SF Giants veteran reliever reaches impressive career milestone

SF Giants veteran reliever Tyler Rogers entered into the eighth inning of Thursday's 6-5 loss against the St. Louis Cardinals. The end result was not what Giants fans had hoped, but for Rogers, it marked a milestone as he appeared in his 300th career game (hat tip to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area).

SF Giants veteran reliever reaches impressive career milestone

Rogers spent years in the minors before he finally got a chance to debut with the Giants in 2019. This included a four-year run with the Sacramento River Cats. He was only a month away from reaching minor league free agency if the Giants had not added his contract to the 40-man roster.

When Rogers did debut, there were no assurances of a roster spot or a role in the bullpen. 28-year-old rookie relievers do not get a lot of chances to prove what they can do. He has taken the opportunity and run with it.

The submarine-style reliever does not throw hard. His sinker has sat in the low 80's for his entire major league career. He pairs that with a slider that cuts diagonally through the strike zone. However, he throws with a unique arm angle that continues to baffle opposing hitters. Perhaps, the Giants felt that major league hitters would be able to adjust to his delivery.

That has not happened yet. The 33-year-old pitcher is in the midst of another solid season in which he has a 3.03 ERA, 3.23 FIP, 1.03 WHIP, 6.8 K/9, and a 13.50 SO/W ratio in 38 outings across 35.2 frames. The only pitcher to appear in more games this year is teammate Ryan Walker with 39 appearances.

The Giants bullpen has struggled to a 4.37 ERA in 2024. However, that is more of a depth issue as manager Bob Melvin has had to rely on both Walker and Rogers a lot.

Rogers has now reached 300 appearances and he has tallied a 2.97 ERA during that time. He is among only 11 pitchers in baseball to appear in 300 games since the start of 2019. Only Raisel Iglesias (2.95 ERA) has been better at preventing runs from that group.

Rogers is now climbing up the franchise leaderboard. He is tied with George Kontos and Joe McGinnity for 31st in terms of appearances in Giants history. Though, he has a long way to go before he catches Gary Lavelle on the all-time appearances list. Lavelle made 647 appearances in a Giants uniform. In the meantime, Brian Wilson (315 appearances) is among the pitchers Rogers could catch soon. Despite his career getting off to a late start, it was better late than never with the Giants' bullpen stalwart.