Last month, I brought back this feature started by Doug Bruzzone many years ago and the magic of this power ranking list asserted itself immediately.

Lou Trivino was ranked 8th out of 8 relievers and very quickly found himself off the roster just six days after publication. That he’s given up just 1 run in 6.2 IP with the Dodgers since then is immaterial. The history of the power ranking does not claim to have any special hold on a player once they leave the San Francisco Giants.

What it has been very good at doing in the past is curse the guy who was fortunate enough to be deemed Most Trustworthy Reliever. Usually, the #1 guy crashes out at some point in the month. That didn’t happen in May, though, as Camilo Doval not only went unscored upon, he reclaimed the closer’s role from Ryan Walker.

So, has the curse of the McCovey Chronicles Bullpen Trust Power Rankings been broken – officially? We’ll see! Do keep in mind that relievers are already cursed with inconsistency, unreliability, and fungibility. Major league relievers pitch on a razor’s edge. They are stricken with volatility given the nature of their jobs. Doval might’ve pitched his way back into the closer’s role, but most of us can remember how he lost it.

But the best curse-buster is a plain ol’ fact. Here’s a good one: the Giants have the best bullpen ERA in MLB (2.48). They get lots of groundballs and don’t walk many batters (Erik Miller excepted). If you’re a professional pitcher and you’re in the Giants’ bullpen, chances are that you’re pretty good. But who’s most trustworthy? Talent alone doesn’t satisfy the condition. No, pitchers need to be able to meet the role the team has given them, too. That can be tricky on a team where roles are shifting, but the good news is that even the Giants relievers who get shifted are trustworthy in some situation.

For the purposes of our power rankings, Hayden Birdsong, despite pitching 7.1 innings in relief, is now ineligible because he’s in the rotation. The guy whose spot he’s taking – Jordan Hicks – is eligible. Kyle Harrison is also eligible because his elevation to a rotation spot is supposed to be temporary. Trivino threw 1 inning but since he’s gone he’s not included.

9. Erik Miller | April rank: 6th | May stats: 8.2 IP 2 ER 7 BB 5 K -0.32 WPA

About a week and a half ago I warned that Miller’s tendency to walk batters would work against his effectiveness over the long-term. In the short-term, he’s having a solid enough season if you’re not paying close attention. A 1.50 ERA in 18 IP overall? Great, right? I guess. For a reliever, that’s solid. A 3.80 FIP, though, is concerning; and, in May it was 4.33.

You’ll note that he had more walks than strikeouts in his appearances, too. He also had 2 blown saves and 3 of the 5 baserunners he inherited wound up scoring. He’s averaging 97 mph with his fastball, though, and his high spin slider gets a lot of swing and miss. Unlike last month’s least trustworthy guy, I expect Miller to stick around. You know the Giants have a great bullpen if he’s the least trustworthy two months into the season. Still, this ranking is based in part on usage, and as the team’s sole lefty reliever for now, a dude who walks guys in high leverage situations is definitionally an untrustworthy reliever.

8. Jordan Hicks | April rank: n/a | May stats (RP): 3 IP 1 ER 1 BB 1 K -0.06 WPA

There’s an argument to be made that a disgraced starter being relegated to the bullpen should automatically go to the bottom of the list, but I won’t be the one making it. He has 243 relief innings in his major league career already, and even though they aren’t spectacular (3.67 FIP, 2.3 fWAR) they reflect an effective enough reliever. People have been crowing for him to be a reliever (albeit a pricey one) since the moment the ink dried on his 4-year deal and so, once again, Giants fans have complained and gotten exactly what they’ve wanted — will we be happy about it this time?

Jordan Hicks pumping 98+ from the bullpen in the middle innings seems like yet another layer of dominance for an already dominant relief corps, but back in April I wrote about how Hicks’s fastball is anything but dominant. You can imagine him becoming the 6th inning guy with a 2-run lead or behind 2 until he goes on a run of 0-run outings.

Yesterday’s 3-walk debacle certainly proved a setback, but at the same time, he’s a guy who has fallen so far out of favor that landing in a thicket of low expectations can’t be held against him the same way Miller has disappointed. Also, yesterday was June so, really, it was a tough start for next month’s power rankings…

7. Tristan Beck | April rank: n/a | May stats: 5.2 IP 1 ER 2 BB 6 K +0.04 WPA

I was shocked he didn’t make the team out of Spring Training, but it’s all good now because he’s back and had a strong debut. We’ve seen Tristan Beck already be a dominant reliever, and if Sean Hjelle’s velocity decline continues (and it looks like it will), then it’s safe to say that Beck now has the chance to be the Hjelle of the 2025 squad, which was previously the Jakob Junis role. He’s not there yet, obviously, but as a multi-inning reliever who bails out a starter or pitches with a big lead or deficit late, it’s going to be fun watching him overpower lineups… theoretically.

