The Surprising Secret Behind a Flawless Bullpen – You Won’t Believe How Simple It Is!

Last year, I dusted off groug’s Bullpen Trust Power Ranking and tried to make sense of it – results were…well, a mixed bag. Fast forward to 2026, and I figured, why not give it a monthly check-in? We’re a little shy of the end of April, but with over a month on the clock, it feels like the perfect moment to take stock of the Giants’ bullpen experiment. Here’s my quick take:

It’s definitely outperformed looking like three NRIs crammed into a trench coat.

At the start of the season, the bullpen looked like a low-key test cooked up by Buster Posey and Zack Minasian to see just how invisible the group could slip under the radar. The Giants seem intent on dodging big spending on pitching, treating it like a forbidden fruit, and they’re squeezing costs wherever possible. Maybe Posey, recalling the scrappy bullpen vibes from the championship run, is taking notes and letting that shape his approach. I’ve always been one to buy into the “relievers are replaceable parts” mantra, but the Giants appear to have pushed that philosophy to an extreme level.

That attitude might reflect more on Posey being a Hall of Fame backstop than a rookie front office brain, especially after bringing in a coaching staff that knows how to nurture pitchers. It’s less about our bewilderment as outsiders and more about what’s happening on the diamond — which, honestly, wasn’t exactly dazzling in week one.

But here’s a twist: Just today, Alex Pavlovic dropped a line highlighting how the Giants’ bullpen has turned heads recently — boasting a staggering 1.51 ERA since April 7th, topping the league. Their 2.73 xERA isn’t far behind, ranking second overall and leading the National League. Sure, the bullpen’s been solid overall (2.93 ERA, third-best in MLB), but this hot streak coincides with the Giants rolling at 10-7 since the same date — a compelling slice of stats that can’t be ignored.

We’re still dancing in the small sample size dance of early baseball, but the bullpen’s “wing it as you go” approach is evolving in real time, right before us. One stat I brought up a couple weeks back was their average fastball velocity — then 10th best in MLB at 94.7 mph. Since then, thanks to contributions from Erik Miller, Keaton Winn, Caleb Kilian, and Blade Tidwell, that mark has jumped to 95.7 mph, placing them 4th in the majors. No wonder they’re seventh in MLB with a 24.8% strikeout rate — the adrenaline rush is real!

That said, the bullpen’s still wrestling with control issues — a walk rate sitting around 11.9%, placing them 23rd in MLB, and middle-of-the-pack numbers on home runs allowed per fly ball. Those patterns hold steady when looking at the entire season, but again, the recent run has a different flavor.

Individual performances paint an intriguing picture. JT Brubaker balances out his lesser stuff with the fiery Blade Tidwell, who likely didn’t picture himself as a bullpen stalwart when he arrived but has proven quite effective. Keaton Winn and Matt Gage shake the groundball percentage scale near 40%, embodying the flyball contingent alongside Brubaker. While Brubaker leans on savvy over pure stuff, Gage’s 92.5 mph average and a 6.13 FIP paired with a .188 BABIP raise some eyebrows, as does Winn’s incredibly low 1.23 FIP — he’s just that good. Ryan Borucki and Ryan Walker have also chipped in solid recent outings, a far cry from Walker’s turbulent 2025.

And here’s another nugget — since April 7th, every reliever has had a positive impact on the Giants’ chances of winning. That’s rare, maybe unprecedented. Tossing out the first week’s rough patch might seem like cherry-picking, but the drastic turnaround supported by the

Last season, I revived the wonderful groug’s Bullpen Trust Power Ranking bit to… mixed results. This year, I thought I’d try something different and simply review it every month. It’s not yet the end of April, but it’s been over a month since the season started, so now is a great time to check in. My one sentence review: