San Francisco Giants: Smith’s Return Good News for Depleted Staff
The San Francisco Giants have had a lot of good news on the injury front this season, but Smith’s return brings much-needed good news to a depleted staff.
As the San Francisco Giants continue to lose players to the disabled list, they finally received some much-needed good news on Wednesday. Left-handed relief pitcher Will Smith was finally activated from the disabled list, making his long-awaited return to the active.
The Giants found a good spot for Smith to make his re-debut, holding a 9-3 lead over the San Diego Padres in the seventh inning. The 28-year-old left-hander took over a clean inning, and before he even threw his first regular season pitch since 2016, he was greeted with a loud ovation from the crowd.
Smith restarted his big league career with a 93-mph fastball, planting it on the inside corner for a called strike. Though he would go on to walk his first batter, A.J. Ellis, Smith showed that he still has a great breaking ball. He threw two very good ones below the zone, but just couldn’t get Ellis to fish down low.
He re-focused, and got Travis Jankowski to foul away a fastball, swing through a nasty slider down, and swing late on an elevated fastball at 94 for his first major league strikeout since October 10th, 2016. After flopping two breaking balls in for strikes against Manuel Margot, Smith planted a fastball inside and off the plate, getting the batter to swing, break his bat, and ground out to third base.
Smith’s last batter of the day would be Eric Hosmer, and the former teammates locked horns. Hosmer would chase a slider out but lay off some more pitches, bringing the count to 3-2 as Smith’s pitch count climbed toward 20.
At this point, Cory Gearrin was ready to go down in the bullpen and Smith wasn’t going to get another batter. He would either get Hosmer, or leave another pitcher a mess in his first outing of the year. He decided on the former, getting the Padres’ slugger to chase another hard slider, low and away, end the frame.
Smith couldn’t hide the emotion after that. He pumped his fist and slapped his glove against his thigh before turning to his catcher, Nick Hundley, and flashing the happiest smile one could imagine. He took the game ball back and was greeted with hugs and high-fives as the crowd showed their appreciation.
In his first outing on a major league mound in 569 days, Smith looked great. His slider had the same, sharp bite that made him such a big part of the team down the stretch in 2016, and for the most part, he was able to hit his spots with the fastball. His fastball didn’t hit the peak velocity of past seasons (not a problem at this point in his return), but he was able to cruise at his regular average velocity. He threw 10 fastballs that averaged 92.8 mph, a small fraction better than his 2016 average of 92.6.
There were a couple understandable spots where he missed his target by a good margin, but overall, he looked just as good as he did after the team traded for him.
Smith was supposed to be a big part of the bullpen equation in 2017, but never got the chance. He didn’t make a regular season appearance after suffering his elbow injury in his second Spring Training outing. He’s spent the last 14 months making his way back through the vigorous rehab schedule that comes with the dreaded Tommy John surgery, and now he can be a big part of the 2018 bullpen.
The Giants’ bullpen has already started to settle in, with Hunter Strickland making his home in the ninth inning and Tony Watson being absolutely lights out in the eighth. Sam Dyson has apparently figured some things out and is pitching well again, and Reyes Moronta and Pierce Johnson have both been nice early season surprises. (And maybe Mark Melancon comes back at some point but who knows.)
Adding Smith to the equation only makes the bullpen that much deeper, and it gives manager Bruce Bochy two left-handed relievers that can get through both right-handed and left-handed hitters. Watson has been stellar against righties this season (.115/.179/.115 slash-line), and Smith has historically been tough on hitters who hold platoon advantage (.194 average from 2015-2016).
The Giants will certainly need this depth in the bullpen as the starting rotation is still dealing with injuries. Madison Bumgarner is still at least a month away after suffering a fractured hand in Spring Training. Johnny Cueto is probably going to miss a lot of time with his current injury, though there’s no definitive diagnosis yet. Jeff Samardzija is back with San Francisco, but still in that awkward phase of not being at full strength and still working his way back to that level.
That leaves the rotation without a lot of guys who aren’t going to eat innings. Ty Blach is averaging just over five innings per start, while Derek Holland is averaging exactly five. Samardzija hasn’t pitched into sixth yet. Chris Stratton has begun to pitch deeper and the team certainly hopes that his Saturday start, the worst of his career, is simply a blip on the radar. Andrew Suarez has impressed in his first two starts, and has averaged about six innings per start in his AAA career (including six starts of at least seven innings), but he needs to do that on a consistent basis during this extended audition.
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Odds are, though, that the Giants are going to need to continue relying heavily on their bullpen, and putting Smith back into that makes it a bit easier to do so. Of course they won’t give him the heaviest workload right away, but as he works back to full strength the load will increase. That will only be a good thing for the team.