His appearance in Friday’s game against the Marlins was rough: bad command, lower velocity. He kept looking to the pitcher’s mound and maybe there’s something to it, but yeah, definitely something to keep an eye on and given the small sample, an easy enough ding to lower him on this list.

6. Spencer Bivens | April rank: 7th | May stats: 14.2 IP 6 ER 2 BB 7 K +0.13 WPA

He led the relief corps in innings pitched for the month, so he must be doing something right in his role as the team’s pain sponge. For the most part (that 8-4 loss to the Royals excepted), he’s managed to stop the bleeding. Again, he might not be the most talented reliever on the roster — Miller and Hicks have better stuff for sure — but he’s been acing his designated role through the first two months of the season.

5. Kyle Harrison | April rank: n/a | May stats: 5.1 IP 2 ER 3 BB 7 K +0.06 WPA

Harrison has looked dominant as a reliever and to the extent that he probably needs to pitch like a top of the rotation guy if he wants to remove all doubts about his effectiveness as a starter. He offers some tantalizing versatility.

It’s tricky to rank him here because his role is undefined and he’s a starter as of the publish date, but he represents an interesting inflection point. He along with Beck and Hicks represent strong relievers who are borderline starters. Is he destined to remain in the bucket with them, or will he climb free and assert himself? His Friday night start went a long way towards getting him off this list.

4. Ryan Walker | April rank: 5th | May stats: 9.2 IP 5 R (4 ER) 5 BB 7 K +0.09 WPA

His first 15 innings this season: 6.00 ERA (3.08 FIP) with a 21.7% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate. His last 5.1 innings: 1.69 ERA (2.14 FIP) with a 21% strikeout rate and 0% walk rate. Still, that plummeting strikeout rate and variable walk rate is a good enough reason to move him out of the closer’s role. Pretty clear that Bob Melvin simply didn’t like what he saw coming out of Walker’s hand, but that doesn’t mean in any capacity. He could be on track to steadying his season, but it’s plausible that his ceiling might be more of a 7th inning guy or situational righty. So, I’m giving him this spot because I think he’ll be more trustworthy in a non-closer capacity.

3. Randy Rodríguez | April: 4th | May stats: 13 IP 0 ER* 3 BB 20 K +0.67 WPA

There’s an argument to be made that he should be #1, and I think it’s a good one. He’s a dominant arm that can be used in any role. Almost certainly the most talented reliever in the bullpen. He’s the #4 reliever in MLB in terms of value (1.0 fWAR). His versatility is a double-edged sword, though, and that’s what you’re seeing reflected in the ranking here.

Last week, he had a two on, no outs situation in Detroit during the 5th inning of that series finale and got the first two outs before giving up a single to a righty that scored both the inherited runners. Earlier in the month, he entered the game in the 6th inning to bail out Jordan Hicks in a two on, no out situation and both of those runners scored.

He is trustworthy enough to have an undefined role, but the undefined role puts two bullets in the chamber of reliever roulette. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, think of Russian roulette and apply it to baseball: whenever you bring a reliever into the game, there’s always a chance that the move doesn’t work out for the manager pulling the trigger.

2. Tyler Rogers | April rank: 2nd | May stats: 10.1 IP 4 ER 0 BB 11 K -0.11 WPA

So consistent, so dominant (at times). Just don’t ask him to pitch multiple innings in a single appearance. When Camilo Doval is doing well and you can find him near the top on a leaderboard, Tyler Rogers is usually right there with him. Well, Camilo Doval is doing quite well these days and yet he and Rogers have been just as valuable (0.5 fWAR).

1. Camilo Doval | April rank: 1st | May stats: 10.2 IP 0 ER 4 BB 12 K +0.93 WPA

An unexpected closer battle erupted last month and it led to Bob Melvin announcing that Camilo Doval would take over for Ryan Walker. Except, rather than Doval being declared the winner, Buster Posey has confirmed that the situation is “fluid.” No matter how one contextualizes the situation, it wouldn’t be possible without Doval’s hard work.

Last August, I examined Doval’s fall from grace and it was clear then that this wasn’t a situation where a dude had simple lost his talent. The data suggested an immeasurable mental vector to his lack of performance. Indeed, a week and a half ago, Susan Slusser wrote a Doval profile that talked about his mental adjustments to his game. He’s in a great place right now and the success is hard earned and well deserved.

Camilo Doval’s first save since returning to the closer role came in front of his mom, who watched him in the big leagues for the first time: pic.twitter.com/k7Dnjg9C38

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) May 31, 2025

He’s allowed just 1 inherited runner to score over his last 19.1 innings but has otherwise been dominant: 6 hits and 4 walks going back to April 12th. In May, he improved the probability of the Giants winning a game by 93%. He’s as trustworthy as a reliever can be.