More than a year removed from his last pitch in the major leagues, Tim Lincecum has resurfaced and will put on another showcase with the hope that it’ll reignite his career. After covering the entirety of The Freak’s tenure with the San Francisco Giants, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic said on KNBR Tonight that he believes there could be a reunion in the near future.
“I mean, he was Andrew Miller before there was an Andrew Miller,” Baggarly said. “And if he can ever reclaim a piece of that, he’d have a ton of value. He’d have a lot of value to the Giants for sure. Maybe he needed to go somewhere else first to come back because I would not rule out the Giants making a run at him.”
Baggarly went on to accurately sum up Lincecum’s run of excellence as one that “shot across the sky like a meteor.”
After debuting with the Giants in 2007, Lincecum went on to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards with 18 wins in 2008, a career-low 2.48 ERA in 2009, and played a key role in the team’s three World Series championships.
Even as his success began to fade, Lincecum threw a pair of no-hitters, both against the San Diego Padres, in 2013 and 2014 before being granted free agency in 2015.
“His delivery was gymnastic, so when his hip started to stiffen up and his back started to stiffen up and he didn’t have the same range of motion, that’s what he needed to generate the power because he wasn’t one of those six-foot-six guys with a big, giant torso and big power legs,” Baggarly said. “So, that’s what happened, the hips went out and now he’s working to rebuild himself.”
When that offseason came and went without any suitors, Lincecum put on his first showcase in May 2016 that won over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who signed him to a one-year deal.
Initially, Lincecum showed promise, pitching six innings and allowing only one run in his debut with the Angels, but he was eventually demoted to the minor leagues when his ERA skyrocketed to 9.16 and was 2-6 in nine starts.
“I think that maybe he tried to come back a little too soon or he wasn’t really throwing the mid-90s stuff he did before,” Baggarly said.
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Baggarly on Lincecum skip to 10:00.