Globe iconLogin iconRecap iconSearch iconTickets icon

Giants to re-evaluate Pagan, Morse at home

PHOENIX -- The Giants will make decisions on the status of outfielders Angel Pagan and Michael Morse when they return to San Francisco to open a long homestand against the Padres on Monday, manager Bruce Bochy said.

Both players are battling bad backs and were not in the lineup for Sunday's closer of a three-game series against the D-backs at Chase Field.

Pagan has been out for a week with lower back stiffness. Morse left Saturday night's 6-4 Giants victory with back tightness.

Bochy said both players are day to day and that he'd be playing with a 23-man roster for the series finale. Pagan wasn't available, although Morse could be used in a pinch.

"Angel's the same, which is good," Bochy said when asked about Pagan's condition before the game. "It hasn't been getting worse and he's been doing baseball activities. Morse is hoping to play tomorrow, but we'll wait until we get to San Francisco. I think tomorrow we'll have a pretty good idea on both of them."

In the interim, the Giants sent outfielder Juan Perez to Triple-A Fresno to make room for infielder Joe Panik, who was inserted into Sunday's starting lineup at second base. Perez remained with the team and will fly to San Francisco after the game before joining the Minor League club in Fresno this week.

The Giants have been reluctant to place Pagan on the 15-day disabled list. If he doesn't enter a game, they could still backdate him on the list a week with a possible return as early as July 1.

"It's a possibility," Bochy said about Pagan, who concluded a short on-field workout while the manager was talking to the media in the dugout. "But we just think he's made enough improvement to give us hope he'll be ready in a couple of days rather than missing eight more games, including today's game if we put him on the DL right now."

Pagan currently leads the Giants with a .307 batting average and is the only player on the team with more than 10 stolen bases. He has 11.

Barry M. Bloom is a national reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog, Boomskie on Baseball. Follow @boomskie on Twitter.
Read More: San Francisco Giants, Michael Morse, Angel Pagan