San Francisco Giants 2017 X-Factors, Part 1: Will Smith

As is always the case, teams will need players to step up and make huge contributions. For the San Francisco Giants, one of those players is Will Smith.

The San Francisco Giants look like a team that is going to be competitive again in 2017. The meat of the roster looks similar, but one big addition and a little bit of addition by subtraction makes the team feel a bit better.

But still, the Giants will need big performances from certain areas and players to get where they want to be. One of those players is Will Smith.

Smith, the 27-year-old left-hander, was acquired at the trade deadline in 2016 in an effort to bolster a bullpen that needed it. That deal was highly criticized for, mainly, two reasons.

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A) The price was very high. Phil Bickford was the Giants’ top prospect, and Andrew Susac was, not too long ago, one of the Giants’ best hitting prospects. But Bickford has since been suspended for a drug code violation, and his dip in fastball velocity is alarming. Susac had lost his backup catcher job to Trevor Brown, and was certainly expendable.

B) The Giants didn’t need a middle reliever, they needed a closer. But with the Giants spreading resources to make three trades at the deadline, they probably didn’t have enough to acquire that big-time closer.

But after the trade, Smith became a dominant piece of the bullpen. He had a rough time adjusting to his new digs over his first few appearances, but was nearly unhittable after settling in. In 26 games with the Giants, Smith posted a 2.95 ERA and .197/.293/.258 slash-line while striking out 12.8 batters per nine innings (by far the best on the team).

He finished the regular season on an absolute tear. He didn’t allow a run over his last 18 appearances, and stranded all six runners he inherited. In 13.2 innings during that streak, Smith struck out 20.

The Giants have made a move in an effort to fix the problems that lingered in the ninth inning by acquiring Mark Melancon. That is a big deal, and Melancon’s track record speaks for itself. But the middle innings were just as much a problem as the ninth inning.

San Francisco blew 32 saves in 2016, according to baseball-reference. 12 of those blown saves came in the ninth inning or later, while five were in the sixth inning or earlier. That leaves 15 blown saves in the seventh and eighth innings (Smith was responsible for one of those, letting up a lead on August 8th, before going on his end-of-season tear).