Giants exercise club option to retain All-Star starting pitcher

It’s rather unsurprising the Giants are sticking with Cobb –– the right-hander enjoyed a career season and was one of their key contributors in a spotty rotation that oftentimes lacked depth toward the middle and backend. For much of the season, Cobb and righty Logan Webb were the only two arms receiving regular starts on the mound. 

If there’s any concern regarding the decision to pick up Cobb’s option, it would be in relation to his ability to stay healthy. He battled through left hip issues that required cortisone shots and eventually prematurely concluded his season in late September. 

In an effort to fix the underlying issue, Cobb underwent left hip surgery on Oct. 31 to repair a labrum and ongoing impingement problems. He'll be out approximately six months, and will likely miss Opening Day, but has been too productive to move on from.

Cobb, 36, has been one of San Francisco’s most productive free agent acquisitions over the past five seasons after inking a two-year, $20 million deal following the 2021 season. He’s completely resurrected his career, ranking high on numerous pitching leaderboards across the league.

Among National League leaders with at least 300 innings pitched over the last two seasons, Cobb is second in ground ball percentage (59.4%) and fourth in xFIP (3.20) while thriving in underlying measures like BB%, barrel rate, and chase rate. In 2023, he recorded a 3.87 ERA with 131 strikeouts and 37 strikeouts in 151 ⅓ innings of work. 

Cobb was selected to his first MLB All-Star Game in 2023, joining Camilo Doval as the two representatives from the Giants. He twirled a complete-game, one-hit shutout against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 29. He fired 131 pitches in the effort. 

If healthy, there’s little reason to doubt Alex Cobb's reliability in a big league rotation –– maybe not in the context of how the SF Giants used him this past season as a bonafide two starter, but as a contributor involved in the middle of the pack.