Forgotten San Francisco Giants Pitcher Could Be NL Cy Young Dark Horse

The San Francisco Giants are looking to prove doubters wrong this season.

While they made some improvements to their roster, most notably bringing in Willy Adames and Justin Verlander in free agency, the reality is the Giants finished fourth place in their own division last year and don't seemed poised to take a huge step forward.

One way San Francisco can exceed expectations is by getting improvements from the players who were previously on this roster.

Jung Hoo Lee is back after his season-ending shoulder surgery. Heliot Ramos and Tyler Fitzgerald still stand to take their games to the next level. The young pitching staff needs to improve, but with a high pedigree in the minors, that is in the realm of possibility.

Perhaps the most important thing for this Giants team is Robbie Ray returning to his past form.

San Francisco acquired him ahead of the 2024 campaign knowing he was still recovering from Tommy John surgery. He returned to the mound later in that season, posting a 4.70 ERA across his seven starts. But for him to be a difference maker, he'll need to show much better than that.

The good news is that's what is happening this spring.

Ray has made three starts at the time of writing, allowing just two earned runs in 9.1 innings pitched with 17 strikeouts and zero walks.

Even though it's spring training and these performances aren't an indicator of future success, the main storyline that is coming from what he's done on the mound thus far is that he looks like his past self, the one that won the AL Cy Young Award in 2021.

"We've seen him this spring look like Robbie Ray again. Right now, his stuff looks like it did before," manager Bob Melvin stated, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area.

With that in mind, the lefty could be a dark horse Cy Young candidate in the National League.

When Ray is at his best, he is an innings-eating specialist who takes the ball every fifth day and mows down opposing lineups with overwhelming punch out stuff.

For his career, he averages over 11 strikeouts per nine innings, wringing up almost three batters for every walk he allows.

Those are numbers that play against any lineup, in any stadium and in any league.

Ray has an opportunity to return to the spotlight in a monster way.

Not only will he be facing the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the division throughout the year, but the Arizona Diamondbacks are also contender darlings and the San Diego Padres are loaded with stars.

If he can shut down those lineups when he faces them, that will be a huge boon on his resume.

And that's not even taking into account the other high-profile teams he'll go up against like the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Atlanta Braves and new look Chicago Cubs.

Ray could be poised for some hardware again if he is truly back to his old form where he strikes out a ton of batters, wracks up a lot of innings and produces a high WAR because he's so effective.

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