The Giants entered the season with a somewhat fluid rotation. San Francisco added Ross stripped And Sean Manaea for an employee included Webb longan, Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Cobb And Wooden Alex. That raises some questions about how captain Gabe Kapler will reveal the starting games, though it will become clearer after a few weeks of the season.
During a KNBR radio appearance yesterday, baseball executive chairman Farhan Zaidi said the Giants will be primarily using Stripling out of the bullpen at the moment (link via Evan Webeck of the San Jose Mercury News). Front-office leadership said Stripling can kick in from time to time as needed to give others a break, essentially operating in a rotational capacity.
The veteran right hand is already very familiar with that kind of role. Stripling has 105 starts and 102 major league appearances. He has worked at least a partial relief in every season of his career. Stripling recorded a career-high workload with the Blue Jays last season, hitting 134 thirds in 32 outings. He worked in a rotating role until the end of May before taking up the rotating job full-time with Toronto. Stripling posted an excellent 3.01 ERA while keeping his walk count at a meager 3.7% that season.
San Francisco added Stripling and Manaea to the matching deals — two years and $25 million if not joined after the first season. Manaea came out in his first game on April 3 but started his last two outings, including tonight’s extra-time loss to the Tigers. By contrast, Stripling started April 2 and was called for relief in its next two appearances. It looks like the arrangement will continue, at least assuming everyone is healthy.
Stripling has had a rough start to its Giants tenure. He was tagged for ten runs in multiple innings, serving an amazingly long six-ball. His speed and turn-and-miss ratio remains in line with last season’s respective scores but the massive head-to-head collision volume is unfathomable.
It is clearly too early to make any definitive judgment on the acquisition. There’s plenty of time left in the season. The numbers are small to get a consistent rotation back at some point as there is hardly a club going through an entire season without a pitching injury. However, it wasn’t the start the Giants or Stripling had envisioned – especially since the inclusion of a disclaimer clause in his deal gave Stripling an avenue to try the freelance company again after successfully reproduced last year as the starting pitcher.
Manaea’s initial results were also a bit difficult. Southpaw surrendered six runs in 11 1/3 frames, albeit with a solid 13:4 strike-to-walk ratio. However, Manaea made his debut at a spike at the start of the season, providing optimism that he will improve his record in the coming weeks. He entered Friday’s match at an average of 94.5 MPH on his submersible. That’s three ticks more than last year’s 91.2 MPH average heater. Manaea topped the 97 mph mark for the first time in her relief outing, every baseball Brooks. His velocity is not expected to be as high on the first start but the average fast ball speed of 94.2 MPH he has shown is higher than any of his opening games of the season. before.
