San Francisco Giants: Pitching Staff Almost Set, but There Will be Battles

The San Francisco Giants are almost all set on the pitching staff, but there are some battles to watch as Spring Training nears.

There won’t be many battles for jobs on the San Francisco Giants’ pitching staff this year in Spring Training. The top four spots in the rotation are set, and most of the high-profile jobs in the bullpen are locked in.

Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Matt Moore, and Jeff Samardzija lead the charge for a rotation that has a chance to be one of the best in baseball again. The bullpen, on paper, looks to have gotten better, and much younger, with addition by subtraction. They are losing the remaining members of the bullpen’s Core Four (although Sergio Romo and Javier Lopez remain free agents), and are replacing those three spots with much younger counterparts.

36-year-old Santiago Casilla is replaced by 31-year-old Mark Melancon (he’ll be 32 by opening day). 39-year-old Lopez is replaced by 27-year-old Will Smith, and Smith will likely take on a much larger role than Lopez had. 33-year-old Romo won’t be the main right-handed set-up man anymore, with 26-year-old Derek Law figuring to get the nod. Law has minor-league options, but after an incredible rookie year, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be on the opening day roster.

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Hunter Strickland, George Kontos, and Cory Gearrin also appear to be headed to bigger roles in 2017. The main job up for grabs is the role of the second lefty out of the pen, which will be closer to the role Lopez took on in San Francisco. Two youngsters, both with options, will compete in Spring Training.

Josh Osich had a great debut season in 2015, but struggled with his command in 2016. A knee injury, a partially torn patellar tendon in his right knee, may have contributed to that step backwards. If he’s healthy and closer to the 2015 version of himself, a pitcher with his high-velocity sinker can certainly be a big part of a bullpen.

Steven Okert made his big league debut in 2016, and the 25-year-old southpaw pitched well. The main blemish on his record was a blown save against the Padres on September 13th, when he allowed a three-run home run that cost the Giants the game. But other than that, he looked very good in the season’s final month. In nine September appearances, he allowed just one run (one run from the three-run homer was charged to his record), and struck out eight to one walk.

Those two will compete in Spring Training, and the better of the two will make his way onto the opening day roster. The rest of the 25-man squad probably hinges on the fifth starter.

Matt Cain enters what is almost certainly his final year with the Giants, and the team will give him one more opportunity to prove that he can handle being the fifth starter. If he can show any kind of promise in Spring, the job will be his. If that is the case, the Giants can go with the traditional 12-man pitching staff, rather than the 13-man staff that’s been the norm over the past couple years.

If Cain doesn’t prove himself (which is probably the more likely scenario), the Giants will have to compensate. That means keeping a 13th man, a long reliever, on the staff. Cain could be the long reliever, while other starters like Albert Suarez and Ty Blach also have experience out of the bullpen. If this ends up being the case, one of those three will serve as the fifth starter, one will serve as the swingman, and the final will be sent to Triple-A, where he will await his call back up.

So the Giants will have two main battles for roster spots in the Spring. Okert and Osich will go head-to-head, while Suarez and Blach will pitch for a job in case Cain can’t hold his water. There will be smaller battles, not for roster spots, but for jobs. Smith, Law, and Strickland will probably be the main three competing to be number-one set-up man, but all three will have big roles in 2017, no matter what.

Other guys will head into camp looking to prove they can contribute to the pitching staff as well. The list of non-roster invitees hasn’t been released yet, but reliever Bryan Morris was extended an invitation in December when he signed a minor league deal. Morris dealt with a back injury in 2016, but is another pitcher with good stuff and a solid track record that could contribute. He’ll compete in Spring to prove that the injury is behind him and that he can add something to the team.

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There’s also young pitchers Reyes Moronta, Dan Slania, Chase Johnson, and Ian Gardeck, who were all added to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule V Draft. They will all be looking to prove themselves in big league camp.

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