SAN FRANCISCO -- Ryan Walker is back in the big leagues.
The Giants recalled their erstwhile closer from Triple-A Sacramento ahead of Friday night’s 5-1 series-opening loss to the Cubs at Oracle Park. Fellow right-hander Carson Seymour was optioned in a corresponding move.
“I think he's gone through the steps that he wanted to, as far as kind of hitting the reset button and working on some things mechanically, but then just getting back to competing,” manager Tony Vitello said of Walker. “Obviously, he's been in as big a situation as you can imagine. He's had a lot of success here.”
Walker was brought in to pitch the top of the ninth with the Giants trailing, 5-0, and worked a 1-2-3 inning in his first Major League appearance since May 9.
His return could help bolster a Giants bullpen that entered Friday with an MLB-worst 8.74 ERA in June and continued to look leaky after left-hander Erik Miller surrendered a three-run homer to Michael Busch in the fifth inning.
While Walker has the most closing experience on the roster, Vitello said the 30-year-old will serve as a “fireman” for now, with right-hander Caleb Kilian officially taking over as the Giants’ top ninth-inning option.
The Giants took a closer-by-committee approach to start the season, but they hope having more defined roles will streamline the late innings and help their relievers perform more consistently moving forward.
“I think there's a lot of value,” Vitello said. “It helps keep guys fresh, first of all. … The bullpen is all about chaos, but the more you can have a baseline, I think it brings out the best in you.”
Kilian, 29, entered Friday with a 3.34 ERA over 28 appearances and is 4-for-5 in save opportunities this year, so the Giants felt he showed enough to warrant an extended look as the club’s regular closer.
“I think everyone has confidence in his stuff and also his mentality,” Vitello said. “He wants the ball in his hand.”
Walker was expected to be a key piece in the Giants’ bullpen this year, but he ended up being demoted to Sacramento on May 10 after struggling to a 6.46 ERA with three blown saves in his first 16 appearances of 2026. It was Walker’s first stint in the Minors since 2023, when he first debuted with the Giants as a cross-firing right-hander.
“It didn't really surprise me in a way,” Walker said. “I knew at some point it was probably going to happen. It was a very new experience for me. I didn't know how it worked. I'm super grateful to have had the time up here without that. But when it did happen, I didn't hang my head about it.
“I was very positive about it. I told myself, ‘Hey, this can be a great time to be able to work on your craft and get back to who you are.’ So I took that opportunity and ran with it. I think it's going to be very beneficial.”
Walker spent some time working on some adjustments at the Giants’ player development center at Papago Park in Arizona before heading to Sacramento, where he recorded a 1.93 ERA with seven strikeouts over 9 1/3 innings in eight outings.
“We did some work in the [pitching] lab,” Walker said. “Just changed some minor things to make sure we stay on direction and stay on the same plane. … I worked on that a lot, and then just [on] staying back to allow myself to kind of have some more free rotation to be able to get to the glove side and stuff. It was a good time. I think we've worked on a lot of great things and had some good improvement.”
Despite his uneven start to the year, Walker said he’s in a positive state of mind and is looking forward to proving that he can still be a dependable back-end arm for the Giants.
“Right now, I'm here to get my job done, whatever that job calls,” he said. “But my ultimate goal is to get back into those high-leverage positions and eventually kind of climb my way back into that closer role.”
The Giants had Walker pitch multiple innings twice during his three-week stint with Sacramento, so he said he’d be comfortable covering more than three outs if needed now that he’s back in the Majors.
“I've definitely felt that the last two weeks or so, I'm back to myself,” Walker said. “I'm ready to go. Watching the games, they’ve had a couple struggles. I've seen back-end guys have had to go a couple innings. I'm like, ‘Dang, I could be there to help to make sure those guys don't have to do those to an extent.’ I thought about it the whole time. I was just kind of eager to get back and play my part in the ‘pen to just help the boys win again.”