San Francisco Giants: Cory Gearrin one of the few 2017 bright spots

The 2017 San Francisco Giants delivered very few good moments this year. One of the few bright spots on the roster was relief pitcher Cory Gearrin.

It’s very possible the San Francisco Giants pick first in next year’s MLB Draft. The bad news is that this means they will finish 2017 with the worst record in baseball.

The year was an incredibly miserable one for many. Among the chaos, 31-year-old relief pitcher Cory Gearrin managed to put together a very good year thus creating one of only a handful of positive stories.

Gearrin has a chance to finish with the team’s fourth best WAR. Currently at number five with a 2.1 WAR this season, he outranks players like Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto. Those far more popular and highly-paid pitchers did not enjoy the same success Gearrin did pitching out of San Francisco’s bullpen this season.

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In his sixth MLB season and third with the Giants’ organization, Gearrin made incredible strides. Through 65 innings, Gearrin is 4-3 with a 2.08 ERA. These awesome numbers are helped by the 8.2 strikeouts per nine he has delivered from the mound.

Prior to this season, Gearrin was nothing to phone home about. While he did finish the 2012 campaign with a 1.80 ERA for the Atlanta Braves, that successful run only included 20 innings of work. This year’s marathon paints a much more positive outlook for Gearrin in the future. As someone who is arbitration eligible for a few more seasons, the outlook is good. Gearrin did a great job at securing a bullpen job for at least another year.

Gearrin still displayed his weaknesses. His high walk rate elevated his WHIP to 1.27. Though not abysmal, it’s not a good pairing with the very positive ERA.

Other than an inconsistency at throwing strikes, the year has been great for Gearrin. For the second straight season he passed the 31 inning mark which had been his previous high. Gearrin accomplished this by delivering keeping runners from scoring.

Gearrin’s strong season didn’t seem to rub off on many others. Hunter Strickland did pitch well and Sam Dyson somehow managed to gain back some credibility. Other than them, the bullpen included George Kontos and his 0-5 record, an unimpressive 36 innings from Derek Law, and a lack of capable lefty. Due to injuries and a poor performance in general, the signing of Mark Melancon looks like a major bust.

Next: Trade destinations for Zach Britton

There’s a lot to like about what Gearrin did this year. As a member of a Giants squad with much bigger needs than the bullpen, it’s nice to know at least a few more diamonds are available in the rough.