Ryan Walker has had success as the Giants’ closer as recently at 2024, when he finished 22 games and had a 1.91 ERA, but he entered Friday with a 5.52 ERA this season.
Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press
Dennis Eckersley made 359 starts from 1975-86 before moving to the bullpen full time in 1987 while a member of the A’s.
Chris Stewart/S.F. Chronicle file photo
You don’t know his name, and the San Francisco Giants don’t, either. But he’s out there, the closer who could make all the difference in their bullpen.
He’s a starting pitcher, either in the majors right now or at the lower levels, and that’s what he wants to be in the big leagues. But things change. History overflows with examples of teams who basically invented relief pitchers midstream and couldn’t even count their blessings; there were far too many.
It’s not so unusual for a great closer to spend his big-league career without ever getting a start, calling to mind Dan Quisenberry, Dick Radatz, John Franco and Francisco Rodriguez. Far more common, though, is the transition — and you may be surprised how many all-time greats began their careers in somebody’s rotation.
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Rollie Fingers: Made 35 starts for the A’s over three seasons before becoming a closer for the championship-bound 1972 club.
Rich Gossage: The White Sox loved his stuff, but they couldn’t resist: After he made 29 starts in 1976, he was moved to the bullpen for good once Chicago traded him to the Pirates after the season.
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Dave Righetti: He was Rookie of the Year as a Yankees starter in 1981, but by 1986 he was leading the league in saves, with nine more bullpen seasons (including three with the Giants) to come.
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Dennis Eckersley and John Smoltz: The masters, with careers split roughly in half between a starter’s dominance and a closer’s expertise. Absolute top of the line in both roles.
Mariano Rivera: The best of them all? He spent nearly six years in the Yankees’ farm system before the switch in his second MLB season.
The Giants’ history includes Rod Beck, Joe Nathan and Stu Miller. Miller had been a spot starter for six years when the team moved west in 1958 and, transitioning into relief, he led the National League with a 2.47 ERA. Many of his best years as a closer came after he was traded to Baltimore in December 1962.
When teams really get lucky, their new closer can be a game-changer. The 2002 Dodgers turned to off-and-on starter Eric Gagne, and he became almost instantly unhittable for three years (rumors suggest he may have had performance-enhancing help) with stuff that bordered on the ridiculous. John Wetteland, who grew up in the Bay Area, lived on the outskirts of the Dodgers rotation until he was traded to Montreal, launching a seven-year run of supremacy that found him leading the league with 43 saves for the 1996 Yankees.
Meanwhile, how about the best in the business right now? The Sacramento A’s hate to think Mason Miller was once their property, but he was a starter in their system for three years before the A’s made him a reliever in 2024, and he was swapped to San Diego much too soon. Heading into the weekend, he had a league-leading 11 saves with only seven hits and two earned runs allowed in 17⅓ innings.
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How could the Giants make such a thing happen? With patience, smart scouting and some open minds. This isn’t about a weird kind of brainstorm that gets you a lights-out closer by Tuesday. It’s about seeing a man’s potential, watching him dismantle a hitter’s timing, realizing he’d rather quit the game before he walks the leadoff hitter, and recognizing his ability under pressure — because getting those last three outs, with victory so close at hand, is a world removed from the other 24.
It always helps if the candidate is a little bit quirky in his delivery, not one of the dull-as-rocks statues who have no concept of a windup or deception. A little personality doesn’t hurt, nor does a vivid imagination, fancying the idea of being out there with the crowd in an uproar — and doing it 70 times a season.
Surely, the Giants have more pressing needs. That can happen when two proven sluggers become (at least temporarily) the two worst hitters in the league, or it becomes insufferably tedious to watch a catcher who can’t hit. But the bullpen is flat-out unreliable, and it will remain that way all season without some major changes. The kind that come out of nowhere, and change everything.
All the little dunce caps
• When you set about identifying the really stupid people in sports, it invariably comes down to the hopelessly rich buffoons who mindlessly ruin their sport for the sake of some extra cash. So now we have a 76-team NCAA basketball tournament for the men and women, when no rational person asked for it. And with the business of baseball skyrocketing to the heavens in attendance, television viewership, franchise values and salaries, a bunch of crybaby owners want to shut it down because the Dodgers are too good. The sad part is, they don’t realize that a salary cap would be of no help at all; the smart competitors always win.
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• The Lounge feels a bit silly tearing into James Harden, because we’ve been doing it since he made a habit of choking (with Houston) against the Warriors more than 10 years ago. He’s been a playoff disaster since, routinely crushing his team’s chances with turnovers (47 in nine games through Thursday) and awful 3-point shooting (1-for-11 in the first two games against Detroit). I like Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson, who served the Warriors well as an assistant to Steve Kerr, but he must be joking when he calls Harden an asset to the team. That trade (with the Clippers) completely doomed Cleveland’s chances.
• With the Valkyries passing on Flau’jae Johnson with the No. 8 pick in the WNBA draft, and taking heat over the residue, the final judgments are yet to come. But it’s worth noting who else was available to be drafted in that eighth slot.
The best of the guards would appear to be Raven Johnson, a high-character talent who went 10th to Indiana, but the Valks are rich in guards who play good defense, and she’s just 5-foot-9. Among the forwards, there’s no guarantee of a smart call on 6-foot-4 Angela Dulgalic (out of UCLA) or 6-0 Cotie McMahon (Ole Miss), both drafted by Washington. Teonni Key is a 6-5 inside-game threat from Kentucky, touted by ESPN’s Rebecca Lobo as a sleeper second-round pick by Toronto.
Perhaps most intriguing is Madina Okot, the 6-6 center from South Carolina, for that’s where the Valks need help in the wake of Iliana Rupert’s pregnancy leave. Okot grew up in Kenya and has been playing basketball for only six years, but she’s an elite rebounder, shot blocker and finisher, with improvement showing on her 3-point shot. She was drafted 13th by Atlanta, where she will have a chance to start.
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Bruce Jenkins writes the 3-Dot Lounge for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: jenksurf@gmail.com; Twitter: @Bruce_Jenkins1