Giants Claim Philip Abner

The Giants have claimed left-hander Philip Abner off waivers from the Diamondbacks and optioned him to Triple-A Sacramento, per Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com. Arizona designated him for assignment a few days ago. The Giants also selected lefty Matt Wilkinson, a move that was previously reported. Fellow lefty Reiver Sanmartin has been optioned to Sacramento to open an active roster spot for Wilkinson. To open 40-man spots for Abner and Wilkinson, catcher Daniel Susac and outfielder Harrison Bader have been transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Abner, 24, has a limited big league track record thus far. He has thrown 18 innings with the Snakes, allowing 6.00 earned runs per nine. He has matching walk and strikeout rates of 13.4%, both poor figures.

The Giants are presumably more intrigued by Abner’s larger body of work in the minors. At the Triple-A level, he has thrown 40 2/3 innings with a 3.98 ERA, 26.9% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate. Abner still has a full slate of options and the Giants had roster space to work with, so there’s little harm in placing a claim and sending him to Sacramento. They can get a close-up look at him and see how it goes.

The moves for Susac and Bader are not surprising. Bader has been on the IL since May due to plantar fasciitis. He has already been out more than 60 days and is technically eligible for reinstatement right away but his timeline is unclear after a recent scooter accident. Susac was diagnosed with a patellar fracture just over a week ago. This transaction confirms that he won’t come back this season, which was already the expectation.