San Francisco Giants Pitcher collapse ‘biggest shock’ of 2024 season

There were a lot of things that weren’t going well for the San Francisco Giants heading into the 2024 season.

Nearly all of their offseason acquisitions have been duds, resulting in them missing the playoffs for the third straight year and seventh of the last eight.

The only play that really worked 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 his second injury in July, but the rest of his moves were duds.

While the performances of Jorge Soler and Robbie Ray left much to be desired, they paled in comparison to what happened to All-Star relief pitcher Camilo Doval.

An All-Star of the 2023 campaign, he has never recorded an ERA above 3.00 in the season. He led the National League with 60 starts last season and recorded 39 saves.

The extremely efficient Doval struck out 87 batters in 67.2 innings. He also had 26 walks, 10 wild pitches and hit a batter eight times with a pitch.

Unfortunately, this production was nowhere to be seen in 2024. That’s why Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer picked him as the Giants’ biggest shocker of the year.

“At the beginning of this season, the range of scores ahead for the Giants seemed limitless, but at least in the ninth inning, they seemed predictable. It would be home for Doval, who led the NL with 39 saves last season.

But like Díaz and Holmes, Doval had difficult times. His ERA increased from 2.93 to 5.05 and there is no other NL pitcher who has increased his walk rate in 2023-24. And with 10 runs allowed in the 9/11 outings, things aren’t getting any better,” Rymer wrote.

Some statistics would indicate that some struggles were unlucky. His FIP of 3.80 is much more respectable than the ERA of 5.05 he posted in 57 innings.

But the real culprit is the complete loss of accuracy. He walked 39 batters and gave up 51 hits, resulting in career-worst hits per nine innings (8.4) and walks per nine innings (6.2).

Both numbers are far too high for the reliever to be effective, even though his 12.0 K/9 is the highest of his career. Consistently struggling to find the strike zone and getting hit hard like Doval has this year creates the perfect storm for disaster.