San Francisco Giants 2019 Spring Training Preview: Relief Pitchers

The Challengers

Ray Black

Ray Black throws really hard. Ray Black also throws really good secondary pitches. If Ray Black can put it all together with some command he can be a very good back-end of the bullpen arm. As of right now, he is entering 2019 and his age 29 season as the oldest work in progress in the majors.

Steven Okert

Uh. It looks like Steven Okert is going to wear number 32 this year.

Pat Venditte

Pat Venditte was one of Farhan Zaidi’s first acquisitions of the offseason. Pat Venditte is most famous for being ambidextrous and being the only switch pitcher in the bigs. Although he pitches with both hands, he hasn’t pitched particularly well with either hand. He did have the best season of his career in 2018, but it was a very small sample size as he appeared in only 15 games. If he picks up where he left off last season, there’s no question he can be a huge asset to the bullpen, but that is a big if considering his career numbers and the amount of maintenance that goes into keeping up two throwing motions.

Trevor Gott

The Giants recently acquire Trevor Gott from the Washington Nationals and I GOTTA say, this guy has a big arm. If he can get it together he can be a sort of Blake Treinen light, but he has been inconsistent at the Major League level and has pretty stiff competition to crack a pretty deep bullpen.