Keaton Winn of the Francisco Giants was dismissed following a furious dispute between
The San Francisco Giants have already had a large number of MLB debuts this season, and one more is set to happen soon. The Giants made the first announcement that they would be calling up right-hand pitcher prospect Keaton Winn on Monday morning, ahead of their road series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Tristan Beck, another promising right-hand pitcher, has been optioned to create space on the squad for Winn.
The last two seasons have been very exciting for Winn, the No. 16 Giants prospect in our community rankings. The 25 year old, who was drafted in the fifth round of the 2018 MLB Draft (the final draft before Farhan Zaidi took over), entered the 2022 season firmly off the radar. A fine but not notable 2019 in Low-A had been followed up by exactly zero appearances in 2020 or 2021 — the former due to the pandemic, the latter due to injury.
So even though he entered the 2022 season as a 24 year old who was technically in his fifth professional season, he’d thrown just 170.1 innings in his career. The Giants started him in Low-A and, even though the numbers didn’t jump off the page, his excellent command led to him ending the year opening eyes in AA. The Giants added him to the 40-man roster over the offseason to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft, and slotted him in AAA to start the 2023 season.
As is the case for most pitchers experiencing the Coors Field-esque Pacific Coast League for the first time, Winn struggled out of the gates with the Sacramento River Cats. But he’s found his footing in a big way. In his last three games, Winn has pitched 12 innings and allowed just seven hits, five walks, two runs, and one earned run, while striking out 18 batters. While Winn has been developed as a starter, he hasn’t pitched more than 4.1 innings this year, and it seems that until he proves he should be starting, the Giants will use him in a similar role to how they’ve used fellow prospects Beck and Sean Hjelle, and veteran Jakob Junis.
On the note of Beck, his demotion to AAA really doesn’t say anything about him. He’s been pitching quite well, with a 3.73 ERA, a 4.23 FIP, and 28 strikeouts to just five walks in 31.1 innings. But in addition to Winn forcing the issue a little, Beck has pitched twice in the last three games, amassing 85 pitches in that span, and the Giants have thrown back-to-back bullpen games. Winn unquestionably has earned the call up, but this is also about getting some fresh arms available.
When Winn first takes the mound, he’ll become the seventh Giants player this year to make his MLB debut, joining Beck, Ryan Walker, Patrick Bailey, Casey Schmitt, Blake Sabol, and Brett Wisely. With Kyle Harrison and Luis Matos likely to debut in the next month or two, and a handful of other players who could get that exciting first call, the 2023 season may be remembered as the year that the Giants new core was established.
