Our House that Steroids Built series continues tonight with a look at the San Francisco Giants at the All-Star break, and we’re pleased to say we find few anomalies here (finally?). In our assessment, it may have something to do with the hiring of Manager Bob Melvin, a straight-up guy we have a lot of respect for in terms of his past accomplishments that are barely marred by associations with chronic PED users.

Sure, there are always guys who get busted under most managers if they’ve been in the game long enough, but Melvin has no reputation in MLB press boxes as an enabler of such things—like other managers we’ve examined here. Is it possible the Giants are trying to play it straight finally? Well, we wouldn’t go that far, as the entire organization has built itself up from irrelevancy via cheating, lying, and stealing since the 1990s.

Yet, without further noise, let’s look at the roster for the S.F. organization, currently 47-50 and in fourth place among National League West Division teams. Remember, preseason projections had the team “predicted to win only 80.3 games—which ranks a very distant fourth in the NL West and 18th in MLB overall” … and that is right about where the team is headed, based on the present situation. Now, on with it!

Exhibit A: Heliot Ramos

Despite being a first-round draft pick in 2017, outfielder Heliot Ramos posted just a .790 OPS in his minor-league career, including just a .768 OPS at the Triple-A level of play (254 games). In 34 combined games at the MLB level in 2022 and 2023, he hit just .158 in 78 ABs. Not a big sample size, of course, and those were his age-22 and age-23 seasons. However, nothing in his track record suggested this year’s stunning results.

Ramos is hitting .298 with an .888 OPS through 60 games and 235 ABs this season so far. Again, he was a first-round talent, and he did show steady improvement at the Triple-A level from 2021 to 2023. So maybe this is his natural abilities just coming to the surface now at age 24. That’s entirely possible, despite the fact the Giants haven’t really developed a lot of good players in their system over the last decade. Maybe he’s it.

He posted just a .770 OPS, however, in May this season, before exploding for a .946 OPS in June. Did the lights suddenly go on for him after his first 150 MLB ABs, combined, over three years? Possibly. It’s not outside the realm of reasonable probability. We are skeptical, obviously, but we have to give a new kid the benefit of the doubt here, as well as still believing in Melvin’s integrity as a great, longtime MLB manager.

Exhibit B: Tyler Rogers

He came to our attention before, of course, during that ridiculous 2021 regular season. Yet relief pitchers are a weird bunch, and their statistical profiles can be full of reasonable anomalies, based on the fluctuation of peripherals because of a few bad outings (or not) during the course of the regular season. And the normal “peak years” don’t apply to situational relievers as much, either, who can pitch until they die, really.

So, he’s now 33 years old, in his sixth MLB season, and his walk rate has some dropped to a serious career low. Did he suddenly learn how to throw more strikes after 275 IP in the majors? Possibly, as that’s not a lot of innings, in truth, considering he didn’t make the show until he was 28 years old. Still, it looks a little fishy to see his BB/K ratio at 11.33 when his career mark is just 3.60 overall. He had walked 64 guys before 2024.

This year? He has issued just 3 walks in 45 1/3 IP. That rate is better than twice as good as his prior best season (2021, of course). And he’s giving up more than a hit per IP, too, which doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless we’re thinking his control is “too good” this season. And where does that come from at age 33? Perhaps it is coaching, in this case. We could buy that. But there is one other thing to consider, of course.

Since this is his sixth MLB season, he is approaching free agency come 2026. Longevity is a possibility for a reliever in his situation, of course, and he’s already making $3.2M this year in his second season of being arbitration eligible. With a career ERA of 2.91 (thanks to this season and that 2021 season), he could be trying to set himself up for a big, longterm deal to take him through his late 30s. But … we’re not sold (yet).

Exhibit C: Taylor Rogers

This is the lefty twin; Tyler is the righty twin, for the record. We’ve never looked at this Rogers before, who is also in his age-33 season. However, he reached the majors three seasons earlier than his twin, ironically coming up with Minnesota in 2016. He is currently posting a career-low ERA (2.15) even though his strikeouts are down considerably from a career peak of 13.2/9IP in 2021 with the Twins at age 30.

He made $9M last year with the Giants and posted a 3.83 ERA, and this year (and next), he’s getting paid $12M per season before becoming a free agent at the same time his brother will become one. That’s pretty insane, considering his 3.36 career ERA. Now, admittedly, while his ERA is low, his peripherals are in decline, so the ERA could be artificially low right now. We honestly don’t suspect anything here, either.

Conclusion

Our theory that Melvin is trying to clean up the Giants act could be accurate. For once, we really don’t see any open-and-shut cases on the S.F. roster, and that in itself is pretty incredible. These three guys represent the only potential situations of shenanigans, and we wouldn’t really argue that hard for any of them being on the take. That doesn’t excuse the multiple decades-plus of prior skullduggery, of course, but it’s fresh air.