Ryan Walker’s 2025 season was certainly a warning that the end might be closer than he thinks and the Giants had hoped. If this seems a little too harsh for a player review, know that I have the “relievers are fungible” thought in my brain all the time. And then there’s this survey of what has been written about Ryan Walker over the years on this very site:“[T]here are plenty of reasons to feel confident in Ryan Walker as the San Francisco Giants closer in 2025. Ryan Walker has come into Spring Training believing that he’s ironed them out and wants the closer role. A dominant Spring Training would go along way from flipping a dream into an expectation, because if the Giants do have some version of the 2024 Ryan Walker, they suddenly become a very dangerous team.

Source: New York Times February 12, 2026 08:59 UTC