SAN FRANCISCO — Bob Melvin has managed 2,964 major-league games over 21 seasons. He’s made thousands upon thousands of pitching changes. He’d never signaled to the bullpen, walked out to the mound and been surprised to see a reliever he didn’t anticipate walking through the gate.
Until last Monday in Miami.
Melvin wanted closer Camilo Doval in the eighth inning for a four-out save. He got left-hander Taylor Rogers instead. And then Melvin got a whole lot of grace from plate umpire Laz Diaz, who took enough time sorting through the confusion to allow a cold Doval to make a few rushed tosses off the bullpen mound. Diaz also waited to start the two-minute clock until Doval appeared on the field, which (rightly) infuriated Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker.
We all know what the reaction would’ve been if Melvin’s predecessor, Gabe Kapler, had called for a closer who hadn’t properly warmed up. Kapler began his tenure in Philadelphia with a pitching change that involved someone who hadn’t gotten loose. A mound visit snafu led to another incident early in his tenure with the Giants. But Kapler didn’t repeat those mistakes. At the time, the scrutiny was understandable. Kapler hadn’t won three Manager of the Year awards like Melvin has.
Last Monday was a reminder, though: Even the most experienced managers are capable of missing a beat. Melvin hadn’t realized that his call to get Doval warmed up got garbled somewhere along the way because the bullpen isn’t visible from the visiting dugout. There’s a monitor down the tunnel, but Melvin acknowledged that he hadn’t bothered to check it. And their protocols got disrupted because bullpen coach Garvin Alston missed the game because of a personal matter.
Weird scene in Miami in the eighth inning of the Giants vs. Marlins game.
Part 1: Giants manager Bob Melvin comes out to make a pitching change, seemingly bringing in Taylor Rogers. pic.twitter.com/3010E6q897
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) April 16, 2024
None of those things are valid excuses, of course. It’s not the only issue that has popped up in the bullpen this season, either. When Doval made his first appearance of the season in San Diego, his PitchCom receiver was set to English instead of Spanish, which compounded a difficult situation for backup catcher Tom Murphy.
The Giants are in spring training for six weeks. They have plenty of time to iron those things out before the season begins. That’s the truth whether the manager is a seasoned pro like Melvin or an iconoclast like Kapler.
The takeaway: Maybe all managers, whether they are conventional or not, whether they are inexperienced or not, deserve a little grace from time to time. Maybe Kapler deserved a little more than he received at the time.
As for last Monday in Miami, it was no harm, no foul as Doval closed out the victory — except maybe for Schumaker’s wallet, which got a little lighter as a result of getting ejected. It should be pointed out, though, that Schumaker made it clear to umpires that he wanted Doval to have as much time to warm up as he needed. Schumaker had no interest in watching a pitcher potentially injure himself. He was arguing only for a pitch-clock violation and a 1-0 count to Doval’s first hitter.
That’s being gracious, too.
It surprised me when Giants fans booed Arizona designated hitter Joc Pederson during his return to San Francisco over the weekend. It’s not like Pederson was wholly to blame for the Giants’ middling finishes during his past two seasons with them. Yeah, the optics weren’t great in several respects, most notably his defense in left field. And there was the stuff about playing cards in the clubhouse, which was a detail I reported in a story about the lack of clubhouse accountability down the stretch last season. That seems to be a detail that a lot of fans seized upon while giving Pederson the business.
To clarify, it’s not like Pederson was skipping hitters’ meetings because he was playing Pusoy (a card game popular in the Philippines that is a cross between poker and rummy, and I must admit, is quite addicting). Walk in any major-league clubhouse and you’ll see guys engaged in some card game or another. The problem, again, was bad optics. The Giants were letting their season slip away and Pederson kept puffing cigars in the batting cage and playing cards like the clubhouse was a country club.
I’m not sure Pederson committed any grave sins. As Logan Webb said Thursday, Pederson is one of the best teammates he’s had. One of a player’s most prized attributes is a consistent temperament. Pederson is the same free spirit every day who likes to have a good time. The problem is that from 2015-21, Pederson played on postseason teams every season. He’d never played on a losing team before.
The takeaway: Joc Pederson is a good player on a winning team. But on a struggling team under .500, it’s very easy for him to seem like part of the problem.
(Photo of Bob Melvin talking to umpires about a pitching change on April 15: Rhona Wise / USA Today)
