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On Sunday night, the San Francisco Giants got to work ironing out a major roster crunch they had stumbled upon. They agreed to a deal that sent infielder Nate Furman to the Washington Nationals in exchange for minor-league left-hander Tony Neubeck.
This is not normally a move worth headlining, but today is the deadline for all teams to set and cut their rosters to 40 players maximum, including activating players from the 60-day injured list.
The Giants find themselves in a major pickle because they currently have 16 players on the 60-day injured list, along with 33 other active players. A total of 49 players. Nine more players will find their way off the roster today.
Getting back to the trade, Furman’s stint with the Giants ended after just 22 games. He was originally a fourth-round pick of the Cleveland Guardians in 2022 from the University of North Carolina, but was traded to San Francisco in August 2024.
Furman made his major league debut earlier this year on Aug. 1, but didn’t provide much production during his short time with the Giants.
Across 39 plate appearances, he recorded only four total hits, which is equivalent to a .125 batting average. His OPS was also pretty bleak, with a .368 mark.
Defensively, he saw playing time exclusively at second base, spending 17 games at the position while logging 70.1 innings. Furman was solid with the glove, posting a 1.000 fielding percentage while not committing an error.
He now joins a Nationals team that is also facing a bit of a roster crunch, with 45 players currently rostered. Furman still has three options left, according to FanGraphs, which makes it seem he’ll survive today’s roster cut in the nation’s capital.
Further looking into who the Giants will be receiving from the Nationals, Neubeck is a 23-year-old southpaw who has yet to debut in the majors. He stands 6’2” and now finds himself a part of the Giants' farm system.
He played college baseball at Missouri and Indiana before signing with the Nationals in August as an undrafted free agent. Across four collegiate seasons, Neubeck posted an underwhelming 5.87 ERA and 1.52 WHIP.
Neubeck spent time as both a starter and reliever in college, making 28 starts and 17 relief appearances. In his only two appearances within the Nationals system, for Single-A Fredericksburg, he pitched six scoreless innings in relief.
While the trade seems like a minor move from the outside looking in, it certainly helped out the Giants as they work through the difficult process of weeding down their roster to 40 players.