The Giants announced three moves prior to today’s doubleheader with the Diamondbacks. Matt Wilkinson will start Game 1 after being called up from Triple-A Sacramento, and Wilkinson is the official 27th man for today’s twin bill. San Francisco also optioned right-hander Spencer Bivens to Sacramento and selected the contract of left-hander Seth Lonsway, with no further roster moves needed to add Lonsway since the Giants had an open spot on their 40-man roster.
Lonsway will be making his Major League debut whenever he appears in a game, which could very well happen today given that plenty of pitchers will likely be needed to get through the doubleheader. The 27-year-old Lonsway was a sixth-round pick for the Giants in the 2021 draft out of Ohio State.
A grounder specialist, Lonsway has a 57.7% groundball rate over 75 2/3 combined innings at the Double-A and Triple-A levels this season. He doesn’t amass many strikeouts and he doesn’t throw with much velocity, as Lonsway rarely throws a traditional fastball. A 90.4mph sinker is Lonsway’s primary pitch, with a cutter, changeup, and slider also included in the arsenal to keep batters off-balance.
Over 114 career innings at Triple-A, Lonsway has posted a 5.37 ERA while starting 25 of 29 games. As always, the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League must be mentioned in any discussion of Giants prospects, and Lonsway’s grounder-heavy approach has also left him hampered by some unlucky batted-ball luck while pitching for Sacramento. Lonsway has a 3.02 ERA plus better control numbers over 128 1/3 Double-A innings, starting 24 of his 26 games for the Richmond affiliate.
The Giants could use Lonsway as a starter in the Show, but long relief may be his likelier path to sticking around on a big league roster. It remains to be seen if Lonsway’s tenure in the majors could last even beyond this weekend, but a good performance might earn him some consideration for a job in next year’s bullpen picture.
