SAN FRANCISCO—A few members of the San Francisco Giants 2014 World Series roster will begin the season playing minor league baseball.
Hunter Strickland, Juan Perez, and Andrew Susac have all been relegated to Triple-A Sacremento, as the 25-man roster appears set for the regular season. The cuts, part of the brutal numbers game that is professional sports, are not permanent demotions, especially in the case of Susac, who could very well find himself on a major league roster sooner-rather-than-later.
“He just needs to play,” said Manager Bruce Bochy. “The kid made so much progress in a year both on the catching side and the offensive said. There’s not one thing we gave him to work on. He just needs to go there and play.”
Susac was hampered by a wrist injury and a toothache for much of spring training, ailments that very well could have kept him off the opening day roster.
“It’s bittersweet, I guess,” said Susac. “It’s frustrating. I”m not happy about it, but I’m not going to let it get me down. That’s not my personality. I can see the reasons behind it. It will be nice to get consistent at-bats and be ready when I come up, if I come up.”
Considering Susac’s demotion, Hector Sanchez is in line to serve as the backup catcher for Buster Posey, who was injured during San Francisco’s championship run but looks to return and provide some juice in a line-up bereft of clutch-hitting Pablo Sandoval.
“Hector came into camp in the best shape we’ve seen him in,” said Bochy. “He caught well. I liked his focus behind the plate. That allowed us to make this decision and send Andrew to Sacramento to continue his development.”
