Who will join Doval in Giants’ revamped 2023 bullpen? originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
SAN FRANCISCO — For an organization that constantly pursues depth and new options, the Giants took a bit of an odd approach to building their 2022 bullpen.
Just as they did with the infield, the Giants essentially ran it back. Just as with the infield, that proved to be a disaster. All eight relievers who were on the NLDS roster last October came back for 2022 and seven of them made the Opening Day roster.
The premise was a sound one in theory. The group had easily led the Majors in ERA en route to 107 wins and a full season of Camilo Doval would be added to the mix. There was just one problem.
Relievers are unpredictable.
This week we’ve looked at what’s ahead for the roster’s infielders, outfielders and starting pitchers. We wrap it up with the relievers, and while the group wasn’t as bad overall as most fans probably thought, it’s still a bullpen in need of some fresh blood:
Season Recap
After combining for a 2.99 ERA in 2021, Giants relievers were at 4.08 this year, which ranked 20th in the big leagues. Like the starters, they had to deal with a bad defense, but even stripping that out doesn’t make the numbers look too much better. While the rotation ranked first in FIP, the bullpen was 13th.
It didn’t help that most Giants relievers didn’t really have another card to play if balls weren’t finding gloves. The bullpen ranked 28th in the majors in strikeout rate.
The most notable exception was Doval, who posted a 2.53 ERA and saved 27 games without ever seeming to break a sweat. He throws harder than any pitcher in franchise history and decided to randomly add a sinker to the mix in July, which made him one of the most overpowering pitchers in baseball. With three pitches in the second half instead of two, Doval had a 1.93 ERA.
Doval was one of three Giants relievers who finished in the top seven in the NL in appearances, joining John Brebbia and Tyler Rogers.
Brebbia led the league with 76 games pitched, including 11 as an opener. He had a 3.18 ERA overall and allowed just one run in his “starts.” Rogers got red-hot late in the year to lower his ERA to a respectable number after some early issues.
While Rogers found a way to turn things around, too many of the 2021 standouts didn’t. Jake McGee lost life on his fastball and lost his roster spot in July. After a 1.51 ERA in 2021, Dom Leone struggled and was DFA’d in September. Jarlin Garcia and Jose Alvarez weren’t nearly as effective, with Alvarez ultimately undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Will They Be Back?
This is always a tricky question to ask with relievers, because just about none of them feel comfortable over the offseason. Just ask Kervin Castro, who made the postseason roster as a rookie, lost a ton of weight over the winter, and then pitched so poorly this season at Triple-A that he was shockingly let go despite being just 23 years old.
That’s life as a reliever, but some of the incumbents can pretty easily lock up a lease by Oracle Park. Doval will be back as the closer and Brebbia and Rogers, both of whom are arbitration-eligible, are easy calls.
The Giants may decide that Garcia has gotten too pricey but they do have some lefty options coming back. Scott Alexander was dominant down the stretch and is arbitration-eligible and Thomas Szapucki may be a real weapon if he keeps hitting 98 mph.
Jakob Junis is likely to fit into this mix in some respect and the Giants will bring a big group of familiar arms to what should be a wide-open camp, including Sean Hjelle, who had some nice moments late in the year.
Biggest Offseason Question
There are no big “should we offer that guy $125 million” decisions with a bullpen, but the Giants do have a philosophical question to ask themselves.
What exactly do they want this bullpen to be?
They leaned heavily on the group in 2022, asking for 650 innings, which ranked fifth-most in the big leagues. Over the final few weeks it seemed there was a “bullpen game” every other day, but that’s kind of a feature, not a bug, of the way this roster was put together.
Gabe Kapler tends to pull his starters early and that puts a lot of pressure on the middle relievers. You didn’t have to look hard to see how much Alex Wood, Logan Webb and the others were bothered by some short leashes.
The Giants asked a lot of their bullpen and the group simply wasn’t good enough to get through that many innings unscathed.
It would help to have a true long reliever and Farhan Zaidi has talked about putting Junis in that role. But in general the Giants are probably going to need more out of their rotation in 2023 and probably need more depth there. They asked their bullpen to cover too many innings in 2022.
The Future
Cole Waites went from High-A to the big leagues in 2022, and while he still has some tinkering to do, he should come to spring training with a shot to win an Opening Day job.
For most of the year it looked like right-hander RJ Dabovich would be the first hard-throwing prospect to reach Oracle Park, but some command issues in Triple-A set him back. The Giants saw much better command in his final few outings, though, and he should be an option at some point next year.
Randy Rodriguez was put on the 40-man this time a year ago with the hope that he could be stretched out as a starter, but the Giants moved him to the bullpen full-time in Double-A and he has the natural stuff to take the leap at some point.
Under Zaidi, the Giants have not at all been shy about moving relievers quickly. Expect another guy or two to pop up next spring.
Free Agents To Watch
As tempting as it may be to picture Doval and Edwin Diaz back-to-back, the Giants are not going to overreact to a down year and spend big on relievers. That’s generally about the worst way to use your money in the offseason, and the splurge for Mark Melancon after a rough season is a big part of why a new front office is in charge.
RELATED: How Giants can build rotation with expected Rodón opt out
The better path is to hit big on minor league free agents and undervalued veterans, as they did in 2021 with guys like McGee, Alvarez and Leone. You can expect a lot of that kind of action this winter.
The good news for the Giants is that they already have the most important piece in place. Doval is just 25 years old and seems to add more speed every month. With a bit more growth — the staff wants him to do a better job of mixing his three pitches — there’s a decent chance he’s viewed as one of the two or three best closers in the game this time a year from now.
Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast