Before Jason Schmidt arrived as he arrived in San Francisco as part of a trading deadline day trade with Pittsburgh in 2001, there were no reasons to believe that he would emerge as the ace of the staff. The starter, who began his career in 1995 with Atlanta, had never finished a season with an ERA under four or finished with more than 13 Wins, but the Giants uniform brought out the best of Schmidt.
Schmidt finished the season 7-1, and he resigned with the Giants. After a decent 2002 (13-8, 3.45 ERA), Schmidt had the season of his life, going 17-5 and leading the National League in ERA (2.34), ERA+ (180), and WHIP (0.953). An All-Star for the first time, Schmidt finished second in Cy Young voting to Houston’s Roger Clemens. Schmidt returned to the All-Star Game the year after, on the back of an 18-7/3.20 ERA year, where he was fourth in Cy Young voting but was named by The Sporting News as their Pitcher of the Year.
Schmidt's output declined after those two years, but he was still good enough in the first half of 2016 to make the All-Star team. He left the Giants as a Free Agent for Los Angeles, but shoulder issues held him to only 10 MLB Games over the next three years, leading to his eventual retirement.
With San Francisco, Schmidt went 78-37 with a 3.36 ERA and 1,065 Strikeouts, and the team enshrined him on their Wall of Honor in 2011.
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