2022 Pre-Season SF Giants Prospects: 20-11

2022 Pre-Season SF Giants Prospects: 20-11

13. Camilo Doval

Position: RHP
Age: 24
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 185 lbs.
Projected Level: San Francisco (MLB)
MLB ETA: 2021

Tool Grades: (Present/Future)

FB 70/70 | SL 60/60 | CMD 40/45

PV 40 | FV 45

It was a roller-coaster 2021 season for Doval. After a dominant big-league debut, Doval struggled to keep the ball in the yard in his first stint as a Giant. He got demoted to Sacramento and was never better, battling with his strike-throwing issues in the first three-and-a-half months of the season.

After a mid-August cup of coffee against the Rockies, though, things turned positive as he found the strike zone more often and was pitching on the corners more consistently. He was an integral part of the Giants’ bullpen in September and was handed the closer role in the final two weeks of the season and never looked back.

Doval has one of the highest average fastball velocity and fastball spin rates in all of baseball, with 98.6 MPH and 2575 RPM, respectively. It is below-average in terms of movement, but its sheer velocity and his slinging low-¾ release point combined with his plus extension make his fastball a present plus-plus offering. His slider is a plus pitch that Doval has a late, bat-missing movement that he is not afraid to throw against any hitter in any count.

Doval’s success hinges on how well he can throw strikes with his high-maintenance delivery that has a big slinging arm action similar to Madison Bumgarner but with twice the tempo. It is tough to bank on him duplicating what he did during the end of September in a full season and there would be rough patches that could cause him to get demoted out of his closer role at any point in the upcoming season. However, when he is on, he is as unhittable as anyone in all of baseball and the closer role is his at the start of the 2022 season as the head of a deep bullpen corps.