San Francisco Giants' Buster Posey Shoots Down Camilo Doval Trade Talk

The San Francisco Giants are reportedly holding on to their struggling closer despite 'strong' interest around the league.

Sep 27, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Camilo Doval (75) delivers a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals during the seventh inning at Oracle Park. / D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

The San Francisco Giants and closer Camilo Doval had a rocky 2024 together, but it looks like they will be running it back next season.

Despite being mentioned as a top trade candidate last season, throughout his struggles, Doval stuck with the team past the trade deadline. Now, with new management, he is likely to be staying in the Bay Area.

NBC Sports insider Alex Pavlovic shared these comments from newly appointed team president Buster Posey, regarding the young closer: "I have belief in him being important for us."

While they doesn't completely rule out a trade, it certainly doesn't seem like they are going to jump at the opportunity to trade him.

There seems to be plenty opportunity for a deal, if they did want to move him, though. NBC Sports also reported earlier in the day that there is 'strong' trade interest in Doval. If Posey wanted the pitcher gone, he likely would.

After the 2024 season, there seems to be two lines of thought surrounding the 26-year-old.

Either they could strike while the iron is hot for a trade, capitalizing on his current value and avoiding it tanking if the struggles continue.

The other option is bringing him back and hoping he can return to his old ways. When he is playing to his potential, there are few better closers in the league.

Doval is under team control for three more seasons and has already made an All-Star team and put together two great campaigns.

Over his first three seasons with the Giants, he posted a 2.77 ERA with 69 saves and a sky-high 11.3 K/9. He lead the league in saves in 2023.

He has always had some prevalent issues with control, but he was so hard to hit that it didn't really matter.

Once batters started to figure him out in 2024, his numbers got significantly worse.

The Dominican Republic native posted a 4.88 ERA last season with 23 saves. He still struck a lot of batters out, but he averaged 8.2 H/9 and 5.9 BB/9. His BB/9 led to the team of any pitchers with at least 20 innings of work.

He's not entering the offseason with much momentum as his September was about as bad as any other month of the year.

With how much money San Francisco has already handed out this offseason, with the potential of even more, the move to not have to also replace a closer makes sense.

Next year will likely be Doval's last chance to show improvements, though. Posey could revisit this decision at the 2025 trade deadline.