Pitcher Ross Stripling Takes His Talents To The Bay Area, Agrees To A 2-year Contract With The Giants

             

By Jordan Long

The San Francisco Giants have already had a busy offseason.  They agreed to a 13-year, $350 million contract with prized shortstop Carlos Correa.  The Giants also felt they needed to fill the void left by pitcher Carlos Rodon who is currently a free agent.  They signed free agent pitcher Sean Manaea earlier this week. Well, they added another arm to the rotation, Ross Stripling.

             Stripling brings in 7 years of MLB experience to the Giants.  His stops include the L.A. Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.  Last year he was with Toronto.  There he had a career best record of 10-4.  His ERA ended at 3.01, the lowest in his career.  Toronto earned a playoff spot as one of the three Wild-Card teams in the American League.

            In the Wild Card Series, Toronto faced Seattle in the best of 3.  Seattle swept the Blue Jays outscoring them 14 to 9.   Stripling didn’t even have an appearance in the postseason.  Once the Blue Jays were eliminated, he was a free agent.

            The Giants knew they wanted to upgrade the starting rotation.  Of course, pitching might be their best chance to close the gap between them and the two top teams in the National League West Division, the San Diego Padres and the L.A. Dodgers.  The Giants agreed to a 2-year, $25 million contract with Stripling.

            According to ESPN.com. Stripling said, “I expect to start. I had a good year as a starter. I feel like the couple times I’ve gotten a runway as a starter in the big leagues, where I kind of knew my position in the rotation as a starter was safe, is when I’ve done the best. I made an All-Star game in 2018 with the Dodgers and then this year with Toronto, and I knew they basically didn’t have anyone and they gave me some runway and I was able to do well.”

            Stripling’s career record is 38-38 with an ERA of 3.78. Not bad, but not great either.  The Giants are hoping to see the pitcher from last year when he had career numbers.  This is also a pitcher who can pound the strike zone to force batters to swing and miss, totaling 622 strikeouts in his career.  Stripling will be the back of the rotation pitcher for the Giants.  On paper, Stripling will be an improvement for the pitching staff.