by Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–When former Giants third baseman Casey McGehee 32, was let go on Sunday with the club visiting Colorado there was little surprise. McGehee with a .200 batting average and Giant third baseman Matt Duffy progressing with a .297 average things were going to soon change for McGehee’s future in San Francisco. Also there was the bone bruise that he chose not to use as an excuse saying, “everybody’s got something bothering them. Nobody’s 100 percent it’s nice of him (Giants GM Bobby Evans) to try and make excuses. If I go out there, I expect to perform” said McGehee.

It also didn’t help that McGehee hit into a Major League leading 12 of double plays and it really put him in a tough spot. Obviously you have Duffy a 24 year old whose been playing well. He’s had some taste of MLB action in the last couple of years and now he’s ready to establish himself as he hits around .299 with consistency.

Duffy has made 22 starts and he’s the guy for now, the thing that’s interesting is that the Giants lose too much financially, the Giants lose whether McGehee decides to accept a MLB assignment or not. The $4 million that was invested in him and the Giants won’t get that much back they owe him $3.5 million at this juncture in the season whether they take him back or if he decides to shop for new big league club.

There is a chance that he would accept a minor league assignment because he’s from the Santa Cruz area at the same time it’s very likely that he won’t accept that assignment and they will lose whatever money that was invested in him. From the team prospective this is good news. It’s good news that somebody has established themselves at third base in the absence of McGehee and former Giant Pablo Sandoval.

The Giants have been playing well and the Giants expect to continue to play well with Duffy holding down third base. The bone bruise had to be an issue and to his credit he didn’t make it an issue and he’s not making it as an excuse. You got to remember last year in Miami he had the fourth most hits in the National League.

So what happened for McGehee from one year to the next is his performance dropped so dramatically and the injury would be the first thing that anybody would speculate that is the problem. The other issue is that San Francisco is not conducive to offensive play. Some guys have taken well to it some guys haven’t. It’s as simple as that but in in McGehee’s case and the poor play and third base is a position of production and McGehee wasn’t giving them any of that.

Morris Phillips is a San Francisco Giants beat writer for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below