Not a lot went right for the San Francisco Giants during the 2024 campaign.
They were mired in another year of painful mediocrity with 80 wins and a missed playoff appearance for the third straight year and seventh time out of the last eight campaigns.
There were a lot of contributing factors to the team’s underwhelming production, as they didn’t really excel in any one specific area.
But, it wasn’t a totally lost cause.
Out of the disappointment arose one incredible bright spot for the franchise on their pitching staff.
Ryan Walker was a 31st-round pick in the 2018 MLB draft out of Washington State University. Nowadays, he wouldn’t have even been selected since the draft is only 20 rounds.
He deserves credit for hanging around as long as he has.
With the minor league season being canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some players weren’t as fortunate as Walker to stick around. A player selected that late, making enough of an impression to be held speaks volumes to the potential he showed.
The Giants are certainly happy they made the decision to hold onto him.
He has turned himself into arguably the most dominant relief pitcher in the game.
He was one of three pitchers, along with Jason Adam of the Tampa Bay Rays and San Diego Padres and Cade Smith of the Cleveland Guardians, to hit four elite benchmarks in 2024.
All three players threw at least 70 innings with a WHIP under 1.000, an ERA south of 2.00 and a K/9 ratio of at least 9.0.
Walker threw 80 innings with a 0.85 WHIP, 1.91 ERA and K/9 of 11.1. The innings and WHIP were best amongst the trio, while his ERA was tied for the top spot and his K/9 was second.
“There’s so many late bloomers now,” said J.P. Martinez, the San Francisco pitching coach via Tyler Kepner of The Athletic (subscription required). “I think you can identify uniqueness more quickly with some of the tech and the performance metrics, where it used to be the ‘wow’ factor from velo or a pedigree from being around. Now you can grab a guy in the 18th or 20th round and say, ‘Hey, this guy’s got a skill set that’s really undervalued.’”
What sets Walker apart is his unique delivery.
He does an excellent job of hiding the ball from the hitter throughout his windup with his back facing the batter throughout most of it.
The ball is then released from a horizontal release point that gives opponents fits at the plate.
After taking over as the team’s closer in mid-August last year, Walker is set to assume that role on Opening Day in 2025.
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source link
