Giants rid of former troubles at closer
Left-hander McGee clear front-runner to close games this year
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. >> In a condensed 60-game season in which the San Francisco Giants won 29 games, five different pitchers recorded a save for first-year manager Gabe Kapler.
Four of those pitchers — Trevor Gott, Tyler Rogers, Sam Coonrod and Tony Watson — had multiple saves, but for much of the season, the Giants didn’t have a reliever emerge as the preferred candidate to preserve a ninth-inning lead. Kapler’s closer-by-committee approach wasn’t necessarily popular with fans, but it did allow the Giants to learn a lot about a young bullpen and which relievers were capable of handling the stress of high-leverage situations.
What exactly did a front office led by Farhan Zaidi determine?
The Giants needed more veteran arms.
As the club prepares for the 2021 season in which ending a four-year playoff drought is the team’s primary objective, lefthander Jake McGee has become the front-runner to be the Giants’ closer.
“I’d be very comfortable with Jake McGee in the ninth inning based on his track record, his composure, his track record, his success so far this camp,” Kapler said. ”
McGee, who signed a two-year deal with a club option for the 2023 season in February, has been dominant in Cactus League play. The lefty has appeared in seven games and has yet to allow a run, using a fastball-slider combination to breeze through innings.
No reliever in baseball used their fastball more often than McGee last year, who threw his four-seamer on more than 96% of his pitches in a Dodger uniform. Even though hitters almost always knew what was coming, McGee still enjoyed one of the best
seasons of his career as he posted a 2.66 ERA and had a 33-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
The fastball will always be McGee’s primary weapon, but since reporting to camp in Scottsdale, he’s worked on refining his slider so he can throw multiple pitches for strikes.
“I’ve been able to throw two-to-four (sliders) every outing and today I threw one for a first pitch strike against a lefty,” McGee said after tossing a scoreless inning against Cleveland on Tuesday. “I missed the one with the righty, but overall, I’ve been able to mix it in a lot more against lefties than I have in the past and to be able to throw it for strikes more, then they’ll have to respect it more than they have in the past.”
In 11 major league seasons, McGee has only recorded 45 saves, but that still makes him the Giants’ most experienced option in the ninth inning. Fellow free agent signees Matt Wisler, José Álvarez and John Brebbia have a combined 667 big league appearances, but the trio only has three saves among them.
McGee hasn’t regularly closed games since he saved 15 for the Rockies in 2016, but he’s been the most reliable reliever in camp so far and has a long history of being tough on both righties and lefties, which is important for a left-handed closer candidate.
“I’m a little different than some lefties because I have better splits against right-handed hitters,” McGee explained. “And with me working on my slider this spring, I’m going to be able to use it a lot more against lefties so I feel like I can kind of take a step forward from last year.”
Kapler’s ninth-inning options look far different than they did a year ago, when Gott began the season as the Giants’ favored closer, Watson was consistently viewed as a ninth-inning option and Coonrod ended the year piling up high-leverage appearances.
The Giants designated Gott for assignment earlier this spring, allowed Watson to depart in free agency and traded Coonrod
to the Phillies for pitching prospect Carson Ragsdale. The only other pitcher who had multiple saves, Rogers, remains a candidate to close for the Giants, but he doesn’t generate a high percentage of swings and misses like McGee.
“I think you can make a case that both McGee and Rogers have put themselves in that sort of position and I think they’re very good candidates (to close),” Kapler said.
Kapler loves that Rogers consistently induces soft contact and has only given up two home runs in 45 2/3 major league innings, but if the Giants prefer a closer who induces whiffs, McGee is the clearest choice.
Aside from hoping for more consistency in the ninth inning early in the
year, the Giants are likely holding out hope for another key development that could transform the bullpen. If hard-throwing prospects Kervin Castro, Camilo Doval and Gregory Santos showcase improved command and maintain their velocity in the upper levels of the minors this season, all three members of the 40-man roster could easily find their way into the major league bullpen mix later in the year.
The more pitchers the Giants feel they can trust in high-leverage situations, the more flexibility Kapler will have in deploying relievers in the late innings. For now, though, the closerby-committee approach may disappear as McGee has set himself apart during spring camp.