Ronald Guzmán of the Giants recently underwent an MRI after experiencing some forearm discomfort. The team provided an update to reporters Tuesday, with Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle among those to relay the information.
Guzmán has a left pronator strain but will not require surgery. Slusser later got an update from Guzmán himself, who said that he won’t throw for the next four weeks and will likely miss six-to-eight weeks in total.
Guzmán, 28, has spent most of his career as a first baseman but is attempting to become a two-way player this year. He signed a minor league deal with the Giants this offseason, explaining in March that they were the only team that would let him try his hand at pitching.
The lefty wasn’t in line for an Opening Day roster spot, as the plan was always to send him to the minors to continue his development on the mound. This update won’t impact the club’s roster decisions at the end of camp but it will put the experiment on hold until about May. He tossed 3 1/3 innings in spring before this shutdown, allowing three earned runs in that time but striking out five batters.
From his time as a first baseman, Guzman has appeared in 246 major league games with a .225/.302/.410 batting line, leading to a wRC+ of 83. In that time, he’s exhausted his option seasons and racked up over three years of service time.
If he makes it onto the Giants’ roster at any point, they could retain him for future seasons via arbitration. It’s unclear at this point if he’ll be able to hit while shut down from throwing or if the timeline would be any different.
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