Junis reaping rewards of offseason program
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler, asked that spring-training cliche — “Who’s in the best shape of their life” — immediately named the team’s No. 7 starter.
That’s Jakob Junis. And yes, seventh starter.
How will that work, exactly? Junis doesn’t know and is untroubled whether it means he’ll be piggybacking with another starter — say, splitting a game with Sean Manaea — or works out of the bullpen or makes spot starts. He has done it all before.
“It’s the same situation I was in last year,” said Junis, who will make his Cactus League debut Wednesday. “We have a lot of depth, and I’m at the back end of that depth.
“A benefit of having seven starters, especially if we’re all healthy, is that we can take down a whole game between two of us, which I think could be an advantage at some points during the season and take the load off the bullpen. I think that’s only going to benefit our team.”
Junis, 30, made 17 starts for the Giants last season, and he allowed more than two runs only once in his first nine. Then he landed on the injured list with a hamstring strain. When he returned, he went 1-6 with a 5.77 ERA the rest of the way, working as a starter and out of the bullpen and also dealing with a hairline fracture in the palm of his left (non-throwing) hand.
Wanting to eliminate any more shoulder or hamstring issues, Junis was on a mission this offseason. The best-shape trope is something of an annual joke now, but Junis looks stronger, with broader shoulders and bigger arms after spending the winter in Arizona to work with the Giants’ strength staff. He has added about 10-15 pounds of lean muscle, he said, taking him up to 240 pounds.
“My weight went up but my muscle mass stayed right where it was supposed to,” Junis said. “It was a perfect balance of working out and training and
getting stronger.”
“He reported in fantastic shape,” Kapler said. “Better shape than he was in last year.”
The 2021-22 winter was a strange one for everyone with the baseball lockout interrupting workout plans for many players, but Junis also was rehabbing from a right shoulder impingement, and he was joining a new team. He wound up with three weeks to get adjusted to the Giants and get ready for the season after the labor dispute ended. He also had to revamp his game.
“I didn’t really realize how crazy that was until I sat down this offseason and was just thinking about it,” Junis said. “I came in a little bit banged up and then they sat me down and were like, ‘Hey, you’re not going to throw four-seamers or your cutter. You’re going to throw two-seamers and changeups.’ I had never been able to throw a changeup in my life, and I had 2½ weeks and a couple of bullpens to do it. But I put my faith in them and my game progressed a ton.”
With time to work on things in a full, real spring training, Junis is bringing back the cutter.
“I’m tinkering with it,” he said. “I threw a couple during live BP, and a couple in my bullpen sessions were phenomenal. It’s just a consistency thing — it’s only worth bringing back if it’s consistent, so I’m going to try a couple of grips. I’d love to have a harder slider-type cutter to go with my slider for two different looks, something I can throw lefties. We’ll see.”
Something on which Junis doesn’t need to work much: his hair, which was widely considered the team’s best last year, a curly mop usually hidden by his cap but glorious when hatless. Now, Manaea — his former Kansas City minor-league teammate — is lockering next to Junis and gives him a major competitor in the long locks department. The two took note of that, and on the team’s photo day, they had a team videographer shoot them standing side by side and tossing their tresses.
“I was right next to him, and I was like, ‘I want to get in there and get a picture of us.’ It was pretty cool,” Junis said. “I’ve known Sean for a long time, and eight years ago, neither of us had long hair. Now we both have all of this hair.”