© Rick Scuteri | 2021 Mar 10
The Giants have a lot of guys, but do they have ‘the guy?’
That’s the question after an offseason where the Giants constructed a bullpen made entirely of cheap free agents on short term deals. Clearly, Farhan Zaidi and Co. believe there is a lot of undervalued talent when it comes to relief arms, but they will also need to have some real talent at the end of games if they want to avoid another Trevor Gott debacle.
Gabe Kapler is a non-traditional manager, and is not married to having one pitcher who gets the ball in the ninth inning of every close game. He’s also not a contrarian just for the sake of it, and is more than happy to give that role to a player who earns it.
It sounds like there are two pitchers currently showing the kind of stuff in Scottsdale to warrant a look as the team’s closer moving forward, the most notable of which spent last season with the rival Dodgers.
“Jake McGee has done it in the past, and quite frankly if Jake McGee is the pitcher from last year he might be the perfect candidate to close baseball games for us,” Kapler said on KNBR Monday. “He had a high strikeout rate, he had a low walk rate, two things that are very important for a closer.”
That’s an unusually candid assessment from Kapler, who typically keeps things close to the vest. It just goes to show how much McGee, 34, has impressed since signing a two-year deal with the Giants this winter. McGee was a stud in Los Angeles last year, allowing just 6 runs and striking out 33 in 20.1 innings, posting a WHIP of 0.83. McGee has missed bats throughout his 11-year-career, which included six years in Tampa Bay and four years in Colorado, where he filled in as a temporary closer at times, but was used mostly as a 7th or 8th inning setup man.
The other candidate is a familiar face.
“(Tyler) Rogers does a couple of things well that make him an excellent candidate for big important innings in high leverage,” Kapler said. “He throws strikes, he misses maybe fewer bats than McGee, but when he does it’s generally speaking weak contact. One thing that Rogers does as good or better than anyone in our bullpen, is he limits damage. So we haven’t seen balls fly out of the ballpark when Rogers is on the mound. Which when you’re dealing with 1 run, 2 run games, you know how important it is to protect those leads by not giving up the long ball.”
Rogers, 29, is a favorite of Kapler’s and made more appearances (29) than any pitcher in the National League last year. Like McGee, most of those came in the 7th and 8th innings, but his ability to minimize damage and get ground balls gives him an outside chance at 9th inning work. Rogers averages just 0.4 home runs allowed per nine innings in his two year career.
“If somebody steps up and says ‘I’m going to take control of that closer’s role,’ we will give it to them,” Kapler said. “That’s an earned right, and one that we take very seriously, we don’t take lightly. I will say this, we have had some guys really step up this camp and say hey ‘I’m going to be a great option for a late inning, high leverage role’”
Listen to the full interview below.