There were a lot of things that didn’t go well for the San Francisco Giants during the 2024 season.
Nearly all of their offseason acquisitions were duds, resulting in missing the playoffs for a third straight year and seventh time out of the last eight.
The only move that truly panned out was third baseman Matt Chapman. He played so well, that the team rewarded him with a six-year, $151 million extension in early September. Blake Snell was solid after returning from a second injured list stint in July, but the other moves were all duds.
While the performances of Jorge Soler and Robbie Ray left a lot to be desired, it paled in comparison to what happened with All-Star relief pitcher Camilo Doval.
An All-Star in the 2023 campaign, he had never recorded an ERA in a season above 3.00. He led the National League by finishing 60 games last season and recording 39 saves.
Wildly effective, Doval struck out 87 batters in 67.2 innings. He also had 26 walks, 10 wild pitches and hit a batter with a pitch eight times.
Alas, that production was nowhere to be found in 2024. That is why he was selected by Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report as the Giants’ biggest shock this year.
“The range of outcomes before the Giants seemed limitless at the outset of this season, but they at least seemed to have some predictability in the ninth inning. That would be home to Doval, who led the NL with 39 saves last season.
Like Díaz and Holmes, though, Doval has had a rough one. His ERA has shot up from 2.93 to 5.05, and there isn’t another NL pitcher who has added more to his walk rate from 2023 to 2024. And with 10 runs allowed in 11 September appearances, it’s not getting better,” Rymer wrote.
Some statistics would hint at some of the struggles being bad luck. His FIP of 3.80 is much more respectable than the 5.05 ERA he has produced in 57 innings.
But, the real culprit is a complete loss of accuracy. He has walked 39 batters and surrendered 51 hits, resulting in career-worst hits per nine innings (8.4) and walks per nine innings (6.2).
Both numbers are way too high for a reliever to be effective despite his 12.0 K/9 being the highest mark of his career. Struggling to find the strike zone consistently and getting hit hard, as Doval was this year, creates the perfect storm for disaster to occur.
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