Young SF Giants pitcher is leading all starters in key pitching stat

Trevor McDonald has made a good impression in his longest look yet as a starter. The young SF Giants starter is pitching well due in large part to a league-leading ground ball rate.

Admittedly, this is a filtered stat. McDonald does not have enough innings to qualify as a starter just yet but he is trending that way. He has a 61.8 percent ground ball rate, which leads baseball by a decent margin.

Cristopher Sánchez is second in that category with a 58.7 percent ground ball rate. Not surprisingly, Logan Webb is third with a 56.9 percent ground ball rate. Those are good names for McDonald to emulate to find success in the majors.

The league average ground ball rate is 41.7 percent, so McDonald is well above that mark. If a pitcher does not generate a lot of strikeouts, inducing a lot of ground balls is the next best alternative. Ground balls rarely go for extra bases, so it is a good way of allowing contact while limiting the damage.

The sinker has helped young SF Giants starter induce a lot of ground balls

Hitters have just a .500 OPS on ground balls in 2026. This includes a .021 ISO, so there is very little slugging that comes from these batted-ball events.

The key for McDonald has been his bowling-ball sinker. Opposing hitters have managed just a -3 degree average launch angle against it this season. That has been a tough pitch to get into the air.

The 2026 season has been a promising one for the right-handed hurler. He has a 4.15 ERA, 3.51 FIP, 1.18 WHIP, 8.5 K/9, and a 3.08 SO/W rate across 39 innings this year. If McDonald can stick in the rotation, that would fill another spot filled for future seasons.

The Giants also have Logan Webb and Landen Roupp penciled in for future seasons. Adrian Houser is under contract after this season, too, but a move to the bullpen might make sense sooner rather than later.

McDonald has flashed a good sinker-slider pitch mix. His changeup will be the key to his success. He frequently relies on it against left-handed hitters but has been unable to consistently locate it for strikes. He will need to find a way to neutralize those matchups, but for now, the key to his success has been getting a lot of ground balls.

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