Giants Baseball Insider

Insider Shares Shocking Reason Why San Francisco Giants Traded Star Reliever

This seems to be a major reason why the San Francisco Giants surprisingly traded one of their star relievers.

Brad Wakai

Aug 31, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Taylor Rogers (33) walks to the dugout after a pitching change against the Miami Marlins during the sixth inning at Oracle Park
Aug 31, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Taylor Rogers (33) walks to the dugout after a pitching change against the Miami Marlins during the sixth inning at Oracle Park / Robert Edwards-Imagn Images
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The San Francisco Giants made a surprising move when they shipped Taylor Rogers out of town.

The left-hander has been a shutdown guy for them coming out of the bullpen the past two years, posting a 3.06 ERA and 131 ERA+ across his 124 outings, striking out 128 batters in 111.2 innings pitched.

Getting back just minor leaguer Braxton Roxby as the return was interesting, but when it was revealed the Giants would also be covering $6 million of Rogers' salary, that's when this deal really became head scratching.

San Francisco has said all the right things this winter about their goal of competing for a division title in light of the Los Angeles Dodgers spending an absurd amount money again, but this move flies in the face of that notion.

Grant Brisbee of The Athletic shed some light on why the Giants ultimately shipped Rogers out of town, and the revelation was pretty shocking.

"They didn't trust him," the insider wrote.

How did it get to that point?

Brisbee highlighted a moment against the Pittsburgh Pirates back in April when he gave up back-to-back home runs in extra innings. That was the demarcating line when the coaching staff moved away from using him in high-leverage situations.

It's strange that something so early in the campaign would stick in the mind of Bob Melvin, but it seems like that's exactly what happened.

However, there was another thing that might have pushed Buster Posey to ultimately move him.

"He threw 172 pitches in September, and only six of those pitches got a batter to swing and miss. That is a shockingly low rate for a reliever in the modern game. The pitch data was super skeptical about him and had been for a long time," Brisbee wrote.

Rogers finished with a 2.40 ERA in 64 outings, a great number on paper.

But his FIP of 3.75, which measures a pitcher's ability to prevent home runs and walks combined with striking out batters, showed a much different story than the ERA he produced.

Perhaps San Francisco knew they were sitting on a ticking timebomb, and instead of waiting to see if it would explode, they made a deal to bring in a young, controllable arm who is much more cost effective going forward.

Either way, the move is surprising.

Rogers could still be one of the top left-hander relievers in the league with the Cincinnati Reds, and if that is the case, the Giants will certainly look foolish.

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Brad Wakai
BRAD WAKAI

Brad Wakai graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Journalism. While an undergrad, he did work at the student radio station covering different Penn State athletic programs like football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports. Brad currently is the Lead Contributor for Nittany Lions Wire of Gannett Media where he continues to cover Penn State athletics. He is also a contributor at FanSided, writing about the Philadelphia 76ers for The Sixers Sense. Brad is the host of the sports podcast I Said What I Said, discussing topics across the NFL, College Football, the NBA and other sports. You can follow him on Twitter: @bwakai

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