How Zack Littell turned into a top starting pitcher after leaving SF Giants and landing with Rays

In 14 starts for the Rays since joining their rotation midway through last season, the former Giants reliever has a 2.95 ERA.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — He’s the one who got away.

There are loads of similarities between the pitching departments of the Giants and the Rays, according to Zack Littell. They are smart and well-staffed operations with a penchant for unearthing diamonds in the rough. Now in his second season with Tampa Bay after two years in San Francisco’s bullpen, Littell would know.

But only one organization was able to polish the 28-year-old right-hander and turn him into a hidden gem of a starting pitcher.

“Who’s to say I couldn’t have done this for the Giants?” said Littell, now firmly situated in the middle of the Rays’ rotation, routinely completing five or more innings and even more effective than he was in shorter bursts out of the bullpen.

Littell won’t get the opportunity to face his former team this series — his next start is scheduled to come Monday, missing them by a day — but through the first two weeks of this season, the red-bearded former reliever hasn’t just been a feel-good reclamation project; he’s been one of the best starters in the majors.

He went six shutout innings in his first start of the season and hasn’t allowed more than a run in any of his three outings, possessing a 1.17 ERA that is the 11th-best among qualified starters, a category Littell couldn’t even envision himself qualifying for as recently as a year ago.

Since moving into the rotation last July 30, Littell has accumulated more Wins Above Replacement — 1.4, according to FanGraphs — than he had over his previous five-and-a-half seasons, providing more value than all but 25 other pitchers, Logan Webb (2.4) the only Giant among them.

“These guys,” manager Bob Melvin said of the Rays, “are really good about identifying guys and putting them in roles where they’re successful.”

So, too, have been the Giants, with a track record under Farhan Zaidi that includes Alex Cobb, Alex Wood, Anthony DeSclafani, Jakob Junis and Kevin Gausman, all whom resurrected their careers with the help of San Francisco’s pitching and medical departments.

This year, the Giants even have their own experiment with a converted relief pitcher in Jordan Hicks, who’s off to an equally splendid start.

A native of North Carolina, Littell said he was happy to back on the East Coast and closer to his family, welcoming their second child in January, and that there were “tons of reasons” why it didn’t work out for him in San Francisco.

“The biggest one though probably was timing,” he said. “There was never an opportunity or a reason to have one.”

Signed as a minor-league free agent heading into 2021, Littell carved out a surprisingly important role in the bullpen of the 107-win team, posting a 2.92 ERA over 62 appearances. But he backslid in 2022, holding a 5.08 ERA when he was released that September. His last act in a Giants uniform was one of defiance, sharing some choice words with then-manager Gabe Kapler when he came to remove him from an eventual 3-2 win over Atlanta.

The path Littell has taken since “feels like a blur, honestly,” he said.

It wasn’t until the second half of last season that Littell began his transition. He wasn’t even a member of the Rays organization until the second week of May. He spent the spring in Arizona as a non-roster invitee with Bruce Bochy’s Texas Rangers. They sent him to Triple-A, where he pitched sporadically for about a month until he was designated for assignment. The Red Sox claimed him, used him for two appearances in three days, and sent him packing again.

That is when the Rays picked up the phone and Littell’s fortunes began to change.

“Obviously very grateful to them for just giving me the opportunity,” he said. “A year ago in spring training, had you told me I was starting anywhere — much less here – it was just hard to think about. Guys don’t get moved into the bullpen and get a chance to go back into the rotation. Getting to do that has been pretty cool.”

Injuries created an opening in the Rays’ rotation, and manager Kevin Cash came to Littell a couple months into his tenure about possibly stepping in. First, it was as an opener, and then, Littell said, “they approached me right before the All-Star break.

“Like, ‘How would you feel about having your own day coming out of the break?’ Deadline was coming up, and they told me, ‘We’re trying to get an arm, but we don’t know what’s going to happen. It could be temporary. We’re just going to see where it goes.’ Obviously it was a little bit of a necessity here. I think they’re pretty happy with how it turned out; I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.”

Even less than two years removed from his time with the Giants, there weren’t too many familiar faces for Littell to reconnect with this week, but one was reliever Tyler Rogers, whose son, Jack, is around the same age as Littell’s first-born.

“When we were in the bullpen, he still had the belief that he could start and the confidence that he could do it,” Rogers said. “A lot of times you just need a chance to show you can do it, so I’m glad he got a chance and even more glad that he’s showing he can do it.”

The biggest challenge, Littell said, has been facing hitters for the second and third times, something a reliever never had to worry about. Primarily a fastball-slider pitcher in the Giants’ bullpen, Littell now throws four pitches, adding a splitter and a sinker to his repertoire and evenly distributing his pitch mix.

“The staff here, they’re very, very, very good at this,” Littell said, specifically crediting pitching coach Kyle Snyder, in his 13th year with the club. “It sounds silly, but instilling confidence in you that you’re very good, which then makes it easier to go out there and pitch. As well as knowing that they’re in it for this long-term outlook, right?”

With Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen, Jeffrey Springs and Shane Baz all on the mend from elbow surgeries, this spring looked different than any previous camp of Littell’s career. After making 11 starts with a 3.38 ERA to finish last season, he had a spot in the starting rotation earmarked for him. The Rays have indicated he’s in their plans beyond this season, which is sure to be the case if he continues to pitch the way he has.

At least the Giants weren’t the last team to let Littell get away.

“Obviously they’ve got some guys over there. They’ve got a history of developing arms,” Littell said. “Their culture is very similar to how it is over here. Their pitching department was built out – not quite to the scale that it is here – but the Giants were doing everything right and were definitely on the right track. It hasn’t been an easy transition by any means. There’s been a lot to it. But everything the (Rays) could have possibly done right, they did.”