There is no mystery for Giants left-hander Alex Wood, although there is the excitement of making his first start with a new team.
It’s a different story for Camilo Doval, a hard-throwing right-hander who was called up to the Giants from their alternate site and awaits his major league debut having never pitched above Class A.
Wood will come off the injured list Sunday to start against the Miami Marlins. By that time, Doval will possibly have pitched in his first game.
“Electric righty,” Wood said in a video conference Friday before the Giants opened a three-game series in Miami. “I think there’s a lot of excitement for him getting the call and I’m sure they’ll try and get his feet wet in the first game or two.”
Doval was called up when Johnny Cueto was officially placed on the 10-day injured list with a Grade 1 lat strain. If all goes according to plan, Cueto, who was dazzling in his last two outings, will miss just two starts.
“I’m glad he’s OK and there’s a silver lining in that it will only be two starts,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said in a pregame video conference.
Doval, 23, bears watching in that his fastball has reached 100 miles per hour to go along with a slider Kapler said can break off the hip of a right-handed batter and catch the inside corner for a strike.
In five spring training games, Doval had one save and gave up two runs (one earned) with two walks and seven strikeouts. In 163 1/3 minor league innings, Doval has 233 strikeouts and 85 walks.
Speaking through interpreter Erwin Higueros, Doval said he was “laughing with joy” at getting the news of his promotion. He said the first person he called was his mother and that he’ll have family watching closely in the Dominican Republic.
“I have to take care of business and get ready and now I’m here and I just have to continue doing what I’m doing and try to stay,” Doval said.
Kapler will be looking for a relatively low leverage situation to get Doval some work.
“I think we want to be cognizant of this is his first time at the major league level and we’re going to look for the right spot for him,” Kapler said. “We feel like he’s capable of handling this elevated level of intensity, at the same time we have to remember this will be his major league debut. He’s young, he doesn’t have much experience outside of A ball.”
As for Wood, the expectation in Sunday’s start is that he’ll throw between 75 and 90 pitches after recovering from an ablation, a non-invasive procedure which alleviates nerve pain in the back. Wood had it done once before in 2019.
“I feel like I’ve been throwing the ball real well in my rehab starts and in my ‘pens overall,” Wood said. “Any time you come to a new place you want to be as impactful a player as you can be.”
Wood hasn’t been fully healthy since 2017 and 2018, when he put together back-to-back 16-3 and 9-7 seasons with the Dodgers and earned run averages of 2.72 and 3.68, pitching over 300 innings combined.
“It’s been a lot of fun so far to watch these guys work and execute great game plans that were putting together. I’m excited to hopefully join in on that,” Wood said.
TAXI SQUAD
Catcher Chadwick Tromp, infielder Jason Vosler, right-handed pitcher Zach Littel, right-handed pitcher Trevor Gott and left-handed pitcher Sam Selman were name to the Giants “taxi squad.”
Taxi squad players accompany teams on the road and are available to be activated in case of injury or COVID-19.
LINEUP VS. MIAMI
CF Austin Slater
2B Donovan Solano
RF Mike Yastrzemski
3B Evan Longoria
1B Wilmer Flores
LF Darin Ruf
C Buster Posey
SS Brandon Crawford
RHP Anthony DeSclafani
