The Giants have sent right-hander Eric Cerantola through waivers and outrighted him to Triple-A Sacramento, reports Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle. There wasn’t any previous indication that Cerantola was bumped off the 40-man, so this drops the club’s count to 39.
Cerantola, 36, has never appeared in a big league game for the Giants. He was claimed off waivers from the Royals just over a week ago. He was sent to Sacramento and made two appearances there. The Giants put him back on the wire and he wasn’t claimed this time. This is the righty’s first career outright and he has less than three years of service time. That means he does not have the right to elect free agency.
The righty has a very limited big league track record so far. He made four appearances for the Royals earlier this year, allowing six earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. That gives him an unsightly 10.31 earned run average, though in a very tiny sample.
His minor league work has been more intriguing. Back in April, FanGraphs ranked him the #28 prospect in Kansas City’s system, mostly due to his nasty slider. Looking at his results, his control has not been strong but he can send guys back to the bench. While in the Royals’ system, he logged 93 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level with a 3.56 ERA. His 11.7% walk rate was too high but he punched out 30.7% of batters faced.
As mentioned, he got into two games for Sacramento since being claimed. The first one went fine, as he pitched a scoreless inning with one strikeout. But in the second, he walked five of the six batters he faced and also threw a wild pitch. Perhaps that prompted the Giants to putting Cerantola back on waivers.
It is a mild surprise that Cerantola cleared waivers, given that he is still optionable and clearly has strikeout stuff, but the lack of control perhaps makes him too much of a project. Though no club is currently willing to give him a roster spot, the Giants will keep him in a non-roster capacity. If they can help him rein things in, perhaps he can work his way back to the big leagues. They are going into the deadline as clear sellers and may open up some playing time by trading away some arms in the next few weeks.
Photo courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff, Imagn Images
