It was a short cup of coffee. Leonard, 25, got the call to San Francisco in early August after grinding through years in the minor league systems of the Dodgers, Tigers, Braves and Brewers since signing out of the Dominican Republic in 2017. He finally got his shot with the Giants, and it lasted 3 games.
In those 3 games between August 4-8, Leonard went 2-for-8 with a single and a double, striking out twice. Not a bad debut line, but not enough to hold off the numbers game San Francisco was about to play.
The move came down to a roster crunch. Victor Bericoto got activated off the injured list on Tuesday, and someone had to go to make room. That someone was Leonard, who got designated for assignment earlier in the week before officially clearing waivers and getting outrighted to Sacramento.
Because this is Leonard's first career outright, he's required to accept the assignment and head back to Triple-A rather than becoming a free agent — standard procedure under the current CBA rules for a player's first trip through waivers unclaimed.
The demotion doesn't erase the case for him getting another look. Leonard's been raking at Sacramento all year, hitting.272/.361/.509 with a 125 wRC+ across 321 plate appearances — production that puts him in the top 20% of Triple-A hitters. Fellow utility man Buddy Kennedy currently holds down a bench spot in San Francisco and has gone hitless since rejoining the club, so the door isn't fully shut if Leonard keeps mashing in the minors down the stretch.