SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- By the end of the 2021 season, the Giants had gotten more production out of their first basemen than any team in baseball, but in late May they were scrambling.
Brandon Belt strained his oblique, and with Wilmer Flores and Tommy La Stella already on the Injured List, manager Gabe Kapler made Darin Ruf his starter. Jason Vosler was recalled from Triple-A, and on his first night back in the big leagues, Ruf also got hurt, forcing Vosler into the lineup. All he did was crush his first career homer, capping a three-run rally and giving the Giants a thrilling 5-4 win at Chase Field.
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The night was one of the best of Vosler's life. Three days after the game-winning homer, he was sent back to Triple-A.
That was a big part of the story of the season for the 28-year-old infielder, but also for the Giants. They constantly churned their roster en route to 107 wins, so much so that when the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was put together earlier this month, one change seemed so connected to them that you might as well call it the Farhan Zaidi Rule.
MLB and the MLBPA agreed that players can now only be optioned a maximum of five times in one season. After the fifth option, the player must go on waivers.
On the surface, this seems like it will hamper the Giants in 2022 and beyond.
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Vosler and Thairo Estrada both got optioned seven times last season, and Sammy Long reached five while bouncing back and forth to provide a fresh arm. Several others, including Steven Duggar and Camilo Doval, got close to hitting the proposed maximum.
When asked about the rule change after the lockout ended, Zaidi spoke for more than three minutes. He said he "completely understands the intent," but has mixed feelings about the rule, and not because of what it will mean the fifth time a player is optioned. Zaidi pointed out that the change will impact the way teams view a second or third decision to recall a player.
"Are you more likely to spread out the opportunities than call up the player that in a vacuum is most deserving?" he said. "I really like the intent of the rule and I'll be interested to see how it plays out. It's just that in my experience there are a lot of times that you know a call-up is probably a short-term thing because somebody is coming back or somebody just went on short-term bereavement leave or something like that, and there are times we'll ask a player, 'Hey, this is probably just going to be for a day or two or three days, and if you don't want your schedule disrupted by flying back and forth, would you rather we call up somebody else?' Only once in my career has a player said, 'No, why don't you call up somebody else.'
"Being in the big leagues is a big deal to guys financially, service-time wise, and just the opportunity to be on that stage. I'm hoping it works the intended way and it creates more stability for players because that's a really important thing, but I also hope it doesn't restrict opportunities or put teams in a position where they're having to make tradeoffs they would rather not make. I think we always want to call up the best player, the most deserving player."
That last part explains why Vosler and Estrada piled up so many frequent flyer miles. Vosler impressed the big league staff with his approach last spring and hit the ground running when he ended up in Triple-A. Estrada emerged as a powerful option at second base, backed up Brandon Crawford at short, and even learned left field on the fly.
In a different circumstance, both likely would have been given consistent time at the big league level to settle in. But the Giants had the oldest lineup in the big leagues and found themselves in a historically close race for the NL West title. They did not have at-bats to give away to young players, but when veterans got hurt, they also needed guys like Vosler and Estrada who could be trusted to fit the game plan.
Vosler was optioned three times in the first two months of the season alone. He was optioned to Triple-A at least once in five consecutive months, and in August he was sent out twice. Every time he returned, there was a huge smile on his face.
"I can't imagine being like, 'I don't want to go to the big leagues.'" he said. "I can't see how that would ever be a bad thing. For every time I got sent down, that meant there was a call-up at some point, too. "
The Giants rightfully push back on the notion that this rule was meant to target them. The rampant roster moves are just as common in Los Angeles, Tampa Bay, Houston and other places. Most of the league's best teams have embraced the strategy of using young players to fill in the gaps, and The Athletic found that six different players -- none of them Giants -- hit double-digit options last year.
Zaidi pointed out that the change could ultimately hurt players who are on the bubble. Every stint in the big leagues is another chance to earn service time, and the financial difference between being in Triple-A and being the last man on the big league roster is immense.
"I think there's a lot of conversation of, 'Oh, well this team has a system of using a lot of guys. It's really going to hurt them.'" Zaidi said. "To me, it's more of a question of there are guys who are maybe on the 26-man roster bubble who you know are going to have to be back and forth to get their Major League time."
That was the case for Vosler last year and he embraced it. He knew the Giants had depth at the corners when he signed with them, but he still ended up playing his first 41 big league games, something he's grateful for.
There were challenges, to be sure, but Vosler didn't mind them. He lived out of hotels instead of worrying about finding an apartment in Sacramento when he would be gone so often, and he became a regular at a boutique hotel in SoMa that the Giants use for new additions. When MLB changed the rules to prevent another similar year, Vosler didn't think much of it.
"I think it's more of a strategy for the front office to deal with and for me to kind of go about my business," he said. "I didn't really think much about how it would affect me or wouldn't affect me. At the end of the day, I got sent down however many times but that also meant I got called up many times. That was a good thing."
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While Estrada can no longer be optioned to the minors, Vosler can for two more seasons, and plenty of others will become familiar with I-80 this season even with the rule change. The Giants will continue to be more active than just about everyone, just with the knowledge that there's now a hard line they can't cross.
Vosler, Duggar, sammy Long, Kervin Castro, the recently-acquired Luke Williams and others may be candidates to go back and forth, a reality of the business for young players who haven't settled into a full-time big-league role yet. That could mean dozens of tough conversations for Gabe Kapler, but Vosler said the way the manager handles all of those roster moves is one reason why there were no hard feelings last year.
"I've heard from other organizations that it's not the same as here. Kap is always 100 percent honest with you," he said. "There's never any BS like, 'Oh, we're sending you down because of this or this,' when the reality is it's just like, Brandon Belt is coming off the I.L.
"He's always like, 'Hey, you might only be here for three or four days because Belt is coming off the I.L., but prepare like you're going to be here for a month.' I really appreciate that."