Giants strike 3-year deal with lefty reliever Rogers
Maria Guardado
@mi_guardadoThe Giants¡¯ bullpen could be double trouble over the next few years.
San Francisco officially announced a three-year $33 million contract with left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers on Wednesday.
The deal reunites?Rogers with his twin brother, Tyler, who has pitched for the Giants since 2019. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Rogers brothers have a chance to become the second set of twins to appear in the same MLB game for the same team. (Johnny and Eddie O¡¯Brien both made appearances for the Pirates on July 31, 1956.) Taylor and Tyler previously pitched in the same game on April 11 this past season, but for different teams -- Taylor for the Padres and Tyler for the Giants.
The Giants have been actively trying to plug the remaining holes on their roster after their 13-year, $350 million deal with shortstop Carlos Correa fell apart over medical concerns on Tuesday. Now that Correa is expected to join the Mets, the Giants have pivoted to rounding out their outfield with Michael Conforto, who agreed to a two-year, $36 million deal on Friday, and adding another high-leverage reliever in Rogers.
Rogers was traded twice in 2022, going from the Twins to the Padres in a five-player deal shortly before Minnesota¡¯s season opener and then from the Friars to the Brewers in August¡¯s Josh Hader blockbuster. The left-hander finished the season with a personal-best 31 saves, as well as a 3.32 FIP, 1.18 WHIP and 4.42 K/BB ratio. However, his ERA ballooned to a career-high 4.76, including a 5.48 mark over 24 appearances with Milwaukee.
Rogers spent his first six seasons with the Twins, posting a 3.15 ERA with 50 saves in 319 appearances. He was named an All-Star in 2021. For his career, Rogers has held left-handed batters to a .196/.260/.276 slash line, compared to a .261/.316/.415 against right-handed hitters.
Earlier this month, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said he wanted to land a late-inning arm who could potentially share closing duties with young flamethrower Camilo Doval.?
The Giants¡¯ lack of reliable back-end arms made it hard for manager Gabe Kapler to stay away from Doval, but Rogers¡¯ arrival should help spread the workload in 2023.?
¡°Whether that winds up being in a tandem situation, it just gives you more flexibility,¡± Zaidi said at the Winter Meetings in San Diego. ¡°One of the concerns we¡¯ve had with Camilo is just making sure we¡¯re taking the long view on his workload. Having two guys that are comfortable closing, it gets important when you have a save situation and then you¡¯ve got an extra-inning game where you use your closer the third day in a row. It¡¯s just nice to be able to have the discipline to say, ¡®You¡¯re definitely not pitching, save situation or not.¡¯ I think it mitigates some of the risk of overworking your closer if you have a couple of options.¡±