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In a lot of ways, Camilo Doval is just like you.
He received some of the best news of his life, that his dream of playing in the majors would be granted, and he was elated. He said he just couldn’t handle himself.
“I was laughing with joy by myself,” the righty reliever said through translator Erwin Higueros on Friday afternoon.
He called his mother in the Dominican Republic, who praised God and told him that all his hard work was paying off. He had trained through the offseason during the pandemic, had a strong camp and then pitched well at the alternate site, and here he was.
In other ways, Camilo Doval is not like you at all.
“I just concentrate on throwing strikes, and when I let the ball go, the ball just happens to go 100 miles an hour,” Doval said. “I’m like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I just went 100 miles an hour.’”
And that’s a big part of the reason he received his call-up. Doval, the fire-balling righty, took Johnny Cueto’s spot on the active roster, Cueto shuffled to the 10-day injured list with a grade 1 lat strain.
He fills an obvious need in a bullpen that is down to two righties without Reyes Moronta and with Logan Webb shifting back to the rotation, but perhaps a brief one. It’s possible that he can get optioned back down when Alex Wood is activated Sunday, or the Giants could send back the similarly recently called-up Steven Duggar.
Gabe Kapler seemed eager to get a chance to see what Doval could do.
“I think it’s a good fit particularly against the Marlins lineup,” the manager said over Zoom before play at loanDepot Park. “That said, I think we want to be cognizant this is his first time at the major league level, and we’re going to look for the right spot for him. We feel like he’s capable of handling this elevated level of intensity and competition. Same time … he’s young, he doesn’t have much experience outside of A-ball.”
He has zero games played above High-A, which is both stunning ahead of his debut and very much a reminder of how prospects have had to progress during the pandemic. Last year Doval was at the alternate site in Sacramento and made his way to a taxi squad, before pitching in instructional league and during major league spring training, before a second alternate site tenure.
With a heavy fastball and a slider that Kapler said has a chance to be “a really high-quality major league pitch,” he impressed everywhere.
“He can start [the slider] at a hitter’s hip, and that’s a pitch that a lot of major league hitters will take and will end up on the plate for a strike,” Kapler said. “And if he can make that pitch a strike then ball, it also has a chance to get swings and misses.”
The fact that the Giants added the 23-year-old to the roster in the offseason meant he was going to get an early chance; if Dominic Leone or Jimmie Sherfy or Nick Tropeano were to join the 26-man roster, 40-man roster space would need to be created. All the same, it’s a stunner for a pitcher who hasn’t touched Richmond or actual Triple-A ball.
On hand in Miami will be Gabriel Elias, the Giants scout who signed him. There will be a larger family contingent watching in the Dominican Republic.
“They’re just waiting for the game to start,” said a happy Doval.