San Francisco Giants Should Make Change at Closer Sooner Rather Than Later

The San Francisco Giants are off to a pretty good start this season.

They are 24-17 and in third place in the very tough National League West division.

The Giants were was able to beat the Chicago Cubs to begin the week, which is a very good series win. The team was swept over the weekend by the Minnesota Twins, but all the games were close and there shouldn't be any panic over it.

However, there should be some urgency when it comes to the back end of their bullpen.

San Francisco has been using Ryan Walker as their closer all year. The right-hander was coming off a very good 2024, so he earned the closer role to begin 2025.

Walker has faced some adversity this season, though.

The right-hander has made 16 appearances, thrown 14.0 innings, walked five batters, struck out 15 and opponents are batting .281 off him. With that, he has a 6.43 ERA and 1.50 WHIP.

Per his Baseball Savant page, Walker is getting a little bit unlucky.

The 29-year-old has an expected ERA of 3.50. He is also in the 98th percentile in both average exit velocity and hard-hit percentage. The righty is not allowing the hardest hits, but he is allowing too much contact.

Walker is in the third percentile in whiff percentage, 57th percentile in chase percentage and 57th percentile in strikeout percentage.

Those numbers are all down significantly from his stellar 2024 campaign and are not what a team wants their closer to have.

Walker is 7-for-9 in save opportunities, but he earned the loss Sunday afternoon after allowing two hits and walking a batter.

With the uncertainty of whether or not he can get through an inning cleanly, especially in close games, it could be time for the Giants to make a change at closer.

Who Would Replace Walker?

Camilo Doval is really the only answer here.

Doval had a very rough 2024, but he was an All-Star in 2023.

He has seemed to regain that form this season.

The right-hander has made 20 appearances this year. He has accumulated 18.2 innings while allowing just six hits, striking out 14 and walking six. His ERA sits at 1.45 and his WHIP is a very low 0.64.

The 27-year-old has allowed a lot of weak contact and he is in the 85th percentile in ground ball rate.

Doval is on an extremely hot streak heading into Monday. He pitched a scoreless inning on Sunday, which marks his 14th appearance in a row without allowing a run. In fact, he has allowed just one hit those 14 outings.

San Francisco needs someone to start stepping up at the back end of the bullpen. If they want to continue to fight for the Wild Card spot or even the NL West crown, they'll have to win a lot of close games.

Having someone they can rely on in the ninth inning is crucial.

Going forward, the Giants should give Doval those opportunities in the ninth over Walker.

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