What Does Closer Change Mean For San Francisco Giants Contender Status?

The San Francisco Giants made a surprising move on Friday when the team announced that they had optioned their closer Camilo Doval to Triple-A Sacramento. Doval had spent the last three seasons as the closer, including leading the National League in saves and making an All-Star team in 2023. After a rough start to 2024, he is headed back to the minors.

Doval came up as a rookie in 2021 and pitched well enough in 29 games to earn the closers role in 2022. He then went on to save 27 games with a 2.53 ERA and made the All-Star team and saved 39 games in 2023, the most for the Giants in a season since Brian Wilson saved 48 games in 2010.

2024 has seen a turn of events for the 27-year-old reliever. He has pitched in 46 games, but regressed in many different categories. His ERA fell from 2.93 in 2023 to 4.70, his strikeouts per nine fell a tick, but maybe most importantly, his walks per nine jumped from 3.5 to 5.9.

Doval’s unreliability in the closers role, along with his loss of command, gave the Giants no choice but to remove him from the closer’s role. What’s shocking is that instead of relegating him to the seventh or eighth inning, they sent him down. Removing a struggling closer from his role is not unheard of, but sending said closer to Triple-A is a big step.

San Francisco may want him to work on his command without having to face big league hitters, but manager Bob Melvin has yet to speak on the subject in a more detailed fashion.

“Doval frustrated the Gabe Kapler regime with his lack of attention to detail, and Melvin has seemingly gotten fed up, too,” said NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic when reporting the move.

With Doval gone, the Giants don’t have a solidified closer, but Melvin briefly stated that there will be a single pitcher to take the spot, not a committee.

There are a few options the team could settle on, with the first two being Jordan Hicks or Ryan Walker.

Hicks has closing experience from his days with the St. Louis Cardinals. The right hander was mainly a reliever before the Giants converted him to a starter and has been pitching out of the bullpen since his alst start of July 23rd. The 27-year-old already surpassed his career high in innings, so most of his work will come from the bullpen from here on out.

The Giants have a possible weapon out of the bullpen in Hicks, who was throwing 104 mph as a reliever with the Cardinals. He last pitched out of the bullpen full time last season, throwing 65.2 innings with a 3.29 ERA.

Hicks may be an option to take over as the closer, but it likely won’t be right away. He hasn’t thrown in those high leverage innings since 2023 and is still converting from the rotation.

The more likely option, for now, is Ryan Walker. The 28-year-old has been the Giants’ most reliable reliever all season. He leads the league in appearances with 59 and in 60.1 innings has a 2.24 ERA and 10.6 K/9. As opposed to Doval, Walker has only allowed 1.9 walks per nine and has just a 0.878 WHIP.

Pushing Walker into the closer role is what makes sense in the short term. If Doval can’t figure out his command, he provides reliability in the ninth for Melvin and the Giants. It’s a big move for San Francisco to make, and one that comes in the middle of fighting for a Wild Card spot.