Tony Vitello encouraged by Giants' young prospects showing out early in careers

Giants manager Tony Vitello speaks with reporters before San Francisco's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday at PNC Park.

Tony Vitello encouraged by Giants' young prospects showing out early in careers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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Have the third catcher be something that will help you?

I think so.

I, I, I'd hate to get in a position where we're running costs back there or something like that.

He'd love it.

But obviously we've been a lot more aggressive than the beginning of the year with pinch hitting and alternating guys.

There's been a lot of games where those two guys play, and it'd be just nice to have some coverage.

Perdomo started today.

Just wondering what kind of reports are you getting on him?

How are you- Yeah, watching video too, like, you, you hate to categorize somebody too much, but when he's on, it's, it's really good.

It's fun to watch, and a lot of that has to do with his fastball.

It's very difficult to hit.

So when he's in the strike zone, he's good.

And maybe being around some of these guys would be good.

You know, Marte filled it up, and Molina was 72% strikes yesterday, which I thought was the key to victory.

I mean, we did some nice things offensively, but he really set the tone.

So if Perdomo can just do that, even against big league hitters, obviously they can do some more damage.

There's more experience, but he's got the stuff that if he's in the zone, he can do some good things.

So he's a quiet kid, too.

So, like, tugboat, we'll have to pull it out of him.

But he definitely, like tugboat, when he gets on the mound, he's got some competitor in him.

Some of those guys have compared him, the minor league guys, to Ranger Surez, and I'd be fine if he's a fifth of that.

But I think, I think he's at least that.

Obviously it's kind of circumstantial with Bordon's first time being up here.

He was only on the roster for about- A day.

Yeah a month.

Yeah.

How much are you trying to, like, find a spot for him to, you know, make his debut?

Yeah, it'd be great to have him out there, and we kind of were that night as well.

It just didn't work out.

So that would be one more, you know, line in the storybook of what's been really fun is seeing these young kids do some things, and their hard work paying off.

And then being at that spot, you get anything you deserve, whether it's a blue pit, playing time, an extra flight, a bigger hotel room, whatever it is.

If you're catching at any level, those guys deserve anything they get.

So it'd be nice if something worked out.

But he definitely provides the flexibility.

Would you ideally like to find a spot to use Brock- Brock- Roxby once or twice this series?

Yeah, I think so, and yesterday was kind of almost a definite that he was just gonna follow Molina, and he was so Both guys, the game got going into the fifth inning and you looked up at the pitch count on both guys and, they were both sitting pretty good, but Molina was super efficient.

So we kind of changed our plans a little bit, and I think he was He wasn't angry, but you can get the vibe, and you want the guy that's like, "Okay, I understand I'm done, but let me go back out there."

And I just talked with him and told him we'd like him, instead of making a huge jump, we'd like to build him up gradually a little bit, especially if he can do what he did yesterday.

But yeah, Roxby within the next two days would get some action for sure.

What has Molina shown you in these last two outings, especially the first one where he was kind of thrown into action super quickly?

Yeah, the first one was difficult circumstances, so you don't Again, I don't think you ever want to lower your standards, but you do have to put some context to things.

Comes out of the pen in a, in a unique situation, and it's his new team and things like that.

I feel like yesterday it was a combo of just being more comfortable with us.

He was able to go through a routine to prepare to pitch, and then you don't know if, you know The Braves treated him well, so I don't know if there's extra motivation there.

If anything, there might be a little cat and mouse with.

Here comes the leadoff hitter, and he was the catcher.

He knows my stuff better than anybody on the planet.

But there just seemed to be a little bit more conviction, to overuse that word, but definitely I would apply it to yesterday.

He had a lot of conviction to him.

He was not scared to go in, especially on righties, and again, was relentless in the strike zone.

We got a medical report that was pretty lengthy- Yeah.

Yeah to get through.

I guess to start with- Quiz me.

I, well, I don't know.

I, I It's hard for us to keep it straight.

There's a lot- Yes of names on that list.

But, Meyer- Yeah in particular, are, are you thinking it's less likely we see him this year or?

I know if he was sitting here right now, he would punch me in the mouth if I said otherwise.

He really wants to play this year.

I think we really want to see him.

More than anything, I've said it before, we just want to be around him.

So maybe if he does only get a few games, it's an opportunity for him to get more familiar.

The fans get to see him.

We get to be around him and, and understand what he can do in game action.

Maybe that's got extra value with the potential of, of what's to come in the, in the next few months.

But, don't want to rush anything.

It doesn't make sense.

He could be a guy that is out there, you know, 80 per- 85 to 90% of the time next year for us on the infield.

So to rush it would be crazy.

But I don't think the window is closed yet, and, I don't think it's a narrow margin either.

He's got some opportunity there.

Just don't want to rush it.

He, he does feel good.

I mean, getting out of that boot was like his birthday and Christmas all in one, but each day they're slowly giving him more activity, and he feels good doing it all.

We saw that Jesus is in go to see Dr. Meyer- or Meister for a second opinion.

Yeah.

Is he Is, is, like, surgery on the table for him or?

I don't think so.

I think that's more of a go see I mean, it always helps to get a second opinion.

A lot of times agents want that, which is a smart thing to do.

I think it's just whoever called upon it on this occasion, it's smart to get a full assessment from a guy that deals with that all the time and, and just see where he's at.

I think more of a checkup on what's the best thing.

I mean, that's would be a drastic set of circumstances, but what's the best thing to move forward for him?

Because he was kind of running into a roadblock there anytime he was trying to get going.

I think none of us were really in Atlanta when we got the Pinchas news.

Yeah.

It says mild on the report, so is that just hoping he can pitch again or- That, that's one where I don't mind just kind of speaking out and saying that's on me.

I, I, I don't think he felt like he couldn't go the other day, or a couple other times that we, you know, when, during that home stand when he was available but, but didn't pitch.

I just feel like he's gone through everything you can go through to come back from lower body, upper body.

So just a little extra sensitive to any soreness he had at all.

I think it was more fatigue than anything.

So it was a little bit more of a timeout just to make sure he feels good and where he's at.

And, you know, same thing as Meyer.

I would be surprised if he wasn't with us the rest of the year, but I think everybody b- would be okay with it because this kid's not had a off-season in a long, long time.

And I think he was showing you guys what he's been in the past.

I think he can get there for sure and kind of reignite who he was for, for the Guardians.

But a, a good off-season would help that for sure, as opposed to going into the off-season really needing some time to, to be down.

It's not, like, full on track.

So you, you still think you asked a lot of him, just given what he's come through?

Not really.

I just think, you know, he's been through a lot, so to have another setback just is very non-practical, and maybe the odds of that were medium or low.

But, you know, I think others spoke out, so it definitely wasn't a case of him not wanting the ball or anything like that, so.

But he was cool with it.

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