Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Ross Stripling

The Carlos Rodón sweepstakes—at least the San Francisco version—are over. The Giants signed another veteran starter to the same deal as Sean Manaea, a two-year $25M pact with an opt-out. Ross Stripling just turned 33 and has started 104 games in his career out of a total of 204 appearances (672 IP). You may remember him from his time with the Dodgers. LA traded him to the Blue Jays in 2020 and last year he had perhaps his best season (2.7 bWAR in 134-1/3 IP, 24 starts).

The Giants now have a rotation consisting of Logan Webb, Alex Cobb, Alex Wood, Anthony DeSclafani, Sean Manaea, and Ross Stripling. There's also Jakob Junis who looks good as a swingman. Pitching depth, pitching depth, pitching depth, pitching depth. The Giants are stockpiling arms and instead of $200+M for one arm they will spread it around. (I think they should buy out Webb's arbitration years and his first few free agency years by signing him to a multi-year contract!). I can't complain about their approach. It's a long season and you need a lot of arms. There's talk that we will see 21-year old southpaw mega-prospect Kyle Harrison get promoted mid-year. A pair of homegrown aces, one lefty and one righty, would be a nice thing to build around.

--M.C.

2 comments:

nomisnala said...

Everything I read still says that the giants are still interested in Rodon. Stripling has been a swing man although his second half performance last year made him seem as if he could be more than that, but he is 33. Interesting another one of those deals where if the guy has a bad year he stays and if he has a good year he goes.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Yeah I hear that too but I find it hard to believe. I guess we'll see!!