That\u2019s what you\u2019re always thinking when these folks come in, right? Here comes Mr. Horseshoe, ol\u2019 Lucky Pants himself.<\/p>\n
However! I would have also assumed that this bullpen was doing mostly good things. Look around at some of the contenders and compare the ERAs from their late-inning crew to the above table. Again, ERA is a horrible predictor of what a reliever is likely to do, and it\u2019s not great even when describing what a reliever\u2019s season has been like, but it still tells a story. ERAs that low mean that the absolute disaster outings have been limited, the complete meltdowns aren\u2019t there. That should be a good thing.<\/p>\n
![\"64)](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2026-08-11T044443Z_1297822604_MT1USATODAY29557124_RTRMADP_3_MLB-HOUSTON-ASTROS-AT-SAN-FRANCISCO-GIAN.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Jason Foley took the loss for the Giants on Monday. He was one of the few free-agent signings the Giants made for their bullpen this offseason, a bet that he could be an effective reliever after rehabbing from shoulder surgery. He\u2019s allowed five runs in eight innings since being activated off the IL. (Bob Kupbens \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
Instead, the entire bullpen has a remarkable capacity to share the mishaps evenly (and consistently). It\u2019s almost inspiring. They\u2019re a true collective. It\u2019s always \u201cnext man up,\u201d with a constant rotation of mostly effective relievers biffing at least one outing at the worst possible time, then resuming his business, as another mostly effective reliever steps up and biffs at least one outing at the worst possible time. It\u2019s an egalitarian carousel of late-inning failure. Maybe it\u2019ll get the Giants a higher draft pick next season; always look on the bright side.<\/p>\n
So how do the Giants fix this? By hoping the bullpen sequencing gets less cursed by default? By helping the pitchers miss more bats, bringing the FIPs closer to the seemingly helpful ERAs? By spending money just like the Dodgers, which isn\u2019t exactly likely?<\/p>\n
No, it\u2019s the same answer as it is for every other team: Figure it out as you go along, and don\u2019t screw it up. The Giants are going to get a great look at Dylan Smith, whose slider shows high-leverage potential, and my prediction is that he\u2019ll do enough to be on their 2027 Opening Day roster. The Giants will need to refine Keaton Winn\u2019s command and help him find a bat-missing pitch other than his splitter, but he\u2019ll be a strong candidate for next year\u2019s bullpen, too.<\/p>\n
And along the way, they\u2019ll take chances on minor-league free agents and once-coveted relievers returning from injuries. They\u2019ll make minor trades for minor leaguers, and they\u2019ll make trades for relievers on another team\u2019s active roster. They\u2019ll promote prospects and convert starters to relievers when the rotation\u2019s full, and they\u2019ll check the waiver wire. All of it.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll avoid the pricier closers, of course, and it\u2019s morbidly amusing whenever a Giants fan calls for them to spend on a closer. This is the franchise of Mark Melancon and Armando Ben\u00edtez, friend. Be careful with your words.<\/p>\n
Which means they\u2019re going to do the same thing as last offseason and just hope they\u2019re better at it. While the most obvious answer of \u201cjust sign Tyler Rogers, you goobers\u201d would have fixed plenty, they still don\u2019t want to mess with the free-agent market. Tanner Scott, Edwin D\u00edaz and Kirby Yates got $150 million from the Dodgers, and only Scott has worked out thus far, and it took a year of erratic nonsense to get there.<\/p>\n
The real answer to how to build a reliable bullpen is this: Get a better lineup and a better rotation. That\u2019s the actual answer to the bullpen riddle that plagues every team from time to time, and it\u2019s why the Dodgers will probably be fine. They\u2019ll cobble together enough outs from the rotation and enough runs from the lineup to win, even if the bullpen doesn\u2019t steady itself. They\u2019ll be fine. On account of the whole \u201chaving the best roster in baseball\u201d strategy.<\/p>\n
The next helpful Giants bullpen might arrive sooner than you think. Or it might not arrive for several more seasons, and you\u2019ll quit your job and walk barefoot through the Appalachians to get away from baseball. The only way to get to that helpful bullpen, though, is to get better and more creative at finding pitchers who can prevent runs and miss bats. The Giants front office probably would have described itself as \u201ccreative at finding pitchers who can prevent runs and miss bats\u201d before this season. They\u2019ll need to figure out what in the heck went so wrong, but the ways they find (or build) these pitchers isn\u2019t likely to change. They\u2019ll just need to get better at it, or the next guys will.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the only guaranteed way to avoid the fate of the 2026 Dodgers is somehow to do exactly what they did: build a baseball team out of the best hitters and starting pitchers available. Anything less, and you\u2019re leaving your fate in the hands of your bullpen every night. Giants fans could probably use a break from that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Giants have lost consecutive extra-innings games, with the bullpen being a collective villain in both. The easiest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,5157,85],"class_list":["post-851994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}