The SF Giants have been without slugger Jerar Encarnacion for about a month. He went on the IL with an oblique strain in the middle of June, but he is beginning a rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League.
This news comes via the team's transaction log. It has been easy to forget about Encarnacion ever since the Giants traded for Rafael Devers. Yet, some of us are old enough to remember there was a time this season when the offense was so putrid that there was hope Encarnacion would be a mini-savior for the lineup.