The Giants are stress-testing every corner of their pitching depth chart down the stretch, and the latest addition is a 24-year-old lefty nobody outside of Arizona was tracking a week ago. San Francisco claimed Philip Abner off waivers after the Diamondbacks designated him for assignment, and he's been optioned straight to Sacramento rather than added to the big league staff.
Abner's big league resume so far is not the reason he's getting a look. He's thrown just 18 innings in the majors with a 6.00 ERA, and his 13.4% walk rate and 13.4% strikeout rate are both ugly, matching numbers that don't scream 'impact reliever.' The appeal is buried in the minor league line, where Abner has a 3.98 ERA over 40 2/3 innings at Triple-A, with a 26.9% strikeout rate against just an 8.2% walk rate. That's a real gap between the two levels, and it's the kind of profile a team stashes and monitors rather than fast-tracks to the show.
This isn't an isolated pickup — it's one piece of a broader roster shuffle. San Francisco also selected lefty Matt Wilkinson to the active roster and optioned fellow southpaw Reiver Sanmartin down to open the spot. To clear 40-man room for Abner and Wilkinson, the Giants transferred catcher Daniel Susac (patellar fracture, done for the year) and outfielder Harrison Bader (plantar fasciitis, out since May) to the 60-day injured list.
None of that screams marquee move, but it's the kind of housekeeping that matters in August. Waiver claims like Abner are lottery tickets — cheap, low-risk swings a contending front office takes to see if there's a useful bullpen arm hiding in someone else's org chart. Whether he ever sees Oracle Park this year probably depends on how Sacramento's staff performs and how banged up San Francisco's pitching gets as the schedule tightens.