The start of San Francisco Giants spring training has gone so smoothly, the biggest concern is something that hasn’t even happened.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy made headlines — albeit it small ones — when he announced he would be holding center fielder Angel Pagan out of consecutive workouts Thursday and Friday.
Immediately red flags went up. Had Pagan reinjured his surgically repaired back, the one that had cost him nearly half of the 2014 season and all of the playoffs?
No, Bochy said the move was mostly precautionary, while also citing a sore neck as having slightly hampered Pagan on Wednesday.
Bochy met with Pagan during his “layoff,” and they discussed the possibility of moving the Giants’ leadoff man down in the lineup. It wouldn’t be a demotion, the veteran skipper assured, but rather more of a means of balancing the lineup.
Bochy is looking for a way to break up the right-handed hitters in the middle of his order — catcher Buster Posey, right fielder Hunter Pence and third baseman Casey McGehee.
Bochy was able to do that last season by interjecting left-handed-hitting first baseman Brandon Belt and switch-hitting third baseman Pablo Sandoval. But Sandoval is gone, replaced by the righty McGehee.
By moving Pagan, a switch-hitter, to the sixth spot, he could have a middle of the lineup — starting in the third position — of Posey, Belt, Pence, Pagan and McGehee.
Such a move would mean finding a new leadoff man, and Bochy believes he has a candidate in new left fielder Nori Aoki.
The manager assured any lineup tinkering was merely in the thinking stages at this point.
Meanwhile, left-hander Madison Bumgarner helped produce the biggest highlight of the first week of camp, even if he had to suffer some ridicule afterward.
Posey bombed him for a double, single and home run on the first three pitches of their highly anticipated, live batting practice session on Saturday.
Posey had been assigned to catch Bumgarner’s session, but rearranged the hitting schedule in order to bat against the reigning World Series Most Valuable Player.
Bumgarner shrugged off some Posey barbs afterward, countering, “I want him to feel good, so I’m going to try to give him something to hit before I start getting him out.”
