How These Two Stars Made the San Francisco Giants Bullpen MLB's Best

In the 2024 season, the San Francisco Giants had a middle-of-the-road bullpen, one that ranked exactly 15th in MLB in reliever ERA with a mark of 3.96.

Fast forward half of a season, and no team in MLB has gotten better run prevention from its relievers than the Giants, whose bullpen has posted an ERA of 2.81 as of June 29.

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In fact, no other team is even close. Only the Texas Rangers and Chicago Cubs are within even half a run, at 3.30 and 3.31 respectively, and even then just barely.

How did this unit go from a problem to a dominant force? Two talented arms have found even higher levels to push the group to new heights.

In 2024, longtime closer Camilo Doval struggled in the role, posting a 4.88 ERA as he simply could not manage to keep his walk rate at a manageable level.

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Ryan Walker stepped up as a dominant high-leverage option, but only Tyler Rogers behind him found any sort of consistent ability to get big outs.

This year, Rogers has upped his game significantly, and he's been joined by one of MLB's biggest breakout performers of the season in Randy Rodriguez.

Rogers has been at this for a while, fooling hitters with his low-to-the-ground release point, but he's never been this dominant.

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His 1.60 ERA in a monstrous workload of 41 appearances so far has made him arguably the best reliever in all of MLB this year to not record a save, and his WHIP of 0.763 is a career-best by a longshot.

As a 24-year-old last year, Rodriguez was a solid option who appeared in 35 contests and posted a 4.30 ERA.

A year later, he's one of the most fearsome gys making the trek out of the bullpen in the sport. He owns a 0.75 ERA with 51 strikeouts in 36 innings of work.

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His Baseball Savant page is exquisite. He's in the 99th percentile in strikeout rate, and in the 90th percentile or better in fastball velocity, whiff rate, chase rate, breaking ball run value and expected ERA.

Even if this duo has been the primary contributor to the Giants having the best bullpen in MLB, they have had help.

Doval has recaptured his previous form with a 2.88 ERA, and Erik Miller has also dominated over a slightly smaller sample than Rogers and Rodriguez have.

If San Francisco can make its way into the playoffs, this group will provide a big advantage over just about any opponent.

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