SF Giants Gameday: Why the bullpen is a multi-year project

SAN FRANCISCO -- When the San Francisco Giants dealt away Mark Melancon, Sam Dyson, Drew Pomeranz and Ray Black at last summer's trade deadline, it was an acknowledgement that an overmatched 2019 roster didn't have much use for a good bullpen. The Giants hung onto left-handed relievers Will Smith and Tony Watson so they could retain a glimmer of hope and remain somewhat competitive in Bruce Bochy's final season, but all of the deadline moves signaled the organization's desire to completely overhaul the team's bullpen. Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and first-year manager Gabe Kapler are in the beginning stages of a multi-year project to build a competent relief corps, so growing pains are expected. The pains, of course, felt particularly sharp throughout a miserable three-game sweep against the Oakland A's this weekend. Giants relievers gave up seven home runs, coughed up a pair of ninth inning leads and watched the A's add to their slugging percentage throughout a nine-run fifth inning in a 15-3 blowout on Sunday. Giants relievers Dereck Rodríguez and Wandy Peralta were the pitchers the A's feasted against in the series finale, but nearly every pitcher coming out of the bullpen this season has been forced to live through a nightmare at least once. The Giants as a team seem to live through them daily. In this episode of the SF Giants Gameday podcast, host Kerry Crowley looks back at an awful weekend for the club at Oracle Park and explains why the organization is only taking the first steps of building its future bullpen during the 2020 season.