Giants Bring Back Their Former Draft Pick on Minor League Deal

The San Francisco Giants are in a position where they should add ahead of the trade deadline.

After hanging with the juggernaut Los Angeles Dodgers atop the NL West division for the majority of the first half of the year, the Giants now sit nine games back of first place entering play on Thursday.

The good news is they're right in the thick of the playoff hunt, trailing the final Wild Card spot by just half of a game. So if San Francisco can push all the right buttons and get this muted offense going, then they should be playing October baseball.

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How aggressive the Giants are remains to be seen.

Already without a strong farm system, they shipped out a strong package to acquire Rafael Devers in the shocking blockbuster that should transform their lineup at some point this season.

But San Francisco did make a minor move on Wednesday, signing reliever Matt Gage to a minor league contract and sending him to Triple-A Sacramento, per his transactions log.

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If that name sounds familiar, that's because Gage was a 10th-round pick of the Giants back in the 2014 draft, spending four years with the organization before he was released in July of 2018.

The left-hander never made it to The Show with San Francisco, and it took him until 2022 with the Toronto Blue Jays for him to make his Major League debut.

Gage was most recently with the Detroit Tigers, signing a minor league contract with them this past offseason before getting called up to the bigs.

He performed well in his six outings, not giving up a single run across 5 2/3 innings pitched. But when the Tigers needed another starting pitcher on their roster, they designated Gage for assignment. He elected to become a free agent on July 1 after clearing waivers.

One day later, he signed a deal with the organization where his professional career began.

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How Gage factors into the mix for the Giants will be interesting to see.

San Francisco already has the best relief staff in the Majors with a collective 2.95 ERA. But all contenders are looking for depth and as many bullpen arms as possible to eat innings throughout the summer, so there's a chance he could finally play in the MLB for the team that drafted him at some point this year.

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