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The San Francisco Giants made a pair of moves today to retain two of their left-handed bullpen options. The first of which was picking up Jeremy Affeldt's $5 million club option for 2012, as reported by Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. The other, according to Janie McCauley of the Associated Press, was the Giants re-signing Javier Lopez to a $8.5 million, two-year contract. The team later confirmed both moves via Twitter.
Affeldt, 32, posted a 2.63 ERA, 7.9 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 in 67 appearances out of the bullpen. Lefties only hit .144/.206/.200 against Affeldt, including 24 strikeouts to 5 walks. The veteran will earn a $500K raise from the $4.5 million he earned in 2011 and a full million more than he did in 2010 from the Giants. The southpaw had a strange ending to his 2011 season, when he seriously cut himself trying to separate frozen hamburger patties.
Lopez, 34, posted a 2.72 ERA, 6.8 K/9, 4.4 BB/9 in 70 appearances out of the bullpen. However, giving a multi-year contract to a reliever is always questionable, especially to a pitcher who didn't post great peripheral numbers. Lopez earned $2.375 million in 2011, and now secured a job for two more years at $4.25 a piece.