Always entertaining John Brebbia takes lat injury in stride; who takes his place in SF Giants’ bullpen?
John Brebbia joked that the Giants' bullpen would be better off in his absence from a lat strain.
LOS ANGELES — John Brebbia, the National League’s most prolific reliever last season who remains an integral piece of the Giants’ bullpen this year, won’t soon be forgotten despite what is expected to be a lengthy absence with a lat strain.
Pitching coach Andrew Bailey suggested Brebbia step up as an assistant bullpen coach. (“If you hear yelling from the dugout it’s because I took it too far,” Brebbia said.)
Fellow reliever Scott Alexander planned to take Brebbia’s No. 59 jersey with him to the right-field bullpen and hang it up, in the style of tributes usually reserved for more serious injuries than a moderate lat strain. (“I hope they show it on TV,” he said, laughing.)
More seriously, the Giants have a Brebbia-sized hole in their bullpen, which had been coming into its own over the past two months, with the best ERA in the majors since the start of May. With a 1.15 ERA in that span, Brebbia has been a significant part of the turnaround and has also happily taken on opening duties every fifth day — eight times this season — when the rotation spot initially intended for Sean Manaea comes around.
Expect rookie right-hander Ryan Walker to take on an increased role in the meantime, along with fellow righties Tyler Rogers and Luke Jackson. As for opening duties the next time the rotation spot comes around, Kapler was noncommittal but Brebbia did make one assurance.
No matter who it is — Alexander, a lefty, opened the one bullpen game that Brebbia didn’t this year – Brebbia requested they warm up to the ever-appropriate tune that he has deployed on his opening days at Oracle Park: Kid Quill’s “The Opener.” (“I’m just the opener, no one came to see me.”)
Leave it to Brebbia to let his sense of humor shine through even in his warm-up music.
As always, he was chock full of amusing, often self-deprecating soundbites while discussing his injury Sunday morning.
For your reading pleasure:
— As for how the Giants’ bullpen would fare in his absence, Brebbia said “better,” citing Tristan Beck (recalled on Saturday) and Keaton Winn (here on taxi squad): “If anything, we can now cover more innings with more success.”
— “That’s why we have two arms, in case one gets hurt.”
— “I could’ve sworn I saw Kap give a quick fist pump when he saw: ‘Oh Brebbia’s out, yes!’ That could be wrong, I don’t know.”
— “I won’t be able to open. That was a tough one. Missing starts hurts. I wanted to get to 200 innings this year, but now it looks like I’ll stop at 40 or 50.”
— “I would imagine from a coaching staff and front office perspective, they’re like, ‘All right John, have fun, take as long as you want, we’ll be fine.'”
— “The computers up there are going, ‘Get him out of there, get him out of there, we don’t need him.’ So we’ll see.”
— “Thank goodness that they didn’t score a run in my last outing because it would be great to end my career on a zero.”