SAN FRANCISCO – Less than two weeks before his 30th birthday, Spencer Bivens got the word he’d waited a long time for late Saturday night when he was told he was going to the big leagues and joining the San Francisco Giants.
Bivens, signed as a free agent by the Giants in 2022, was officially selected from Triple-A Sacramento on Sunday morning, as the Giants also placed Kyle Harrison on the 15-day injured list (right ankle sprain) and released right-hander Nick Avila.
Bivens entered Sunday’s game in the top of the second inning. He struck out both Zach Neto and Cole Tucker on 94 mph sinkers, and got Jo Adell to ground out. But Bivens also gave up a 410-foot home run to center field to Nolan Schanuel, as the Angels took a 2-0 lead.
But Bivens remained strong and retired six straight batters in the third and fourth innings before he was replaced by Sean Hjelle before the start of the fifth inning. His performance kept his team in the game, and the Giants scored nine runs in the fourth to take a 9-2 lead. They won 13-6..
“It doesn’t really feel real,” Bivens said. “Just waiting to wake up from a dream. But it’s unbelievable. I really don’t have words for it. It’s nothing like I imagined it. It’s better that it’s that way.”
The 6-foot-5 Bivens finished with five strikeouts in his MLB debut, which came five years after he began his professional career in France. He was told the news about his promotion on Saturday night as the River Cats were playing in Reno.
“I was caught off guard, to say the least,” said Bivens, who is 4-0 this season with a 2.81 ERA in 41.2 innings. “It was in the middle of our game, during a time when I thought I’d be warming up. It was an awesome surprise.”
The undrafted Bivens, a Virginia Beach native, grew up in State College, Pennsylvania. According to a November 2022 profile in The Athletic, he dreamed of pitching for the Penn State Nittany Lions, and he made the team in his first year at the school. But a failed marijuana test got him kicked off the team. Bivens said he stopped smoking weed before he enrolled in school, but there were still remnants of the drug in his system.
After two more years, Bivens went to school at Rogers State in Oklahoma. He returned to North America in 2020 and bounced around various teams and leagues, but he has stayed in Sacramento since the start of the Triple-A season. In May, he was named Pacific Coast League pitcher of the month.
“There are great stories and you always feel good about someone making their major league debut, but if you know the travails and everything that he’s been through, this is a real special one,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said.
“Whether it was the coaching staff when he came in this morning to the players there, there’s some pretty cool days, Father’s Day, the whole bit. That he gets to finally make it to the big leagues, it really gives you goosebumps.”
Bivens said he expected his parents to be at Oracle Park on Sunday for his anticipated MLB debut. He himself said he got into San Francisco around 3:30 a.m.
“So I haven’t had much sleep,” Bivens said, “but I don’t see that being a problem today.”
Bivens said after he arrived in the Giants’ clubhouse, people said to “make sure to breathe, just have fun. Pat Burrell has been really cool. He told me to go take a look at the bullpen, think about myself and take a moment.
“Just can’t make it up. You know, it’s just surreal,” Bivens said, adding that he’s been “picturing this for a long time. A long time and it’s not even close. Like not what I thought it’d be. It’s crazy. I don’t know. I’m at a loss for words.”