Javier Lopez to Retire, Officially Ending the Core Four Era

Former San Francisco Giants’ left-hander Javier Lopez is retiring, making him the final Core Four member to move on this offseason.

It seemed inevitable as the offseason began, but it became official on Wednesday. Left-hander Javier Lopez announced his retirement, becoming the fourth and final member of the Giants’ bullpen “Core Four” to leave the team. He joins fellow lefty Jeremy Affeldt in retirement, while Santiago Casilla is now with the Oakland Athletics and Sergio Romo is with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Lopez was the last of the Core Four to join the team, coming over in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the July 31st trade deadline in 2010. His dominance in San Francisco began immediately. Lopez appeared in 27 games in 2010 after the trade, and gave up just three runs on 11 hits and two walks while striking out 16 in 19 innings.

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He carried that over into the 2010 postseason, where he famously held down the Philadelphia Phillies’ duo of killer lefties, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, in the NLCS. Those two combined for just one hit in 10 at-bats against the sidewinding lefty, while striking out four times. When the Giants beat the Texas Rangers to win their first World Series since moving to San Francisco, it gave Lopez his second ring. He was on the Boston Red Sox World Series-winning team in 2007.

From the trade in 2010 through the 2015 season, there weren’t many players better at their job than Lopez was at his. Lefties hit .159 against Lopez over that near six-year span, and just .161 with runners in scoring position.

He was the antithesis of a budding generation of power pitchers that made throwing fastballs in the high-90s look easy. Lopez defined finesse and deception, using his straight sidearm delivery to fling sliders through bats and freeze hitters with fastballs that rarely approached 90. In his career, he never even averaged 88 on his fastball over an entire season, and the closest he came was in 2011 when he averaged 87.9.

Velocity was never the hallmark of Lopez’s success. When he was planting his slider just outside the zone away from a lefty, it was darn near unhittable. When he threw that fastball at 85, it looked so much harder because of the impossible angle it came from. Hitters never had the opportunity to pick a pitch up early, as Lopez hid the ball so well through his delivery. Watching him carve up some of the best left-handed hitters of the generation was an absolute joy.

Adam LaRoche – 0-11(.000), 9 K
Jay Bruce – 2-20 (.100), 9 K
Ryan Howard – 3-18 (.167), 9 K
Chase Utley – 1-23 (.043)
Joey Votto – 2-13 (.154)
Carlos Gonzalez – 4-25 (.160)
Nick Markakis – 1-16 (.063)
Robinson Cano – 1-10 (.100)

And that’s just a few.

But 2016 just wasn’t the same for Lopez. His normal pinpoint control of his frisbee slider and mid-80s fastball wasn’t there, and his 5.1 walks per nine innings and 1:1 strikeouts-to-walk ratio were the worst of his Giants’ tenure. Lefties hit .208 against Lopez, still a quite good number from the pitcher’s viewpoint, but a far cry from the previous years.

Even with his struggles, Lopez’s veteran presence in the clubhouse was huge. His leadership garnered him a share of the Willie Mac award. He was named co-winner along with shortstop Brandon Crawford.