SEATTLE — When Camilo Doval’s performance slipped this season, when his walk rate doubled and his reliability suffered and when he became as threatening to dugout coolers as opposing hitters, the former All-Star closer stopped being viewed as a managerial indulgence.
He became a managerial issue.
The Giants needed to do more than get Doval right. They needed to get his attention. Optioning him to Triple-A Sacramento, barely 13 months after he pitched for the National League in the All-Star Game, was the most practical instrument that the team could wield. Optioning Doval also sent an organization-wide message. All that talk at Bob Melvin’s introductory press conference last October about holding people accountable? It had to be more than pablum to fill notebooks and airtime.
But the team’s most practical instrument was also its bluntest. The Giants couldn’t merely ship off Doval to the minors for the first time in three years, pin instructions to his chest and tell him to figure it out. Even if there was a punitive aspect to the demotion, it couldn’t be presented that way. They were finished coddling Doval. But they still had to make sure that he felt supported.
So they arranged for the hard-throwing 27-year-old to spend time with special assistant Ryan Vogelsong, who knows a thing or two about competing through adversity and advocating for teammates. When a member of the Giants front office noted that Sacramento’s schedule happened to intersect with the Los Angeles Angels Triple-A affiliate, for whom Johnny Cueto was pitching, the club official reached out and set up a summit between Doval and his one-time teammate and mentor.
The hope all around was that Doval would return after the 15-day minimum with a much better grip: on the baseball, on holding runners, on throwing strikes with his 100 mph cutter, and on being a willing and flexible member of a bullpen that seldom operates with much margin for error.
“I was constantly checking in to see how everything was going with that because I know that’s got to be a really tough situation,” said Giants right fielder Mike Yastrzemski, after Doval rejoined the roster Saturday morning. “I was really happy to see him and happy to have him back. He’s been in so many big moments for us so I wasn’t worried. I was just hopeful that he had the confidence in himself.”
Yaz rips one to right 💥 pic.twitter.com/GtrjDIQc4G
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) August 24, 2024
Doval returned to the Giants on Saturday and not as the closer. Right-hander Ryan Walker took over that distinction and might have cemented it Saturday, volunteering to pitch after throwing two innings the previous night and throwing his searing, sidearm on his way to the final three outs while protecting the Giants’ 4-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
But the final out of the game is not always the most precious or rigorous out of the game. This time the moment arrived in the seventh inning when Jordan Hicks, who was a pregame candidate for the injured list because of upper-body tenderness, struggled with reduced velocity while loading the bases. Hicks momentarily escaped when Randy Arozarena batted with one out and grounded into an apparent double play. But replays reversed the out call at first base. A run crossed the plate. The inning continued.
And Doval jogged out from the bullpen.
Doval fell behind Jorge Polanco and ended up issuing an intentional walk on a 3-0 count. But Doval got Mitch Haniger to ground out to end the threat. Then his premium stuff returned in the eighth as he retired three consecutive hitters, striking out two, while building a bridge to the reliever who is replacing him in the bullpen’s splashiest role.
It was a critical contribution as the Giants overcame an erratic, three-inning start from Blake Snell, moved a game over .500, and set themselves up for a chance to win the series behind Robbie Ray on Sunday.
“Look, I put him in a tough spot,” Melvin said of Doval. “Once he got through it, and the next inning went along, you started to see his really good stuff. It was great to see him able to do something like that. It should do a world of good for his confidence, and obviously, it was huge for our team for him to pitch in a little different role.”
Prior to the game, Melvin said the Triple-A timeout with Doval “couldn’t have gone any better. He worked on all the things we asked of him. He’s throwing strikes, quicker to the plate, everything we hoped something like this. For him, going down there is a hard thing to swallow at first. But (minor-league coaches) said there wasn’t one minute when he was down there sulking. He knew he was going to be back here in 15 days if everything went well. It did go well. We’ll use him in an important role. I’m glad he’s in a good space and it accomplished a lot.
“We were just hoping he understood what was going on and that this was an opportunity for him to tighten things up. Anybody can go down there and feel betrayed and sulk and he did anything but. He had a great attitude today. So I give him a lot of credit as a guy who was an All-Star last year to go down there and take this time to really be productive. I can’t say enough good things about it.”
Bullpen compositions change. Relievers come and go. Teams almost never receive the kind of late-inning continuity that the Giants created a decade ago, when the core four of Sergio Romo, Jeremy Affeldt, Javier Lopez and Santiago Casilla pitched on three World Series championship teams. Going strictly by service time and club control, the Doval-Walker combination could become a late-inning mainstay in San Francisco for several seasons. Or it could be disrupted by trades or by injuries or by wobbles in performance.
The more lasting comment on the Great Reintroduction of Camilo Doval might be about this organization’s ability to successfully manage its people.
Doval certainly said the right things prior to Saturday’s game, telling reporters, “In my case, I think it was good that I was sent down. It made me realize who I was.”
In terms of role, Doval is not who he was when the month began. Melvin confirmed that Walker would continue as the club’s first option in the ninth inning, although after volunteering to take the ball Saturday, he most certainly will be off limits Sunday. Doval indicated in his pregame comments that he was not returning with any sense of entitlement.
“I was very surprised (at being optioned),” Doval said through Spanish interpreter Erwin Higueros. “My reaction was, ‘Wow.’ But they know what they’re doing. If they thought that’s what they needed to do, then I accept their decision. I’m here to do what the team wants me to do. I’m here to help the team win.”
In any role?
“The way that I can answer that is based on numbers,” Doval said. “The numbers speak for themselves. So I guess if I put good numbers, then I guess I will earn it back.”
Second baseman Thairo Estrada is earning back confidence after returning from thumb and wrist issues. He lined two singles, stole one of the Giants’ four bases, scored a run and snapped a tie with his hit in the fifth inning. Yastrzemski’s third hit of the game was a solo homer in the seventh that provided the winning margin.
And Melvin’s late-inning relief choices were only possible because right-hander Spencer Bivens recorded nine outs in the middle of the game, essentially turning Snell’s three-inning start into six quality innings.
The Giants were coming off a gut-punch loss a night earlier in which right-hander Tyler Rogers gave up six consecutive hits while the Mariners erased a four-run deficit, leading to criticism and consternation about the team’s bullpen usage. The players slept fast and had to try to wash it off before taking the field Saturday. Being resilient and bouncing back is an important skill for a team to have. The Giants certainly have displayed it this season. They just wish they didn’t have to display it so often.
Late leads will be lost. Bullpen choices won’t work out. There will always be grumbling at the granular level of losses like that.
But the Doval situation serves as an apt reminder: The art of managing a bullpen involves more than pitching changes. It involves managing people and personalities, too. Those are the moves that require the deftest touch — and often yield the most significant results.
Yastrzemski acknowledged that the language barrier sometimes makes it difficult to know what Doval is going through inside.
“So I’m really glad to see him throw the ball so well in such a big situation,” said Yastrzemski, “and come back with such a presence.”
(Photo of Camilo Doval from Aug. 7: Jess Rapfogel / Getty Images)
