40-man roster spots are precious, but unlike past years when the Giants have treated the scarcity with reverence, carrying guys on it well beyond the point when it made sense, the new front office has decided that they don’t have time to wait for every dude on it to be the best version of themselves.

After 17 plate appearances, they’d seen enough of 30-year old infielder Corban Joseph and said goodbye to him, his final Giants’ line being 1-for-16 with a walk and six strikeouts. The Giants were his second team this year (the A’s were the first) and his third team in two seasons (he was on the Orioles last year).

This is the itinerant life of a professional ballplayer, but from this bird’s eye view of a computer, it looks like an unpleasant one. Now there are all sorts of laser beams measuring physical performance and spitting out numbers that can either add to the indignity of constant judgment or give you hope. In Joseph’s case, Statcast hasn’t been kind to him (25% hard hit rate for his career, sub-.300 wOBAcon), confirming his paltry season line.

As sad as it is, Corban Joseph might just be the best comp for IF Christhian Adames, whom the Giants added to the 40-man to take his spot. The 28-year old Adames just helped the River Cats clinch the PCL title as their #3 hitter but won’t be around for the Triple-A championship series starting Tuesday.

Adames signed with the Rockies as an amateur free agent back in 2017. He has 343 major league PAs — all with Colorado — and a career line of .206/.283/.278 (.561 OPS). He had 165 PA in Sacramento this season after the Cubs released him and the Giants signed him, putting up a line of .283/.364/.517 (.881 OPS), playing mostly third base with a decent amount of time at second base. Like Joseph, he’s also a switch-hitter.

To really underscore their similarities, here’s Adames’ transaction record:

September 14, 2007: Signed by the Colorado Rockies as an amateur free agent.

November 6, 2017: Granted Free Agency.

December 15, 2017: Signed as a Free Agent with the Miami Marlins.

November 2, 2018: Granted Free Agency.

January 23, 2019: Signed as a Free Agent with the Chicago Cubs.

July 5, 2019: Released by the Chicago Cubs.

July 12, 2019: Signed as a Free Agent with the San Francisco Giants.

September 14, 2019: Contract selected by Giants, added to active roster.

And here’s Joseph’s:

I point this out because we’re dealing with just 14 games here. While the Giants might be making some evaluations for next year’s roster, the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of whatever happens in September not mattering in the slightest when it comes to next year’s team. That means Adames is here to potentially be an upgrade over Joseph, whose utility on the roster is nonexistent if he can’t hit in place of Mauricio Dubon and Evan Longoria. He doesn’t have to hit like either one of them to be useful, either. Just... better than Joseph.

And then he’s probably gone after the season. It’s just a weird game sometimes. Getting that major league call-up is a reward, no matter what the season, but sometimes, there’s that degree of “Well, what if this is it and I’m done or have to start over again?” that creeps into the matter and I can’t help but feel sad for these guys.

My favorite Cristhian Adames stat is this: he has 13 hits in 30 games against the Dodgers, his most against any team and the most games he’s played against any single team. Second? The Giants, with 10 hits in 24 games.

The difference? Against the Dodgers, his line looks like this: .224/.250/.310 (.560 OPS in 62 PA). Against the Giants: .270/.372/.378 (.750 OPS in 43 PA). He also has 5 RBI against the Giants, tied for the most against any one team (also 5 against the Brewers). He has 20 RBI for his career and 63 total hits. The Giants got a stealth Giants-killer to play for them.

Meanwhile, Mike Gerber gets to try to prove himself, if not for the 2020 Giants, then for the next organization in which he might find himself. When last we saw him in a Giants uniform, he had struck out nine times in their four-game series in Cinncinati. After a solid debut (1-for-3 with a double and a walk), he looked completely overmatched at the plate.

Down in Triple-A, he didn’t totally fix what ailed him, striking out 140 times in 513 plate appearances (27.3%) while walking just 39 times (7.6%). He also hit 26 home runs and slashed .308/.368/.569 (.937 OPS), so, he wasn’t a total disaster. He was merely a proto Mike Yastrzemski who didn’t adjust as quickly as the actual Mike Yastrzemski did.

Yastrzemski along with Dickerson wound up being the poor org’s version of Max Muncy this year, much to our surprise, and after a year of getting their own in-house evaluations, it will be interesting to see if these final 14 games of September ball will tell us anything about where he might fit — if at all — in going forward.

And since this post seems to be comprehensive, if you missed it, the Giants DFA’d Williams Jerez the other day in order to make room for Johnny Cueto and then the Pirates claimed Williams Jerez, meaning the Pirates will have both parts of the Chris Stratton for Jerez trade from earlier in the year.