Camilo Doval has rubbed salt in the wound for SF Giants during Yankees series

The first two games of the regular season have not been fun for the SF Giants. They’ve been shut out twice by the New York Yankees and to make matters worse former-Giant Camilo Doval has looked dominant with his new team.

It’s just been two appearances, but Doval has pitched in each of the first two games of the series and hasn’t allowed a base runner while striking out three batters in two innings of work.

Camilo Doval looks like his old self in Giants-Yankees series

San Francisco traded Doval to the Yankees last year at the trade deadline in exchange for catcher (and infielder) Jesus Rodriguez, third baseman Parks Harber, and pitchers Trystan Vierling and Carlos De La Rosa. 

It seemed like a pretty good trade at the time especially since Doval really struggled in New York after getting traded. While he looked to have recaptured his old form in the first half which is what enabled the Giants to get a pretty decent prospect haul for him, he posted a 4.82 ERA in 22 appearances for the pinstripes.

Yet, to start 2026 he looks like the Doval that was an All-Star in 2023. Giants fans have seen this story before, though. Doval can go through stretches where he is absolutely dominant and then go for weeks where any outing of his is a full-on Torture experience.

Unfortunately, the Giants are currently seeing the dominant version of Doval. With how unsettled San Francisco’s bullpen is right now, one can’t help but think about a world in which the Giants held onto Doval.

That would be fairly short-sighted thinking, though. Sure, the Giants would have entered 2026 feeling better about the bullpen but now they have several interesting young players in the farm system. Rodriguez and Harber were particularly impressive in spring training so those guys could be contributors at the big-league level sooner rather than later.

Plus, believe it or not the bullpen has arguably been the one bright spot for the Giants thus far. In 7 and 2/3 innings of work through two games, the bullpen has only allowed one run. Baseball has a funny way of humbling you. Most people would have said the lineup was the strength of the team and the bullpen was the biggest weakness but two games in and it's the complete inverse.

It's just two games, though. Have we mentioned that? Doval could blow up and Jesus Rodriguez could get called up and win NL Rookie of the Year of then we can all look back at this article and have a good hearty chuckle.

But when it feels like the world is ending after two games, no matter how irrational that feeling is, it certainly doesn't help matters when the former All-Star closer you traded away looks dominant on the mound again.