Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Tony Watson is not at fault, but he is among the guilty party.
The Giants’ bullpen has been the worst in baseball. The relievers’ minus-2.1 WAR (according to Fangraphs) is far and away in the cellar, their 6.52 ERA the second worst. They walk a ton of batters (4.44 per nine innings) and strike out too few (7.34 per nine, the second lowest in baseball).
Entering play Monday in Anaheim, the bullpen had allowed a majors-worst 24 home runs. The Giants had played 23 games.
“Nobody wants to be where we are,” Watson, easily the most experienced and established reliever in a bullpen that lacks both of those qualities, said over Zoom before the Giants and Angels began play. “…We’ve got to keep going out and, sure, we got some guys in new situations, but there’s no excuses. We got to go out there and keep attacking and execute pitches.”
Forty-seven pitches were thrown by Giants pitchers in Sunday’s fifth inning, which led to nine Oakland runs. Wandy Peralta’s and Dereck Rodriguez’s collapse came far earlier than the previous two nights, when Trevor Gott unraveled in the ninth, surrendering nine runs while recording three outs in a pair of blown saves.
The Giants’ bullpen always was going to be a work in progress, but this is different. Gott was supposed to be Watson’s partner, the only two with track records, but Watson has stood alone in effectiveness (1.59 ERA) and age (35). He has taken a step forward as a leader with a young group that doesn’t have Will Smith, Mark Melancon, Sam Dyson or even Reyes Moronta.
“Just doing regular veteran stuff, stuff that guys when I was coming up the first year in the bullpen helped me with,” said the third-year Giants lefty. “What stood out right away was that we got a lot of guys that were minor league starters — very similar path that I took. And so just helping them out, getting in the routine of the bullpen. Being able to throw every day or every other day or multiple times a series or getting up and then sitting down.”
Watson was complimentary of the group, calling out Caleb Baragar and the recently demoted Conner Menez and Rico Garcia as lengthier arms who have “great stuff,” and he believes the unit will come around.
The fact Watson has been the best thus far qualifies as a large surprise, having dealt with a shoulder issue for much of camp 1.0 and then starting slower than the rest of the bullpen during camp 2.0. His velocity is significantly down — his average fastball has been 89.4 mph, a drop from 93.0 mph last year — and yet is figuring out how to compensate.
He’s throwing far more (and slower) sliders and has cut down on the fastballs. He pitched nice innings Friday and Saturday, back to back, without incident against Oakland.
“I’m not going give all my secrets out,” Watson said with a smile when asked how he’s been solid without the hard stuff. “You got to be creative. … Velo is not all the way back, but if that’s the case, you have to be a little bit fine with your pitches and command and know what you’re doing out there.”
Watson does, in his 10th year in the majors and able to read bats and outsmart hitters in a way his bullpen mates cannot yet. He talked with Gott after the two-part meltdown, and Watson flashed back to four appearances last August that raised Watson’s ERA from 2.80 to 4.63; flashed back to a string of appearances with Pittsburgh that cost him the closer job.
“You’re here for a reason,” said Watson, who’s pitch 5 2/3 innings thus far but likely will have his appearances hiked because of the struggles that surround him. “I think Trevor’s done a great job with it, and hopefully he gets back out there and locks one down for us.”