the way everybody loved him is because he was giving love to everybody. And that’s why he was getting it in return. So that’s why it was very sad when he passed. I won’t be there anymore, but I know the guys coming to that clubhouse every day will be looking around, like, ‘We need that energy. We need that love that he always brings.’ So … it’s tough.”
Players’ Association head Tony Clark held the union’s annual spring meeting with the Giants Friday morning and spoke to reporters afterward. Not surprisingly, the A’s relocation from Oakland to a planned temporary home in Sacramento was the central topic.
Asked about the team’s move from Oakland, Clark paused for nearly 20 seconds while measuring his words. Then he cited his fond memories of playing at the Coliseum and said, “We would have liked to have seen it play out a little bit differently.”
Clark was asked: Does he believe the team’s planned move to a smaller market in Las Vegas is driven by a desire to become a perpetual revenue-sharing payee?
“I can’t speak for the owner, I can’t speak for the league as to why they’re supporting” the relocation, Clark said. “But the point is a valid one, and one that we are aware of going from as large a market as Oakland to one that’s completely on the other side of the spectrum, such that they are perpetually in the world of receiving. It affects the system. Sure, it’s a concern. It’s also a concern that for the next three years, they’re going to be in a ballpark that seats a third of what the Coliseum did.”
• The Giants see no reason to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a free look at Justin Verlander. So they’ll have the 42-year-old right-hander throw to catcher Patrick Bailey in a simulated game at Papago Park on Saturday.
• Left fielder Heliot Ramos (mild oblique soreness) is swinging in the cage and throwing to 120 feet. He’s scheduled to hit on the field over the weekend and would make his exhibition debut after that if all goes well.
(Top photo of Kyle Harrison: Jeremy Chen / Getty Images)
