San Francisco Giants must release struggling veteran to make room for Blake Snell

The San Francisco Giants must make a decision regarding Blake Snell’s return from the injured list. It appears that it’s time for the team to shed struggling veteran reliever Luke Jackson, a move that should have been made a long time ago.

The Giants are finally starting to get their starting pitchers back. Kyle Harrison returned for yesterday’s game against the Guardians, and it looks like Blake Snell could be reactivated from the injured list soon.

Even though Snell has struggled mightily this season, the Giants are going to need him to start playing regularly. He’s never been a big-time innings player in his career, but they’re going to need him to start playing 5 or 6 innings regularly to take some of the pressure off the team’s overworked bullpen.

When Snell returns, the Giants will have to make a corresponding roster move. The Giants have already had to part ways with Spencer Howard (DFA and traded to the Guardians) and demote Spencer Bivens to make room for other players and they’ll have another decision to make soon.

Management might be tempted to simply demote starting pitcher Randy Rodriguez. He’s a young pitcher with options who has been uneven at times this season but has shown plenty of promise and has a high-velocity fastball.

Demoting Rodriguez would be a mistake. Instead, the Giants should finally designate relief pitcher Luke Jackson for assignment. The veteran has struggled mightily this season, with a 6.11 ERA in 28 innings. The Giants may feel they need to keep him because of the two-year, $11.5 million contract they signed him to before last season. Jackson simply hasn’t lived up to that deal, and the Giants would be better off cutting their losses at this point.

Manager Bob Melvin clearly doesn’t trust Jackson because he won’t put him in high-upside situations unless all of his other relievers are truly exhausted. And it seems like every time he gets into tight games in high-upside situations, he just isn’t able to reliably get outs.

Rodriguez is a pitcher who has much more promise and a much better chance of becoming the future of the Giants’ bullpen than Jackson. The Giants need to rip the band-aid off and move on when Blake Snell returns from the injured list.