SF Giants may be putting too much faith in young bullpen arm

When the SF Giants traded left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers to the Cincinnati Reds, it seemed to be a strong act of faith in Erik Miller. But are the Giants putting too much faith in a second-year reliever even after a solid rookie campaign?

The reason for trading Rogers seems to be that the Giants were uncomfortable paying a pitcher $12 million who they were only comfortable using in low-leverage situations. This makes some amount of sense even though the trade wreaks of being a cheap, cost-cutting measure especially since the Giants apparently have no intention of reinvesting the $6 million they saved by getting rid of Rogers.

SF Giants are putting a lot of faith in reliever Erik Miller

After trading Rogers, the best left-handed reliever in the Giants' bullpen is Erik Miller. The soon to be 27-year-old had a strong rookie campaign in 2024. He posted a 3.88 ERA in 73 appearances and 67 and 1/3 innings pitched. It is clear manager Bob Melvin gained trust in him as the season wore on and that he would use him in high-leverage spots. Perhaps the fact that his fastball averaged nearly 97 miles per hour is why Melvin trusted him more than Rogers whose fastball averaged 93 miles per hour.

However, there are some alarming stats from Miller's rookie campaign. He averaged 5.1 walks per nine innings which is a fairly high walk rate. As a point of reference, Camilo Doval walked 5.9 batters per nine innings in 2024. Free passes often come back to bite relievers so Miller is going to have to clean up the walks in 2025.

In addition to that, Miller's clutch stats were not great last season. According baseball-reference.com, in "late and close" games (Late & Close are Plate Appearances in the 7th or later with the batting team tied, ahead by one, or the tying run at least on deck), opponents slashed .288/.377/.466 with three home runs. And in high leverage spots opponents fared even better, slashing .340/.418/.575 in 29 games. Miller is going to have to prove he is better in these spots next season.

To be fair, Miller does a lot of things well too. His deceptive delivery makes him a tough at-bat for both righties and lefties. The Stanford product also had an impressive 87 strikeouts last season and in five at-bats against Shohei Ohtani last season, Miller struck him out all five times.

The hope is that Miller can build upon his 2024 campaign and cut down on the walks while getting better in high leverage spots, but if he struggles or takes a step back which is not at all uncommon for relievers to do, then the Giants could be in a position where they do not have a left-handed reliever they can reliably count on.