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Stat line: 35 appearances, 30.0 IP, 33 H, 13 BB, 31 K, 1.53 WHIP, 4.86 FIP, 4.20 ERA
The arc of Cory Gearrin’s final year* in orange and black didn’t seem fair to the viewer. Just as the sun was about to rise on the season, the team released a list of pronunciations for the players’ names. It turns out we (you, me, Kruk, Kuip, and certainly that moron Grant) had been pronouncing “Gearrin” wrong the whole time. Instead, it’s pronounced “GAHR-in”, as in “you parked your Gearrin the garage.”
Interesting. @mlb sent out a name pronunciation guide that also includes a "preference guide" for each team showing where to put accents, tildes, etc... for each team. Don't remember seeing that before. #sfgiants pic.twitter.com/PPuLj0WIji
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) March 16, 2018
And then, just a few months later, he was gone, sent to Texas as part of the trade that dumped Austin Jackson’s contract.
What gives?
It was like in a movie, where you learn an obscure part about a character’s past - perhaps their mother made them drink milk past the expiration date, and now they’re terrified of bovine creatures - and then suddenly the character is offed. Why did you share this detail? That was supposed to lead to something.
But no. Three years after Gearrin first found his way to San Francisco, we finally learned how to pronounce his name, just so we could say goodbye properly.
How poetic.
*Not including his training camp invite turned MLB deal in 2026.
Role on the 2018 team:
Cory Gearrin’s role on the 2018 San Francisco Giants team was to be their union representative. He filled the role admirably.
In other news, he was also tasked with pitching those innings that are important enough that you can’t just toss them down the garbage disposal, but not important enough to use one of your really good relievers on.
Role on the 2019 team:
Assuming he settles in arbitration with the Oakland A’s, the team that Texas traded him to on the August 31 deadline, his role will be to square off against the Giants in the battle for the baseball trophy that nobody cares about.
Hopefully in that series, Gearrin replicates his 2018 Giants performance (4.20 ERA), and not his 2017 Giants performance (1.99 ERA).
But Gearrin was officially a #GoodGiant, so hopefully in the non-Bay Bridge Series games he pitches very well, and can see the postseason again.
Grade: C
/shrug emoji