Giants manager Tony Vitello details Keaton Winn injury, team's roster move
Giants manager Tony Vitello speaks to reporters before San Francisco's game against the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday morning at Progressive Field.
Giants manager Tony Vitello details Keaton Winn injury, team's roster move originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
Looked like a happy reliever you had there.
Yeah, no, no question.
Just one that's lacking sleep, but, you know, good for him to be here, and I think, the next stage of development and some stuff we talked about, it's nothing, world-breaking with San Martn, but some adjustments in big situations.
But at the end of the day, he's got everything we want out of a guy.
He's, he's a great teammate.
He prepares well, and he attacks, attacks the zone.
So there's just situations for all of our guys where we need to ex- execute those swing moments a little bit better, like we did last night.
All three guys did, 'cause it was a, a tight game.
Did he actually leave, fly out, and have to fly back?
If you're, if you're asking me to be honest, he did.
Wow.
Free flyer miles at least.
Yeah, for sure.
Can, can you tell us about, We know it's elbow neuritis.
Yeah.
Gotta be frustrating for him.
Yeah, just some soreness, and, also a point where we're trying to figure out what young guys we wanna get a look and, and also a difficult decision with San Martn there.
So it just stimulated extra conversations and, you know, admittedly, just recently, a little, little discomfort.
So, get him a breather, a reset mentally and physically, and go from there.
Is he gonna undergo, like, more MRIs or anything like that, more testing?
Not that I'm aware of, not nothing that's been planned.
So I think he's, at least in speaking with him, and again, I always hate speaking for somebody, I think he's in a comfortable spot with, you know, where he's feeling some, some tenderness or tightness or whatever he would label it as.
But I think he has a good handle on what he's feeling and, and so I think the next step is, what does he need?
You guys have Sunday's starter listed as TBA.
Is, is Wathan still an option for that spot, or are you kinda considering- Yeah, we'll see.
I think we'll see how today's game goes a little bit.
But I think we would decide that sooner than later.
But it is an option.
I mean, he, he would either start there or on Monday.
How much are you looking forward to experiencing Fenway from dugout level view?
Yeah, a lot, to be honest with you.
I've only been one time.
It was prior to them having seats above the Monster, so it's quite some, some time ago.
I actually sat in Jim Thome's player seats.
He didn't know that he was gifting them to us.
Fortunately, I do know him now, but, it was a pretty incredible experience.
I'm You know, baseball is the, the sport that is richest in tradition, and I've always grown up kinda loving the tradition part of the game, so being in old parks like that, was something I always fantasized about.
So getting to do it the one time was phenomenal, but this will be that times 10.
And more than anything, it'd be nice to go in and play against a really good team on the road and, and win some games.
You've been going with Bryce at, at first and Devers at, at DH recently.
Is that an arrangement that you think that you'll kinda stick with over these last five weeks of the regular season, or- Yeah, I, I think kicking up the repetitions for Bryce's development I think will be key, and then just communication with Rafi, too.
Again, it's a little difficult to, to go full disclosure.
You don't wanna be Bill Belichick.
But with a lot of these guys, part of it is communication, and it's kinda like the whole thing that, you know, we talked about with base running one time in the middle of the year is communication with where he's at with his legs.
And if he's gotta go get first to third, he literally has done it, it's not even an argument, better than anybody on our team.
He can go do that for you.
But just communication with he and I about what's best for the team offensively, keep him out there close to every day, and his at-bats, too.
Bryce had some pretty nice defensive plays this series.
Just how have you seen him kinda progress with the glove this s- this year?
Yeah, I, and I think it'd be fair to say all year long, too, but I think the plays you're talking about is he seems to really be improving laterally, side to side.
He's in a better position.
I think last night Vasami caught the ball, but I think he's starting to get in a better position than he's ever been on pop-ups over his head.
He's been working ex- You can only do so much extra work, but he's been working on agility and things like that.
I think part of it is showing there, and then part of it is just the reps bearing some fruit.
In your conversations with Devers, what does he kind of express to you in terms of his, preference?
Is it, you know, "I wanna be in one spot," or, "I, I wanna play, you know, first base two or three times a week just to, you know, do both," or what- Well, the first thing is he wants to play every I mean, I didn't know this about him until spring training when, we were talking about guys, and he, he wants to post every day.
Loves to play, and he wants to be out there every day.
The DH re- you know, creates a little bit of a window where it's maybe a little less challenging on his body.
But I think his preference is to play first base, not necessarily every day, but he likes being out there.
It's just a matter of managing workload with his legs.
And, it's, from spring training on, he's pressed himself through some situations where, whether it be one spot or another, he's had some soreness.
But if we had a game 163, he wants to play first base.
You think he'll get a start at first in Boston?
I don't know.
It, it might be a little too soon from, you know, kinda what we were fighting the other day, going from first to third on one occasion.
You know, I don't know what it was necessarily, and I don't think it's any one acute thing, but just something he's aware of and something we've tried to encourage him to communicate.
Like, we got the other guys, so let's find a way just to balance this out, but probably won't press it there, to be honest with you.
Is it like a hamstring issue?
Groin or hamstring or something?
It's a little bit internally.
It's been, you know, a few different spots for him this year.
I mean, if he doesn't hustle that double, you guys don't score that run last night.
Move up.
It's kinda funny.
He talked about in the offensive meeting doing a good job of, you know, moving up on balls in the dirt or be ready at all times, and he's the guy that does it.
Now, you know, it wasn't You know, it was a relatively clear read.
But yeah, I, I thought in the back of my mind on a da- day against the Rockies, we end up losing the game, so it wouldn't be a comment you make to y'all, but, you know, the one time you don't get out of the box, because sometimes when you make contact with the ball, you don't know where it went.
Manny Ramirez used to do that all the time.
You know, and the one time you get caught not hustling full speed and it bites you, everybody loves to chime in and throw this.
But this is 162 games, and if you watch all of them, he runs the bases as hard as anyone we have.
You could throw Arraez in there.
You could throw anybody in there.
So yeah, it was huge for him to do that, and he can do it.
But we don't wanna press our luck either, and, you know, you guys have been quick to point out, like, "Hey, is this guy getting too much of a workload?"
And, we're trying to be cautious with Willi, so just trying to keep us in a position where his bat is in the lineup as often as possible.
He had a pop-up in the last home stand where he ran hard, and, maybe he didn't always, he didn't really realize that those balls can get blown back into play.
Yeah.
And aren't always easy to catch either, so seems like- Well, he's kind of calibrated that already.
Sure, and you've seen it.
I don't wanna name the, the guys, but our last home stand, there was twice where we mentioned to a guy in the dugout, "Hey, just a reminder, you're in San Francisco.
You gotta go."
And then you've seen the opponents at our place do it plenty, where they don't realize what's gonna go on at that You know, it's not Candlestick, but it's not, not that far off, either
