The Giants have bolstered their starting rotation not with top-end talent, but with a quality of quantity.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, San Francisco is signing former Blue Jays righty Ross Stripling to a two-year, $25 million deal with an opt-out. Stripling, mostly as a starter, went 10-4 with a 3.01 ERA last season in Toronto. The 33-year old rarely walks batters — a quality San Francisco has valued.
With Stripling, the Giants could field a rotation of Logan Webb, Alex Cobb, Alex Wood, Anthony DeSclafani, Sean Manaea, Ross Stripling and rookie Kyle Harrison. San Francisco views Jakob Junis as more of a hybrid option, but both he and Sean Hjelle also have starting experience.
The Giants also reportedly added Manaea this week, though the team hasn’t announced that move officially. Per multiple reports, Manaea agreed to the same two-year, $25 million deal with an opt out as Stripling.
The Giants, under Farhan Zaidi, has viewed starting pitching more as a means to get through 162 games rather than a five-man rotation. Building a core around so much depth should shelter them — at least in the regular season — from injury risk or unexpectedly poor performance. Unless the Giants make a trade, starting the year with seven capable starters is an area of strength.
While depth is valuable, signing Stripling likely eliminates the Giants from signing Carlos Rodón. Rodón, according to Jon Heyman, is seeking seven years and around $200 million. Although those numbers would be completely unprecedented for the Zaidi-led front office, top-end starting pitching is crucial in the postseason.
Stripling has experience both as a starter and reliever. He was an All-Star in 2018 for the Dodgers, who drafted him in the fifth round of the 2012 amateur draft.
Stripling has a three-pitch mix — fastball, changeup and slider — but has also sparingly mixed in a two-seamer and curveball. He threw more changeups than ever last year, and opposing hitters batted .203 on the pitch. Many of San Francisco’s right-handers feature a sinker, and it’s possible the Giants try to up Stripling’s usage of that option.
According to Baseball Savant, Stripling is in the 98th percentile in walk rate and the 93rd percentile in chase rate. But Stripling doesn’t strike out a ton of batters and when opponents make contact, it is often loud; he grades out in the 18th percentile in barrel rate.
The two-year, $25 million deal Stripling reportedly agreed to has become a common template for the Giants. They’ve had success giving pitchers a chance to prove themselves — with the help of pitcher-friendly Oracle Park and a respected pitching coaching staff — and hit the open market again after thriving in SF.
This offseason has been kind to starting pitchers, making the Stripling deal somewhat of a bargain for the Giants. José Quintana, coming off an All-Star season and with a similar career trajectory as Stripling, signed an almost identical two-year, $26 million deal with the Mets. Taijuan Walker, who registered worse numbers than Stripling last year, inked a four-year, $72 million deal. Zach Eflin, who has recorded one sub-4.00 ERA season, landed in Tampa Bay for three years and $40 million.