On-Air Now
On-Air Now
Listen Live from the Casino Matrix Studio

Why the 2020 Giants never had a closer, which didn’t ruin them

By

/


Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports


Sure, with a shutdown closer, the Giants would have made the postseason.

But with a slightly improved anything, the Giants, who finished in a tie for the Brewers but missed out on the tiebreaker, would have made the postseason.

It is easy to point to Sam Coonrod’s meltdown Friday night as the season’s defining moment, but he was on the mound against the Padres because of the rotation’s failings to go deeper in recent games, games that had mounted like a sped-up Tetris game as the Giants had to squeeze in its postponed contests.

The lack of a defined ninth-inning guy did not kill the Giants. Even if some of the Giants’ choices for the ninth inning contributed to the team’s demise.

“I think we had a mixed bag when it came to the ninth inning,” said Gabe Kapler, who never named a closer but received saves from Trevor Gott (four), Tyler Rogers (three), Coonrod (three), Tony Watson (two) and Sam Selman (one). “I think there were plenty of opportunities to go around. And I thought many of our relievers did a nice job handling those opportunities. In a perfect world, you have relievers slot into roles that feel dependable to them. That just wasn’t the way our roster was designed.”

In Bruce Bochy’s farewell, there were roles and players who had earned specific slots. Will Smith wanted and got the ninth. Watson typically would precede him, with Sam Dyson throwing plenty of seventh innings. There were veterans who desired engraved roles, and as the veterans left, so did the certainty.

Only Watson remained, and the Giants wanted to be careful with the lefty who had dealt with a shoulder issue in spring training 1.0 and was slow-played in 2.0. Jarlin Garcia had established himself with Miami, but beyond those two and Gott there were a slew of pitchers just trying to prove they belonged. Gott was the first to be the ostensible closer, but his three memorable meltdowns from Aug. 14-17 nearly spiked the Giants’ season.

Without ever officially naming a closer, the Giants finished with 4.35 ERA in the ninth inning, which was 21st in baseball. Their 10 home runs allowed in the last frame were the second most. Remove any club’s worst frames and the numbers look better, but without Gott’s trio of blown saves, the Giants’ ninth-inning ERA was 1.89.

For the most part, the closer by committee worked. The Giants defined leveraged roles — who would be coming in during the fifth and sixth, who would be entering for traditionally harder outs to get later in games against different parts of the lineup.

“It was sort of a function of personnel we didn’t have a defined closer coming into the year,” Farhan Zaidi said at the end-of-season Zoom news conference Wednesday. “It made sense to define roles just in terms of broad parameters. You pitch in the middle innings, you pitch at the end of the game. These are the hitting pockets that you’re most likely to face. I thought our relievers developed a comfort level with that kind of style of usage.

“There’s no philosophical war against the closer. If you have an elite closer, I know managers like Gabe feel really good about being able to hand that guy the ball in the ninth inning.”

Zaidi said they often felt they were one reliable arm short. They sought a righty reliever at the trade deadline and came up empty, which hurt as Coonrod faltered down the stretch, and Gott’s last pitch came Sept. 9 due to injury.

Still, the bullpen was filled with discoveries and improved by leaps as the season got longer, its 3.27 September ERA the third best in baseball. The Giants will want to see more next year from Rogers, Garcia, Coonrod, Selman, Wandy Peralta and Caleb Baragar. Watson will be a free agent, though a reunion would not be stunning, as the club will try to pick up a veteran or two who can guide the younger arms.

Even if that does not automatically mean Zaidi and Scott Harris will seek out a closer.

“We had some guys step up and have really nice years. But anytime you’re relying on some youth and relative inexperience in the bullpen, it’s inevitable that there’s some bumps in the road,” Zaidi said. “I think all these guys will be much better for the experience.”