Cody Glenn-USA TODAY Sports
With pitching, what the Giants lack in chalk they hope to make up for in choices.
The bullpen is virtually completely up for grabs, albeit with a number of intriguing, option-able relievers who performed this year. Barring trades, their only rotation shoo-ins are Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija.
There are so many starting possibilities, Farhan Zaidi can be excused for missing one.
“We’re going to need some of the younger guys that have made starts for us this year step up and continue to develop,” the Giants president of baseball operations said Tuesday. “Obviously, Tyler Beede, Logan Webb, Derek Rodriguez I think did a nice job coming back late in the season and making some adjustments. … We have some other starters we have in the upper minors.”
Later, Zaidi clarified not mentioning Shaun Anderson was merely an oversight. He is not banished to the bullpen, at least not yet. Which is just fine with him.
“We talked a little bit and I’m going to go into spring training trying to be a starter and trying to fight for that spot,” Anderson told KNBR last weekend, a college closer who has been a minor league and major league starter before he excelled again in relief.
Anderson’s stuff noticeably ticked up at the end of the season, though he disputes the cause; most see a starter who had to conserve for 90 pitches being unleashed. He sees a mechanical tweak and blister-less fingers giving him more power.
The 24-year-old went on the injured list with a second blister after an abbreviated Aug. 7 outing, after which he had a 5.33 ERA in 16 starts, a solid May and June giving way to July and August struggles.
He made a rehab start with Triple-A Sacramento on Aug. 20, in which he went 3 1/3 scoreless innings and said his stuff and delivery felt much better. When he was soon summoned, he had a new role and, soon, new stuff.
Anderson’s velocity steadily rose, and a low-90s starter became a mid-90s reliever. His first relief outing was Aug. 24, when he was still hovering around 92 mph. Whether it was because of the tweak and health or because he was planning for an inning instead of seven, his effectiveness, rose too.
His relief numbers — 13 1/3 innings, nine runs (6.08) — do not do him justice, the line inflated by a four-run blowup Friday against the Dodgers. From Sept. 1-25, when he was settled in and actually briefly served as San Francisco’s closer, Anderson gave up three runs in 9 2/3 innings (2.79) while striking out 14 — a big deal for a starter who struggled to miss bats — with a nasty slider that rose to 90 mph.
It’s possible the Giants stumbled upon a reliable seventh- or eighth-inning guy. They are going to give Anderson a chance to prove he’s more than that.
“I like to see myself as a starter, absolutely,” Anderson said earlier this year. “But if they need me to be a reliever, then I want to help the team win the best way I can, as cliche as that sounds.”