Giants Claim Camilo Doval

The Giants announced that they have claimed right-hander Camilo Doval off waivers from the Pirates. Doval had been designated for assignment by Pittsburgh earlier this week. The Giants transferred righty Blade Tidwell to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot for the move. Tidwell was recommended for UCL surgery this week, so he is certainly done for this year and likely all of next year as well.

It’s a fascinating reunion. Doval was the Giants’ closer not too long ago but some struggles, mostly with control, pushed him to the trade block. He was flipped to the Yankees at last year’s deadline, with the Giants netting prospect Jesús Rodríguez, Trystan Vrieling, Parks Harber, and Carlos De La Rosa in the swap. Doval struggled through a year in the Bronx before getting traded again, this time to the Pirates. Pittsburgh fell out of contention and put Doval on waivers this week to try to save a small amount of money, roughly $98K, per MLBTR contributor Ethan Hullihen.

The Giants helped the Pirates out by making this claim. For San Francisco, it has nothing to do with 2026. They are playing out the string on a lost season, currently sporting a 65-94 record. Even if Doval makes an appearance or two before the season is done, they will be meaningless games. Presumably, the Giants grabbed Doval because they either plan to tender him a contract for 2027 or try to trade him in the offseason.

Doval is making $6.1MM this season and can be retained for next season via arbitration. He won’t be able to get a huge raise based on this year’s 4.30 earned run average, but should be able to get into the $7-8MM range.

It would make sense for the Giants to take a flier on Doval, even with his recent struggles. The San Francisco bullpen was not good this year. The relievers currently have a collective 4.18 ERA on the season. Most of the arms currently in the bullpen are inexperienced. Sam Hentges and Jason Foley are the only guys back there with at least three years of service time, and those two are coming back from notable injury absences.

President of baseball operations Buster Posey has admitted that the club will be looking to make more concrete upgrades to the bullpen for next year. That could involve free agent signings and/or trades but they are adding one arm ahead of schedule by grabbing Doval from the wire.

Doval’s best stretch was with the Giants. From 2021 to 2023, he logged 162 1/3 innings with a 2.77 ERA, 30.2% strikeout rate, 9.6% walk rate and 53.4% ground ball rate. He took over the closer’s job and racked up 27 saves in 2022 and 39 the year after.

As mentioned, his control has slipped in recent years. He still has elite stuff, with an upper-90s cutter and sinker, in addition to a slider and changeup. Those pitches just haven’t been over the plate often enough. From the start of 2024 to the present, he has a 4.23 ERA with a huge 13% walk rate. His 55.3% ground ball rate is still great and his 26% strikeout rate also better than par but the walks are problematic.

The Giants will seemingly try to get him back on track next year but, as mentioned, entertaining trade offers in the winter is also a possibility. For now, it’s a very low-cost pickup that gives them some options going into 2027. If they change their mind about tendering him a contract for next year, they can walk away by cutting him on non-tender day in November.