Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants’ belief and literacy in advanced analytics helped them land Jake McGee for perhaps a bullpen job that is very much old-school.
The idea of a closer is starting to become passe in today’s game — San Francisco did not have an official one last season — but the Giants have a front-runner.
McGee, a Driveline disciple with an excellent fastball and coming off a dominant (if short) season with the Dodgers, officially was introduced Wednesday on a two-year deal with a club option for a third. The Giants shifted righty John Brebbia to the 60-day injured list to make roster space.
The 34-year-old from San Jose said he had “a few different offers,” but Gabe Kapler’s recruiting worked, as did the manager’s forward-thinking, young staff. McGee played with bullpen coach Craig Albernaz with Tampa Bay. He played against pitching coach Andrew Bailey. He had not gotten in touch with Matt Daniels, the coordinator of pitching sciences, but knows him from Driveline. Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford were his World Baseball Classic teammates. He now lives in Reno. This made sense.
“They’re using a lot more analytic-wise — they’re using the TrackMan in bullpens,” McGee said over Zoom after the team’s pitchers’ and catchers’ first official workout. “Just the youngness of the staff, and they want to do well and help guys out and give every information that you need to make you better. I think they’re one of the more forefront analytic teams now, and they’re going to be better and better every year I feel like.”
He knows, coming from the Dodgers system and coming up with the Rays, what that means. After emerging as a star with Tampa, he struggled through four seasons with Colorado. He then landed with the Dodgers and learned “that my fastball has vertical movement and horizontal movement.
“A lot of guys, they say you have a lot of really good vertical movement, they can tell the hitters to use the bat a little higher, 2 or 3 inches of vertical,” said 11-year-pro McGee, who posted a 2.66 ERA with 33 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings last season. “But mine has two different planes. So I’m able to throw it a lot more than other guys.”
That’s an understatement. He threw his fastball 97 percent of the time last season, averaging 95 mph, only very occasionally mixing in a slider. But hitters couldn’t figure it out, and he rode that pitch to a deal reported to be worth $7 million over the first two seasons.
With 45 career saves, he’s the most-established reliever in the pen and the best bet for a closer, should one exist this season. He’ll inherit Tony Watson’s role as a leader and as a late-game weapon.
“He’s a nice candidate to close games for us, based on how many strikes he threw last year, how many bats he missed,” Kapler said of McGee, who walked just three hitters last season. “He just did the things that you expect out of a late-inning guy.”
You would also expect a late-inning guy to embrace that role, which McGee would.
“I feel like my stuff’s back to where it was after last year with the Dodgers,” the lefty said. “My stuff played really well, and I have everything to keep it that way.”