{"id":787184,"date":"2026-05-10T19:37:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T19:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787184\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T19:37:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T19:37:33","slug":"giants-send-struggling-reliever-ryan-walker-to-minors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/787184\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants send struggling reliever Ryan Walker to minors"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants<\/a> sent struggling reliever Ryan Walker<\/a> to Triple-A Sacramento on Sunday following his fourth straight outing when he allowed at least one run.<\/p>\n

The move with Walker was one of several made before the Giants played a series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>. Right-hander Gregory Santos<\/a> was also optioned to Sacramento, while lefty Sam Hentges<\/a> was activated from his rehabilitation assignment and righty Dylan Smith was called up from Triple-A.<\/p>\n

Walker began the season as the Giants primary closer after leading the team with 17 saves last season but was unable to hold that role. After saving back-to-back games against the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> late last month, Walker has been ineffective.<\/p>\n

He allowed seven runs and nine hits with four walks in 3 innings over his past four appearances with two blown saves. He allowed two runs, while retiring only two batters, in a loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday to raise his ERA on the season to 6.46 and lead to the demotion to the minors.<\/p>\n

Manager Tony Vitello said he believes Walker needs to regain his confidence and he is hopeful a stint in the minors will help.<\/p>\n

“He’s the same guy skill-wise,” Vitello said. “I do think our pitching coaches identified some things physically that he’s strayed from that when he’s been at his best. Whether it’s posture or how he’s thrown a couple particular pitches. But I think he would agree, too, so I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn, I think it all starts with the mind and what kind of information you’re feeding it.”<\/p>\n

Hentges began the season on the injured list after being signed as a free agent in the offseason. He had a 1.93 ERA in 10 outings in the minors on a rehab assignment before getting called up. He last pitched in the majors in 2024 for Cleveland and has a 4.18 ERA over four seasons in the majors.<\/p>\n

Santos also allowed two runs in 1 innings on Saturday and San Francisco needed fresh arms in the bullpen.<\/p>\n

Smith was acquired from Detroit in March and has a 2.13 ERA in nine appearances with Sacramento.<\/p>\n

The Giants entered the day tied for the worst record in the National League at 15-24. They have tried to shake up the roster this week, calling up slugger Bryce Eldridge<\/a> from the minors on Monday and trading catcher Patrick Bailey<\/a> to Cleveland on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants sent struggling reliever Ryan Walker to Triple-A Sacramento on Sunday following…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":787185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[321708,5723,187708,1266,50,1275,187703,62,67,132,68,321707],"class_list":["post-787184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-321708","tag-espn","tag-hentges-sam","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-santos-gregory","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-walker-ryan"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116551971526044108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}