Not much went well for the Giants last season but they did see some strong performances from the relief corps. Rookie Reyes Moronta dazzled with 79 whiffs in 65 IP, and kept a lid on scoring with 20 RA on only 34 hits. Look for the burly righty to see a lot of action in 2019. Well-traveled veteran Sam Dyson delivered 70-1/3 IP of similar quality relief without the 97+ mph gas of his younger teammate. Dyson, also a righty, was a closer in Texas in 2016 (38 SV). Lefty Tony Watson was picked up just before the season started and he was a mainstay, generating 1.8 bWAR in his 72 appearances, walking only 14 batters and allowing only four homers. His fellow southpaw Will Smith was equally dominant in his 54 games, becoming the team's closer down the stretch and earning the coveted Willie Mac Award. He missed all of 2017 due to Tommy John surgery.
Sophomore Moronta is obviously still under team control and Dyson is due for another year of arbitration in 2020 before becoming a free agent in 2021. Watson has a player option for 2020 and Smith is a free agent after this season.
Injury-plagued right-hander Mark Melancon is still around and is signed through next season. He was a star closer in Pittsburgh (51 SV in 2015) but has not been healthy for most of his time in San Francisco. Recent acquisition Pat Venditte (ven-DITTY) is a unique character in that he pitches both left-handed and right-handed. He's also a switch-hitter! I'm guessing he'll make the team if he has a good spring, he has just a little over a year of service time. Another left-handed arm to keep an eye on is Travis Bergen, he's on the 40-man roster, but has no big-league experience. Righties Trevor Gott and Jose Lopez are also new to the team, Gott came up as a 22-year old with the Angels in 2015, Lopez has yet to appear in the majors.
They'll be competing with some familiar names like Ray Black, Ty Blach (he made 13 starts in 2018), Steven Okert and Tyler Beede who are still in the mix. Derek Law was cut loose but still invited to camp. Josh Osich was also DFA'd and I don't know his status. Neither Cory Gearrin nor Pierce Johnson are with the team anymore. Chris Stratton and Andrew Suarez will be around hoping to be starters but one may wind up a reliever. Dereck Rodriguez made 19 starts last season and looked good, he may grab one of the spots again. The top four appear to be set with Bumgarner, Samardzija, Holland, and new guy Drew Pomeranz, but that's another post.
Check out Roster Resource for more details! No other news on the Giants front this weekend.
--M.C.
5 comments:
The Giants have one off day in the first 17 days of the season. They need 5 starters when they break camp.
I'm not sure what Samardzija has done to earn a definite Rotation place. His best sustained work as a Giant has been inferior to the best sustained work of most of the other Starters in contention. Maybe, his role needs to be re-imagined.
Back-to-back 200 IP seasons (64 starts) before the injury. I don't think we have anyone else--Stratton, Suarez, Rodriguez, Blach, Beede, Lopez, etc.--with that level of production (5.2 bWAR, 6.4 fWAR). If we do, then I'm all for using him. Bumgarner, Holland, & Pomeranz are obvious. That leaves Samardzija and one from the above list. I haven't heard anything about him being traded or anything about the Giants adding another starter.
David Pinto at Baseball Musings takes a look at Bryce Harper and references a longer piece from Dave Fleming at Bill James on-line. (Not our Dave Flemming!). The author argues that Harper is "older" than his actual 26 years due to all the work he did as an amateur (he was a catcher!) before making the bigs. That his career arc is one of a 30-year old, and he should be expected to age and decline as if he were actually 30 years of age. It is interesting (Pinto's piece is short, Fleming's long and detailed) and does account for some of the wild variation in Harper's performance. Could be all nonsense, of course, but we have certainly seen many ballplayers flame out after huge seasons. All athletes are unique, and you can't lump them all into aging curves, but baseball is a damn hard game and staying up with the elites is tough business, even for a guy with Harper's talent.
2019 is the end of the Managerial line for Bochy.
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