The San Francisco Giants made a statement against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first two games of their three-game set over the weekend, but Tim Lincecum's poor outing on Sunday failed to help them complete the sweep. Is the right-hander in danger of losing his spot in the rotation?
Manager Bruce Bochy will be tasked with making a tough decision in the next week or so. Veterans Jake Peavy and Matt Cain are scheduled to return from the disabled list, which means two starters will be bumped from the rotation and into the bullpen. At this point, the potential casualties have been the subject of various rumors and speculation.
Both Peavy and Cain have one more scheduled Triple-A start before they head back to the MLB. Lincecum endured the shortest outing of his career during Sunday's 7-4 loss to the Dodgers after surrendering five earns runs on seven hits and one walk in just 1 1/3 innings. His struggles as of late apparently make him one of the candidates for demotion.
"Matt Cain and Jake Peavy each will make one more rehab start for Triple-A Sacramento, then join the rotation on a timetable that suggests they will replace Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum," writes Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.
"Manager Bruce Bochy said the club tentatively plans to have one of the rehabbing pitchers return July 2 at Miami and the other July 3 at Washington, in slots now belonging to Hudson and Lincecum, respectively."
The right-hander got off to a great start this season, but has faltered over the past month despite his 3-2 record over that span. He owns a 7.00 ERA in his last six starts against the Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets and Seattle Mariners. The Brewers, Mets, Mariners and Phillies rank 26th-29th in the MLB for runs scored this season.
Additionally, Lincecum will be a free agent after the season and he may not be in the team's plans beyond 2015.
"While some Giants people say they can scarcely envision Tim Lincecum pitching elsewhere, they still apparently want to see some second-half consistency before making a push to re-sign him," writes Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. "The Giants generally like to hold onto their star players, and are willing to pay them a premium to keep them."
San Fran already gave the right-hander a generous two-year, $35 million deal, which followed his two worst campaigns as a starter (5.18 ERA in 2012 and 4.37 ERA in 2013). Last season he was demoted to the bullpen while that could happen again this year. Will he even have a chance to display consistency in the second half of the season?
"Lincecum has been trending in the wrong direction for several seasons now, but he looks awfully close to no longer being a viable rotation option for the Giants with Jake Peavy set to come off the disabled list and Matt Cain soon to follow," adds Aaron Gleeman of NBC Sports' HardballTalk.
Before Lincecum's outing on Sunday, Chris Haft of MLB.com posited Hudson and Ryan Vogelsong would be in danger of losing their spots in the rotation upon the returns of Peavy and Cain. He even said the team could option Chris Heston back to Triple-A, but he's shown great flashes of potential after throwing a no-hitter against the New York Mets on June 9 and a two-hitter against the Houston Astros on May 12, so that seems unlikely. It simply been bad timing for Lincecum.
The fact of the matter is, the two-time NL Cy Young winner has been in this position before. He was moved out of the rotation during the team's 2012 World Series run (he started one game in the NLCS) and tossed only 1 2/3 innings during their World Series run last season.
Bochy was faced with a similar decision late last year when Lincecum endured an awful stretch of starts between July and August. He was 1-3 with a 9.49 ERA in six starts from July 25-August 23, which ultimately forced Bochy to demote him in favor of Yusmeiro Petit.
Lincecum has been a loyal member of the Giants and has never expressed contempt when Bochy opted to use him differently (or not at all for that matter). It's definitely not a foregone conclusion he'll be moved to the bullpen when the two veterans return, but it has become much more of a reality after his struggles over the past month.
