It’s “if you claim a guy off waivers he’s all yours” season, and the Giants just claimed a guy off waivers: reliever Kyle Barraclough, most recently with the Washington Nationals.
Barraclough had a beastly 6.66 ERA in 33 appearances for the Nats this year, offering more than his fair share of assistance to that club’s bullpen woes. He still strikes out a lot of guys -- 10.5 per nine innings -- and his walk rate is actually better this year than it was last year. The problem was that he gave up hits like it was his job [note: it is decidedly NOT his job; quite the opposite, actually], allowing 11.6 base hits per nine.
The Giants are going to send him to Triple-A Sacramento in hopes that he figures it out a bit.