Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
There is not a whole lot that the world and the Giants want to revisit from 2020, but there are a couple exceptions. Two of which reside in their bullpen.
Matt Wisler was a shutdown righty and Jarlin Garcia a shutdown lefty, the former for the Twins and latter for the Giants. They combined to allow four earned runs in 43 2/3 innings for an enviable 0.82 ERA. The Giants brought in Wisler, who had been surprisingly nontendered by Minnesota, and brought back Garcia, neither of whom is option-able.
It took one appearance from each to exceed the duo’s 2020 runs-allowed output.
Both have struggled, and both were silver linings in Sunday’s 11-1 loss to the Padres. The very fact they were chosen to pitch in a game the Giants were trailing indicates they are not high in Gabe Kapler’s pecking order, but they each ate up a pair of innings without allowing a run. Wisler was more impressive, striking out two in his perfect frames, but Garcia pitched around two walks and a hit in his first two innings off the injured list.
His groin had bothering him since spring training, and he said he wasn’t able to generate the power behind his pitches until he was placed on the IL and missed nearly three weeks. But he hit 95 mph with his fastball Sunday and threw harder than he had in the first few weeks; he averaged 93.8 mph on the pitch last year and is averaging 92.8 mph this year.
“The Jarlin Garcia from last year is back,” Jarlin Garcia said Monday, in endearingly third person, through translator Erwin Higueros. “And he’s going to be able to help the team win.”
That would be welcomed by the Giants, who have used lefty Jake McGee more than they would like. Mechanically, Garcia said, there have been some adjustments since he last pitched April 20 — he had been breaking too fast in his delivery — and feels with that shored up and his health better, the results will follow, as they did Sunday.
There is similar hope around Wisler, whose arsenal is more narrowed than Garcia’s: Essentially, if Wisler’s slider is right than he’s right. And he hasn’t been often this season, leaving far too many hanging and/or over the plate. He carries a 6.75 ERA, which doesn’t tell the whole story of his allowing inherited runners in: Opponents are 8-for-17 against him with runners on base.
The 28-year-old emerged last season by throwing his slider repeatedly, and though he walked too many (4.97 per nine innings), he allowed just 15 hits in 25 1/3 innings.
The results Sunday were promising, but the slider’s movement was what Wisler was happiest with. He had been searching for the pitch and “confused” why he wasn’t getting the break on it that he is accustomed to. Pitching coach Andrew Bailey dug in and watched video of Wisler in 2020, when Wisler said he had been sitting back on his heels more. The tweak makes him generate more power from his glutes, he said, rather than his quad.
“Got the slider moving where it’s supposed to be going,” Wisler said before the Giants opened a two-game set with the Rangers at Oracle Park. “…The biggest thing is having some leverage in my legs that I wasn’t getting before, which is what was causing a lot of inconsistent break with me and why I was hanging so many sliders.”
The advanced analytics, even with a slider that Wisler was not pleased with, are on his side. Batted balls are getting hit too hard (88.1 average exit velocity), but the fact a lot head south indicates opposing hitters have an estimated .216 batting average against him. Wisler has struggled to start the year, but some of it has been from well-placed hits rather than blasted hits.
The fact he is struggling with a new team, too, does not help. Fans would have more patience with a pitcher they have seen consistently perform in the past.
“Not a good way to start. Obviously I like making a good first impression. … It was a tough one to swallow the first couple of weeks. I felt like some stuff hadn’t gone my way, but I wasn’t executing pitches the way I was supposed to,” said Wisler, who’s on his sixth major league team.
Without a healthy, performing Garcia and Wisler, the Giants have struggled to find reliable sixth- and seventh-inning arms. Tyler Rogers has been excellent but overused, Caleb Baragar solid and McGee inconsistent, and they have tried out Jose Alvarez, Camilo Doval, Zack Littell, Reyes Moronta, Gregory Santos and Sam Selman in a search for reliability.
Could a couple 2020 weapons find themselves and stabilize a unit that is 21st in baseball with a 4.36 ERA?
“From this point on,” Garcia said, “you guys will see a very different Jarlin Garcia.”