San Francisco Giants Skipper Reveals Who Team's Closer Will Be This Season

The San Francisco Giants now know who their closer will be this season after Bob Melvin announced his decision.

Sep 27, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin calls for a relief pitcher during the fourth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Oracle Park | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

The San Francisco Giants are getting ready for Spring Training ahead of the 2025 campaign where not much is expected from them despite having a headline-grabbing offseason at different points.

Quiet compared to their rival Los Angeles Dodgers, the Giants were still able to make some splashes of their own by landing star shortstop Willy Adames and bringing in future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander to bolster the rotation.

Still, after finishing fourth in the NL West last year and 18 games back of the Dodgers, 13 behind the San Diego Padres and nine from the Arizona Diamondbacks, it seems like there is a sizeable gap.

However, there is a quiet confidence that persists in the clubhouse, and in the second season under manager Bob Melvin and the first with franchise legend Buster Posey calling the shots as president of baseball operations, this group sounds ready to get on the diamond and prove the doubters wrong.

For that to happen, San Francisco needs to perform much better than what occurred last year.

And as they get ready for camp, Melvin wasted little time addressing who is going to close games for them in 2025 after a rocky showing this past campaign were 19 saves were blown.

"No surprise, but Bob Melvin said Ryan Walker is his closer," Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reported.

OK, that clears that up.

Walker took over for Camilo Doval last season in August, going a perfect 10-for-10 in save opportunities since he was moved into that role.

Walker was also excellent throughout the campaign, posting a 1.91 ERA and 202 ERA+ across is 76 appearances, stirking out 99 batters in 80 innings pitched.

In August and September, he only allowed two total runs in 21 outings and 23.1 innings, both which came against the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 19 when he gave up a walk-off homer in a non-save situation.

What this means for Doval will be seen.

The Giants were reportedly interested in shopping him at one point to get back a return package that enticed them, but they seemingly moved off that idea and prefer to keep him in the mix for at least the first half of the season.

If Doval can return to his form as a dominant backend bullpen arm, he'll give Melvin a weapon to be deployed anywhere in high-leverage situations or in a setup role.

That could give San Francisco one of the best one-two punches to close out a game in Major League Baseball.