Alex Cobb suffers another setback, hopes SF Giants keep roster intact at trade deadline
SAN FRANCISCO — After suffering another setback Friday in his latest rehab outing, Alex Cobb’s season debut will not come this week at Oracle Park.
The 36-year-old pending free agent just hopes that when he is eventually ready to pitch this season, it will be in the same uniform he has worn for the past two and a half years. Ahead of Tuesday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline, Cobb’s name is one that has been floated in rumors if the Giants commit to a selloff.
“I want to be here,” the veteran right-hander said from the home clubhouse Sunday morning.
After offseason hip surgery and complications in his shoulder, Cobb was originally slated to make his first start of the season this week against the A’s but instead was set to meet with club trainers Sunday to determine his next steps after a blister on his index finger popped in what was scheduled to be his final tuneup.
Cobb said he was “ready to join the rotation” after tossing five scoreless innings last Saturday for Triple-A Sacramento but felt the blister appear when he unleashed a slider on the second-to-last pitch of his outing. He lasted only two innings Friday in San Jose after the blister opened on the first batter of the game.
“I’m almost embarrassed that something keeps happening every time I’m almost ready,” Cobb said. “Just dealing with the punches as they come. At some point, I’ll be on the mound. I hope. But right now, frustrating.”
The blister, Cobb said, impacts his grip on every pitch but his curveball. They typically require about two weeks to heal, and manager Bob Melvin said Cobb could still be an option on the upcoming road trip that begins Friday in Cincinnati before heading to Washington, D.C.
That is, if Cobb is still on the team after Tuesday’s trade deadline.
Along with Blake Snell, Michael Conforto, Mike Yastrzemski and — before their own injuries — Wilmer Flores and Thairo Estrada, Cobb is one veteran on an expiring contract that the Giants could try to move to recoup some prospect capital and clear the way for more opportunities for their young players.
In his 13th major-league season, Cobb has pitched in the postseason just once — as a 24-year-old with the Rays in 2013 — and acknowledged Sunday that he doesn’t know what his future holds after this year.
Even after three wins in a row over the Rockies, the Giants’ playoff chances stood at 16.7%, according to FanGraphs. But, Cobb said, the front office would be doing him no favors by shipping him to another contender with better odds of playing in October.
“I know it’s easy from the outside world to write us off. I just don’t think that anybody in this clubhouse feels that,” Cobb said, echoing the sentiment shared by Conforto after their series loss in Los Angeles. “You can see the potential of what this rotation can do. I just think it takes so long to form chemistry in a clubhouse. I don’t want to disparage other teams, but even the really bad teams hit a stride and just rattle off wins and we haven’t had that yet.”
The Giants had just rattled off their improbable 107-win season in 2021 when Cobb signed a three-year, $36 million contract that winter. While he breathed new life into his career, earning his first All-Star nod and posting a 3.80 ERA while going 14-15 the past two seasons, that hasn’t resulted in a postseason berth.
If it’s up to him, he would like to see that contract through to the end.
“I don’t know what my career is going to look like next year. I’ve loved every minute of being a Giant. I’ve loved everything about this organization, the city, pitching here, the teammates,” Cobb said. “Obviously I want to win. But I also want to win with a team that (I’ve) lost with.
“I think going through the last two and a half years of not living up to expectations and not being where we wanted to be would make once we do eventually win – which I envision us doing here – so much more special than just jumping on a team that’s put all the work in and just jumped on the tail end of it with two months left in the season and not really feeling a part of it. I think there’s something more special about going through losses with a team and being on the other end when they win.”
Winn addresses surgery
One pitcher who assuredly won’t throw again for the Giants this season in Keaton Winn.
The 26-year-old right-hander will undergo surgery Monday to repair the ulnar nerve in throwing elbow, which he and the team hope will put an end to the discomfort he has experienced for the past two years. The procedure comes with a two-month recovery timeline, meaning Winn should be fully cleared when pitchers and catchers report for spring training next February.
“I’ve been dealing with this nerve for like the last two years,” Winn said, “so it feels nice to be be able to say that I’m going to get it taken care of.”
Dr. Steven Shin will perform the surgery in Los Angeles to repair the facial sling that Winn originally had inserted to support the nerve when he had his ulnar collateral ligament repaired as a minor leaguer. The sling had started to sag, Winn said, rubbing the nerve against his bone and preventing him from fully extending his arm without pain, and “while you’re pitching you have to get into this position. I couldn’t do it, really.”