{"id":814740,"date":"2026-09-26T12:57:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T12:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/814740\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T12:57:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T12:57:25","slug":"camilo-doval-hopes-to-stay-with-giants-upon-surprising-return-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/814740\/","title":{"rendered":"Camilo Doval hopes to stay with Giants upon surprising return \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO — Camilo Doval<\/a> saved 107 games in his first stint with the Giants. He made an All-Star team, and as a rookie he became the team’s closer for the 2021 MLB playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You could make a pretty good argument, though, that the biggest smile Doval has flashed\u00a0in the home clubhouse at Oracle Park came on Friday.<\/p>\n

Doval returned to the organization Thursday, when he was claimed<\/a> a few days after the Pittsburgh Pirates surprisingly let him go to save a bit of money. The Giants activated him Friday, and he made no secret of the fact that he hopes it’s for good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This is where I want to be,” Doval said through interpreter Erwin Higueros. “This is my home.”<\/p>\n

Camilo Doval, now wearing No. 57, said his preference is to stay in SF the rest of his career. <\/p>\n

Doval: \u201cThis is where I want to be. This is my home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) September 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

The Giants sent Doval away last summer, trading him to the New York Yankees for four prospects in a deal that now looks like a heist. Doval was inconsistent in New York and was traded to Pittsburgh at the deadline this season. He pitched better there but didn’t reach his past heights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the Pirates designated him for assignment, the Giants acted quickly to bring him back to his first organization. It was a gamble, one that could have cost them about $150,000 for a weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers if Doval departs again in the offseason. Doval, though, sounds like he’ll go to great lengths to stay in 2027.<\/p>\n

“If it were up to me, I would stay here as long as I’m pitching in the big leagues,” he said Friday. “This is where I want to be, and this is where I want to get back to the Camilo I was before.”<\/p>\n

The Giants could make that happen pretty easily if they want to. Doval is now under their control because he has one year of arbitration left, but he made $6.1 million this season and would be due a raise this winter. At first glance, paying Doval $7-plus million next season might not make the most sense given some of his struggles near the end of his tenure.<\/p>\n

But when you dig deeper, he might actually prove to be the perfect fit. Doval had a nightmare 2024, but he bounced back in 2025, and posted a 3.09 ERA and 3.22 FIP before being sent out. If the Giants are able to add another closing option, Doval and Randy Rodr\u00edguez could be a formidable one-two punch as setup men. Doval lost his closing job at one point during his tenure in San Francisco, but he also does have those 107 saves. It’s not a stretch to imagine the 29-year-old getting back to that form.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then there’s this sobering fact in his favor: Even with some of the inconsistency, isn’t he better than just about everybody who came out of the bullpen for the Giants this season?<\/p>\n

Either way, the Giants now have more options than they did a couple days ago, and they know enough about Doval that they really don’t need to see him pitch much before making a decision on whether to tender him a contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Doval was added back to the roster Friday but is unlikely to pitch until Saturday or Sunday. He missed about a week because of the DFA, and the staff wants to ease him back in.<\/p>\n

Whenever he returns to the mound at Oracle, Doval will have a new look. He was given No. 57, a twist on his familiar No. 75.<\/p>\n

“They gave me that for good luck,” he said, a wide smile on his face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO — Camilo Doval saved 107 games in his first stint with the Giants. He made an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[11711,5,945],"class_list":["post-814740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-alex-pavlovic","tag-baseball","tag-camilo-doval"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117337459633131233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}