One-time All-Star starting pitcher exercises player option with Giants

Right-hander Ross Stripling has exercised his $12.5M player option for next season, per Danny Emerman of KNBR.com. Stripling will return to the Giants for the 2024 season rather than test the open market. The move is hardly a surprise, particularly given the fact that Stripling himself announced that he expected to exercise his player option back in September.

After signing with the Giants on a two-year, $25M guarantee this past winter on the heels of a strong platform season in Toronto, Stripling struggled badly in San Francisco this year. The right-hander ultimately pitched just 89 innings across 22 appearances, 11 of which were starts. In addition to posting his lowest full-season innings total since 2017, Stripling struggled to get results. His strikeout rate dipped from 20.7% in 2022 to just 18.4% this year, while his walk rate crept up from 3.7% to 4.2%.

While those rates both trended in the wrong direction, the marginal loss in K-BB doesn’t compare to the massive home run problem Stripling faced in 2023. Despite the fact that only Comerica Park in Detroit and PNC Park in Pittsburgh suppressed home runs at a higher clip than Stripling’s home stadium of Oracle Park, the right-hander saw a whopping 22% of his fly balls leave the yard this year. Not only was that figure a career high in a full season, but it was the second highest rate in the majors this year, barely edged out by Phillies righty Christopher Sanchez’s 22.2% figure. With Stripling allowing more than two home runs per nine innings in 2023, it’s hardly a surprise that his 5.36 ERA and 5.21 FIP were the worst figures of his career during a full season.

That being said, there’s reason for optimism that Stripling could improve upon his 2023 campaign next year. After all, he missed two months across two separate IL stints due to back issues, suggesting it’s possible he wasn’t fully healthy for much of the season. Better health alongside better fortune regarding the number of his fly balls that leave the yard in 2024 could drastically improve Stripling’s effectiveness next year. After all, even in this brutal season some advanced metrics looked upon Stripling favorably as demonstrated by his 3.98 xFIP (9% better than league average) and 4.13 SIERA.