Are SF Giants bold enough to use 28-year-old rookie as their closer?

The SF Giants are making a late-season push for the playoffs right now. They are three games back of the New York Mets for the final NL Wild Card spot but their bullpen is a bit shaky. Would the team be bold enough to start using Joel Peguero as their closer?

Peguero is a 28-year-old rookie who was called up to the major leagues last month for the first in his ten years of professional baseball. He has looked absolutely amazing thus far out of the bullpen in a small sample size.

Would SF giants roll the dice on Joel Peguero as their closer?

In seven appearances and 10 and 2/3 innings pitched, Peguero has yet to allow a run and has allowed seven hits and issued one walk while striking out nine batters. His high velocity has been incredibly impressive as well as he has regularly surpassed 100 miles per hour on the radar gun.

Peguero certainly seems to be establishing himself as part of the team's bullpen plans for 2026, but could he even earn himself a promotion to the closer role this season?

It would admittedly be a very bold move to make a 28-year-old rookie with less than ten big league appearances your closer. However, the bullpen does seem like an area of the team that could sink their slim playoff chances so the Giants cannot afford to blow games in which they have a lead in the late innings.

Right now, the team's closer is Ryan Walker. Walker was excellent as the team's closer last season which earned him the job coming into 2025 but his struggles early this season got him removed from the role in favor of Camilo Doval.

After the Giants traded Doval and Tyler Rogers and then lost Randy Rodríguez due to an elbow injury that will require Tommy John surgery, Walker was thrust back into the closer role.

He was doing much better as of late and was looking a little more like the Walker of 2024, but he did blow a save against the St. Louis Cardinals over the weekend. The Giants simply cannot afford to lose games like that if they want any shot at the playoffs.

It would be unlikely for manager Bob Melvin to swap out Walker for Peguero at this point in the season. Walker has more experience and closers are going to blow games sometimes. However, if it becomes clear that Peguero has better stuff and is more confident than Walker, then he needs to pull the trigger and make a move.

Rash bullpen shakeups are usually not wise, but with every game meaning so much these next few weeks the Giants have to make sure they are doing everything they can to win games. Maybe that means making Peguero the closer if Walker has another shaky outing.

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