San Francisco Giants' Former Unheralded Pitcher Continues To Shine This Season

The San Francisco Giants continue to get elite production from one of their starting pitchers who has seemingly come out of nowhere.

Apr 22, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Keaton Winn (67) / Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports

Coming into the season, the San Francisco Giants' rotation looked to be much improved on paper after they added two starting pitchers to pair with their ace Logan Webb.

When they signed Jordan Hicks, it was revealed that they would be converting him into a starter instead of using him as a reliever. Then, they added the reigning NL Cy Young winner, Blake Snell, late in the process to give them a formidable one-two punch.

But because of the short ramp up period that Snell had, he struggled to start the year before hitting the injured list.

In his absence, the Giants will need others in the rotation to step up, and they are getting that from Keaton Winn.

It's been a remarkable career arc for the 26-year-old after being selected in the fifth round of the 2018 draft. He cracked their Top 30 prospects only once in 2023 after he had to miss the entire 2021 season with Tommy John surgery following sitting out all of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, the right-hander worked his way into making his Major League debut in 2023.

He struggled, posting a 4.68 ERA across nine games and five starts, but made the Opening Day roster this season.

Winn has taken this opportunity and run with it.

Through six starts he has a 3.18 ERA and looks like he could be in this rotation for years to come after his three most recent outings have seen him allow only three earned runs over 18 innings pitched.

Grant Brisbee of The Athletic certainly thinks that Winn will be a staple for San Francisco going forward based on the command he's already showing in the early stages of his career, combined with his fastball velocity and filthy splitter.

"... Keaton Winn seems like a pitcher who can thrive in the majors without any adjustments or improvements whatsoever," he writes.

While that might be the case, improvements are still coming for the righty.

He's working on his slider after not being able to throw it often following his Tommy John surgery. Once that pitch becomes a bigger part of his arsenal, then he truly could find himself being a major part of the Giants' rotation moving forward.