As a whole, the San Francisco Giants season was a major disappointment. After going 80-82 and finishing 18 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West, there’s clearly a lot they have to work on in the offseason.
Outside of bringing in free agents and making trades, there will be decisions they have to make in house. Of those include Blake Snell and a few arbitration-eligible guys.
Of the players arbitration-eligible include right-handed closer Camilo Doval.
Speaking of the big picture, the campaign went the way it did because of how poorly some of their top players performed. Of those players included Doval, who was once one of the top right-handed relievers in Major League Baseball.
The Dominican Republic native posted a 2.93 ERA in 2023, a 2.53 ERA in 2022, but a 4.88 ERA in 2024.
Simply put, if he’s anything like he was during the season moving forward, that’s a big blow to the Giants. They expected him to continue being a dominant-level pitcher, so not having that would be another area they’d have to improve.
But with him hitting arbitration, despite the rough showing he had, it’s an easy decision to tender him a contract.
Grant Brisbee of The Athletic broke it down perfectly.
“It’s an easy decision to tender Doval a contract, but this is the first year he’ll get a sizable salary, and it’s only going to go up from here. The Giants would listen to trade offers, I’m guessing, but he’s merely a solid value now, not the hilariously underpaid bargain he used to be. There won’t be top-25 or even top-50 prospects coming back in a trade, so the Giants might as well pyeeay dat myeeean hees mahney and hope he can throw a few more strikes. He’ll never be Greg Maddux, but he could at least be 2023 Camilo Doval.”
As Brisbee wrote, San Francisco wouldn’t necessarily be able to get any high-level prospects in return for him. If they were to trade Doval to another team, the chances of said club trading for him and sending a proven Big League talent back in return doesn’t seem likely, either.
Plus, sometimes, pitchers just have rough showings.
If the 27-year-old returns to form, there’s reason to believe he could continue to be one of the top arms in baseball. One bad season doesn’t outweigh the other three impressive campaigns, so the Giants don’t have much reason to move him.
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