The Giants were counting on him to prop up their shaky pitching plan, but his heroism came in the form of perseverance.
2024 stats: 16 IP, 1.69 ERA (3.98 FIP), 1.13 WHIP, 14 K, 4 BB, 2 HRA, 0.1 fWAR
Tristan Beck’s 2024 season started as a tragedy but ended as a triumph.
Soon after arriving in Arizona for the pitchers & catchers reporting deadline, the then-27 year old was shut down with “right hand discomfort.” Doctors discovered the cause: a blood clot in his throwing arm. That surgery shut him down for eight weeks but it also raised the specter of being a career-ender if not career inhibiting. Every surgery carries a risk, after all.
But modern surgical techniques being what they are, Beck’s recovery and rehab went about as well as one might expect following an aneurysm. He was activated to begin pitching against minor league competition again on August 8th and made 5 starts for the River Cats (7.90 ERA in 13.2 IP) before joining the major league squad when rosters expanded.
He made his season debut in a San Francisco Giants uniform a couple of days later in relief of Kyle Harrison, whom the Dbacks had shelled for 6 runs in 2.2 innings — although, in fairness to both, Beck came on with the bases loaded and promptly allowed a single that scored two.
Beck allowed one more run in that apperance and then allowed just one over his next five (8.2 IP). The Giants awarded a successful rehab and qualiting quintet of appearances with a spot start at the end of the season. He threw 72 pitches in 4 innings against the Cardinals in what wound up being a 6-5 Giants win along with his final innings of 2024. Said Beck after game:
It was a nice little cherry on top to what’s been a long year.
Still, I think it was that multi-inning reliever role which, much like last year, put him in the best position to succeed. Of course, as Steve noted in last year’s review, this goal is a spot in the starting rotation. Speaking of that review, maybe Beck or the team actually read it, because Steve’s questions were answered even in the small sampling we got this season:
Does he need to play around with his mix and push his fastball? Maybe bulk up and get more velocity out of the 4-seamer to increase the K-rate? Maybe get a better feel for the curve and up its usage?
He threw just 242 pitches in the majors this year, but the pitch mix is pretty interesting. See if you can spot the differences:
He did lose nearly 2 mph (on average) off that fastball, though (93.1 this year vs. 94.7 in 2023), but for now let’s chalk that up to, you know, the whole arm surgery thing; but also, in his start, he threw that 4-seamer 39 times, so that was bound to effect the average in a small 242-pitch season sampling and it makes sense that he held back a bit to make it through multiple innings.
He expects to have a normal offseason and that should put him in a position to compete for a roll in the rotation.
We’ll see if that works out. Strangers things have happened, particularly when it comes to the back of a starting rotation, and the Giants badly needed his missing innings this season, but will the team put itself in such a precarious position, projected innings-wise, going into 2025? I doubt it, and that’s why the crystal ball for Beck’s future role is cloudy at best.
It’s a shame the season ticketholders were able to get bullpen games banned, because Beck might’ve made for a solid Jakob Junis replacement: a guy who could provide 2-3+ innings bursts 2-3 times a week if needed. Reaching the “five and dive” threshold doesn’t seem like it would be as effective as a “four but no more” one — would Buster Posey tolerate a starting pitching only going a planned 4 innings? Or will they really try to push players to qualify every time out?
That last bit is irrelevant in terms of the player. After a scary start to his 2024 which could’ve put his career in jeopardy, Tristan Beck returned and made the case that he’s a major leauger who plans to stick around.