The Giants signed one of the fastest players in MLB history in the offseason, but he won't ever play a game for them.
Center fielder Billy Hamilton was traded to the New York Mets on Sunday morning in exchange for right-handed pitcher Jordan Humphreys, who was sent to the alternate training site in Sacramento. Hamilton had been working out at that site in hopes of joining the Giants' big league roster soon.
Humphreys is an intriguing project, a big right-hander who has a 2.60 ERA in the minors and is coming off Tommy John surgery. He missed all of 2018 but returned for a couple of minor league appearances last year and then pitched well in the Arizona Fall League. Humphreys has not pitched above High-A so he's unlikely to be in the mix at any point over the next 51 games.
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Hamilton was supposed to make the Opening Day roster, but he missed the start of camp with an undisclosed medical issue and only returned over the final few days of simulated games. Hamilton didn't play in those and continued to get his feet back underneath him at the alternate site in Sacramento.
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The longtime Reds outfielder was supposed to bring speed to center field, but Mike Yastrzemski has been such a star there over the first nine games that it's unlikely there was any playing time in Hamilton's future.
The Giants called up Steven Duggar to fill that role earlier this week.
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