The Giants have signed 28-year old lefty starting pitcher Dontrelle Willis to a minor league deal. Willis has pitched in 15 games (13 starts) this season for the Tigers & D-Backs and he is 2-3 with a 5.62 ERA and a 1.95 WHIP. Willis’ big problem this season has been his control as he has walked 56 batters in only 65 2/3 innings this year. Willis has now pitched in 192 games (189 starts) in his 8 years in the majors and he is 71-63 with a 4.12 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP. The Giants will likely leave Willis in the minors until they determine he has earned either a shot or his release.

The San Francisco Giants have traded 35-year old righty swinging catcher Bengie Molina to the Texas Rangers for 28-year old righty reliever Chris Ray and a player to be named later. Ray has pitched in 35 games (0 starts) for the Rangers this season and he is 2-0 with 1 save, a 3.41 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. He has now pitched in 226 games (0 starts) in his five years in the majors and he is 12-17 with 50 saves, a 4.01 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP. Ray will help the Giants’ pen and this trade opens up the starting catcher job with 23-year old righty swinging Buster Posey moving there full-time. Posey has played in 27 games this season and he is 28 of 97 (.289 avg, .695 OPS) with 10 runs scored, 1 homer and 10 RBIs. While it’s a good trade for the Giants you hate to see 35-year old Bengie Molina leaving town as he has been solid for them. He played in 61 games for the Giants this year and he was 52 of 202 (.257 avg, .644 OPS) with 17 runs scored, 3 homers and 17 RBIs. Molina played in 472 games in his four years with the Giants and he was 474 of 1,720 (.276 avg, .731 OPS) with 153 runs scored, 58 homers and 273 RBIs.

UPDATE: The Rangers have sent 21-year old righty starting pitcher Michael Main to the Giants as the PTBNL. He was a first round pick of the Rangers in 2007 (#24 overall). He was the Rangers’ #21 ranked prospect heading into this season according to Baseball America. Main has pitched in 15 games (all starts) in A-ball this season and he is 5-3 with a 3.45 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP. He has now pitched in 54 games (52 starts) in his four years in the minors and he is 14-13 with a 4.03 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP. Now I really like this trade from the Giants end of things.

Wow that didn’t take long. 33-year old righty swinging outfielder Pat Burrell has been called up by the Giants. He played in 5 games in AAA-ball for the Giants and he was 5 of 16 (.313 avg, .972 OPS) with 4 runs scored, 1 homer and 6 RBIs. Burrell will likely initially be coming off the bench for the Giants. To make room on the roster for him the Giants designated 30-year old righty reliever Brandon Medders for assignment but he already cleared waivers and has been sent to AAA. Medders has pitched in 14 games (0 starts) for the Giants this year and he was 0-0 with a 7.20 ERA and a 2.13 WHIP.

The Giants have sent 26-year old lefty swinging RF/1B John Bowker to AAA. He played in 41 games for the Giants this year and he was 17 of 82 (.207 avg, .609 OPS) with 9 runs scored, 3 homers and 8 RBIs. In parts of three years with the Giants, Bowker has played in 183 games in which he is 113 of 475 (.238 avg, .678 OPS) with 47 runs scored, 15 homers and 58 RBIs. Bowker’s demotion clears a path for the Giants to call up Pat Burrell soon if he continues to hit in the minors.

The Giants have signed 33-year old outfielder Pat Burrell to a minor league deal. Burrell played in 24 games earlier this year for the Rays in which he was 17 of 84 (.202 avg, .625 OPS) with 9 runs scored, 2 homers and 13 RBIs. He has now played in 1,452 games in his major league career and he is 1,274 of 5,031 (.253 avg, .834 OPS) with 709 runs scored, 267 homers and 904 RBIs. The Giants will send him to the minors for a couple of weeks to get him ready for a return to the outfield as he has been a DH the last 1 1/2.