SF Giants bring back Ryan Walker, name Caleb Kilian as closer

SAN FRANCISCO - After spending a month getting right with Triple-A Sacramento, right-hander Ryan Walker was recalled by the Giants on Friday morning to help a struggling bullpen.

“I was eager the whole time to get back,” Walker said. “I also know that I can’t just go down and expect to be called back up. I have to get to where I need to be. I need to be myself, and I’ve definitely felt that the last two weeks or so. I’m back to myself. I’m ready to go.”

Giants manager Tony Vitello said Walker will be in a “fireman” role while right-hander Caleb Kilian will be the team’s closer, the first time all season Vitello has publicly named a closer. Vitello said he talked with several relievers about “getting a little more organized,” adding there’s “a lot of value” in relievers knowing their roles.

“I think everybody has confidence in his stuff and also his mentality,” Vitello said of Kilian, who has a 3.34 ERA over 29 2/3 innings with four saves. “He wants the ball in his hand. He also has the understanding, in part now because of experience, you go out there and you compete, and some days it goes your way, some days it doesn’t. The next day, it doesn’t matter which one of those two outcomes occur. You’re going to have to do the same thing the next day.”

Right-handed reliever Carson Seymour was optioned to Sacramento in a corresponding move after making two appearances with San Francisco.

Walker, 30, was one of the Giants' few experienced leverage relievers entering the season, but he struggled early and was optioned to Sacramento in early May. Over 16 appearances with the Giants, Walker had a 6.46 ERA with 14 strikeouts to 10 walks over 15 1/3 innings.

Vitello talked about the importance of Walker’s mentality at the time of his demotion, but Walker said Friday that his mental state was good before being optioned.

“I still personally believe that my mental state was good, even here,” Walker said. “I worked on that a lot this offseason. Went through that enough in ’25, and I felt like my mental state was great for the situations. Getting optioned and going to work on my craft and kind of (getting) into some innings where I can evaluate more of, ‘All right, maybe it didn’t go my way, but did I hit this? Did I do this? Did I do that?’ (That) really helped me mentally in the sense of, if I continue to execute the way I should execute, things will align.”

Walker was optioned on May 10, but he didn’t make his first Triple-A appearance until May 20. Before pitching for the River Cats, Walker spent a week at the team’s pitching lab in Arizona working on his mechanics. Those tweaks paid off as Walker only allowed two runs over 9 1/3 innings (1.93 ERA) with seven strikeouts to three walks in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

“Just changed some minor things to make sure we stay on direction, kind of stay on the same plane,” Walker said. “With my back leg, I’m kind of parallel with the rubber. Being parallel with the rubber while going this direction, it’s pretty hard to stay connected all the way through.

“So, we just kind of angled it a little bit, so now I can almost have a straight shot to where my landing spot is and became a lot more consistent. … And then just kind of staying back to allow myself to have some more free rotation to be able to get to the glove-side and stuff.”

Walker joins a bullpen that has been one of the worst in baseball in recent weeks. Since May, San Francisco’s relievers rank 28th in the majors in ERA (5.35), 29th in FIP (4.88) and last in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.7%).

“Watching the games, yeah, they’ve had a couple of struggles, and I’ve seen the back-end guys have had to go a couple innings. And I’m like, ‘Dang, I could be there to help to make sure those guys don’t have to do those’ to an extent,” Walker said. “Hopefully, can help bring some ease into that. But yeah, I thought about (returning) the whole time. I was just kind of eager to get back and play my part in the ‘pen to help the boys win again.'”

Eldridge moves up in order

Following rookie Bryce Eldridge’s historic walk-off grand slam on Wednesday, Vitello slotted Eldridge into the No. 2 spot behind leadoff hitter Luis Arraez. It’s the highest spot Eldridge has batted in his short career.

“When he first got called up … we wanted him to play as much as possible. At the same time, not ask the guy to drink from the firehose when he first comes up,” Vitello said. “But he has literally handled everything we’ve thrown at him. Dating back to last year, the organization’s done nothing but try and set him up for future success, but I’d say what you said: the time is now.”

Entering Friday, Eldridge led all qualified National League rookies in batting average (.298), on-base percentage (.385), and slugging percentage (.521) over 28 games this season. He’s hit four home runs overall, and two in his last two games.

Worth noting

• Right-hander Tyler Mahle (left hamstring strain) threw a bullpen on Friday and is slated to start on Sunday for Triple-A Sacramento.

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This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 11:03 AM.