MLB Dad Cuts His Own Son

By Mark Townsend | Big League Stew

Nobody was expecting Bruce Bochy's son Brett to crack the San Francisco Giants opening day roster this year. In fact, at 25 years old, he may be a long shot to ever get that call since he's not really regarded as a top prospect and he's yet to discard the durability questions that have surrounded him since he was drafted in 2010.

Still, it can't be all that good a feeling when the official word comes down that your dream to big pitch in the big leagues won't be happening as soon as you'd hoped. And it has to be an extra awkward feeling when the person informing you that you've fallen short is your own father.

That was the unfortunate case for the younger Bochy on Thursday night, though his father did take a different route to informing him than he would for any of his other players. According to Andrew Baggerly of Comcast Sports Net San Francisco, he actually did it in a face-to-face meeting over dinner, which may or may not have added to the awkwardness, but it certainly didn't take away from the disappointment.

“He was disappointed I didn’t bring him in (the office) to cut him,” the manager said, smiling. “Maybe I’ll do it tomorrow to make him feel better.”

I'm sure hearing the message one time will be plenty, but one can certainly understand why young Brett would want to learn his fate in the same manner as his teammates. It's difficult enough being the son of a coach or manager in any environment. I can only imagine how it would feel in a major league clubhouse, and being treated differently in any way can only make that feeling more awkward.

However, as things turn out, there really was a good reason why Bruce Bochy elected to go that route aside from being a good father attempting to brace his son for the 'bad news' (which is he'll be reassigned to Giants minor league camp). The skipper actually a full plate ahead of him on Friday as San Francisco had elected to cut an additional 20 players that day. Bochy was concerned he may not have time to get around to all of them, so he took advantage of the situation to work ahead a little bit.

Now, as for how Brett performed this spring: Unfortunately he was limited to just three appearances due to inflammation in his pitching elbow. I guess that would support the concern over his durability. He posted a 6.75 ERA during that time but says he learned a lot from pitching coach Dave Righetti that he can use going forward. That was his big takeaway from spending camp with the big league Giants.