San Francisco Giants Positional Preview: Relief Pitchers
As Spring Training approaches, we’ll take a look at the San Francisco Giants depth at every position. The 10th and final group we see is the relief pitchers.
The San Francisco Giants bullpen wasn’t as stout as fans were used to in 2015, as they had to throw a lot more innings because of the inability of their starters to go deep into games. The relief group made a franchise-record 557 appearances last season, but with the addition of new starters that can eat innings, that number should fall drastically this coming year. There are a lot of relievers in camp for the Giants, so I’ll try to keep individual summaries short, sweet, and to the point.
Manager Bruce Bochy made it crystal clear very early in spring that incumbent closer Santiago Casilla would start 2016 in the same role. Despite a rough patch in the middle of the season, Casilla turned in another solid year in 2015, posting a 2.79 ERA, 1.276 WHIP, a career-high 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings, and 38 saves in 44 chances. He ended the year on a high note, allowing just one run in 12 innings over the final month.
Casilla’s normal set-up man, Sergio Romo, is being brought along slowly this Spring, but it’s been said that there aren’t any injury concerns. Spring Training is normally a little unkind to Romo, who usually deals with a bout of inflammation around this time. Romo also had a fine year in 2015, and is still one of the key members in the Giants’ bullpen.
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Romo’s left-handed counterpart is Javier Lopez, a soft-throwing specialist who delivers from a near-impossible angle. At 37 years old last year, Lopez enjoyed maybe his best season, totalling a 1.60 ERA and 0.890 WHIP in a career-high tying 77 appearances. Despite his age, Lopez is a wily veteran who lulls lefties to sleep. When Bochy needs to get the opposition’s top left-handed bat out, Lopez is usually always there to get the job done.
The three aforementioned relievers make up part of what is called the “Core Four”, but they’ll be down to three this coming year. The fourth member, Jeremy Affeldt, is a retiree now, and they will need to fill that role as a lefty who can get hitters out from both sides of the plate. The likely replacement is Josh Osich. The youngster with an electric fastball made his big league debut last season and quickly impressed the Giants, and he should have a much larger role in 2016.
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George Kontos entered Spring last season competing for a job with Jean Machi, but both started the year in San Francisco as part of an eight-man bullpen. Kontos was the one who finished the year in the big leagues, though. After being part of the taxi squad for most of his career, Kontos established himself as a viable bullpen weapon, and was poised to finish the year with an ERA under two before a really rough outing in game 162. His spot should be safe this time around.
After his postseason in 2014, Hunter Strickland entered 2015 with a lot of question marks and started the year in Triple-A. He was called up for a double-header in Colorado late in May and never went back. In 55 games he put up a 2.45 ERA and 0.857 WHIP along with a very tidy 1.8 walks per nine innings. The fireballing country boy is considered the closer of the future, but if Casilla falters in 2016, could Strickland take those reins sooner rather than later?
If there’s one job in the bullpen that has a competition, it’s for the seventh spot. Chris Heston is slated to be the long reliever after Yusmeiro Petit‘s departure, but that isn’t necessarily set in stone. Heston had a strong rookie year but fell apart down the stretch, and maybe a move to the bullpen could help alleviate that in the future. Heston does have an option left, so he can be sent down to the minor leagues without having to pass through waivers. That could be a deciding factor in his opening day place.
On the 40-man roster, Cory Gearrin and Michael Broadway are the only two relief pitchers that have big league experience. Gearrin is a funky, side-winding, right-handed groundball pitcher that got a taste of action at the end of last year, and has 84 games at the highest level. He impressed last year in his short stint, and Andrew Baggarly thinks the Giants might start the year with Gearrin instead of Heston.
Broadway got his first taste of big league action last season after 11 years in the minor leagues, and had his ups and downs. He doesn’t seem likely to break camp with the big league team, but will serve as depth down the road.
Also on the 40-man roster are Derek Law, Steven Okert, Ray Black, Kyle Crick, Joan Gregorio, Jacob Smith, and Ian Gardeck. Law was extremely impressive in Spring Training 2014, to the point of nearly breaking camp with the Giants, but Tommy John surgery that year derailed the train. Okert is another hard-throwing lefty, and will likely be the first called up if the team needs to fill the role of a second left-hander in the bullpen.
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Black is an enigma and fan favorite with a 103 mile an hour fastball, but he has struggled with his health and command. That fastball will keep him on the team’s radar for a while, but until he proves he can stay healthy and advance past A-ball, he won’t be called up soon. Crick and Gregorio are both former starters who have begun transitioning to the bullpen. Crick’s command is keeping him from reaching his full potential, and Gregorio’s inexperience at higher levels (only 37 games at Double-A) will keep him from the major leagues for the foreseeable future.
Smith and Gardeck are a pair of talented young righties, but neither have advanced above High-A ball. They both have plenty of potential, but are still a long ways away from breaking into the big leagues.
The Giants also have two experienced major league pitchers in camp as non-roster invitees, and two guys with a lot of minor league games under their belt. Ricky Romero is still working his way back from two knee surgeries in 2014, and pitched four games late last season in Rookie Ball. The Cal State-Fullerton product was an All-Star with Toronto in 2011, but the Giants are still trying to figure out if Romero is a reliever or starter at this point in his career.
Vin Mazzaro is the second experienced pitcher, and has spent seven seasons as a big leaguer with four teams, serving as a swingman. He has had more opportunities as a reliever, and a skosh more success, but shouldn’t act as anything more than organizational depth for the Giants.
Braulio Lara and Albert Suarez are non-roster invitees without major league time. Lara is in his second camp with the Giants, and split 2015 between Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento. He didn’t have much success, but is a left-hander with a dazzling fastball that can reach triple-digits. That’s enough to keep the Giants interested, apparently. Suarez is of no relation to Giants’ 2015 second-round draft pick Andrew Suarez, and has bounced around in the minor leagues for eight years, spending last season in Double-A with the Los Angeles Angels’ affiliate. Suarez is a career starter, but it seems that if he is to make a big league roster in his career, it would be as a reliever.
Next: Giants Positional Preview: Starting Pitchers
The Giants didn’t directly upgrade the bullpen this offseason, but by adding new starters that won’t need to be replaced after five or six innings, the relievers should be in a much better place this season.