The Giants made a couple of additions to the pitching staff this week. They signed reliever Jason Foley and reportedly have an agreement in place with starter Adrian Houser. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Giants are still in the market for pitching additions, both in the rotation and the bullpen.
That’s not especially surprising. Foley is recovering from shoulder surgery and is expected to start the season on the injured list. The bullpen was a strength for San Francisco in 2025 but they traded Camilo Doval and Tyler Rogers at the deadline. Randy Rodríguez required Tommy John surgery in September. Joey Lucchesi was non-tendered last month. The Giants have subsequently signed Sam Hentges and Foley but that’s not going to make up for what they’ve lost.
In the rotation, Justin Verlander became a free agent at season’s end. The Houser signing will make up for that loss to some degree but the Giants will understandably want to do more. The club’s rotation had a collective 4.10 ERA this year, putting them 17th among big league teams. As of now, Logan Webb and Robbie Ray are the front two. Houser and Landen Roupp should have two more spots spoken for.
That leaves one spot for a group consisting of Kai-Wei Teng, Carson Whisenhunt, Blade Tidwell, Trevor McDonald, Carson Seymour, Hayden Birdsong and Keaton Winn. That’s a lot of arms and they all have their varying levels of appeal but no one in that group is fully established as a viable big leaguer. Each of them has less than 108 big league innings and they can all still be optioned to the minors.
The club might want to leave a path open for one guy in that group to separate himself from the pack but that should happen anyway. No team gets through a full season these days without a few notable injuries on the pitching staff. Even if the Giants start the season with those guys all blocked from a rotation gig, there will be opportunities throughout the campaign.
The question will be how aggressive they plan on being in upgrading the rotation. Chairman/owner Greg Johnson and general manager Zack Minasian have both suggested the Giants would prefer to avoid long-term deals for pitchers.
The top end of the free agent pitching market is one area that has moved fairly slowly. Dylan Cease was quickly snapped up by the Blue Jays but Tatsuya Imai, Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez, Zac Gallen and Michael King are all still available. Despite the club’s apparent preference to avoid lengthy deals, they have nonetheless been connected to Valdez and Gallen, so perhaps there is a scenario where they get involved there. If they go for another signing in line with their Houser deal, guys like Zack Littell, Chris Bassitt and Nick Martinez are out there.
There is also the trade market to consider. If the Giants want to avoid lengthy free agent deals, they could pursue guys like MacKenzie Gore of the Nationals, Kris Bubic of the Royals, Edward Cabrera of the Marlins, Kodai Senga of the Mets, Mitch Keller of the Pirates or many others.
Those guys have varying degrees of trade value. For instance, Bubic shouldn’t be too costly since he is a rental and finished 2025 on the injured list. Gore, on the other hand, pitched like an ace for much of this year and is still cheaply controlled for two seasons. The Giants are reportedly willing to consider trading prospect Bryce Eldridge. That doesn’t mean that they will actually move him but perhaps a notable trade is possible.
RosterResource currently pegs the Giants for a payroll of $180MM and a competitive balance tax figure of $203MM next year. It’s unclear where they want to end up but they are more than $40MM shy of the base threshold of the tax, which will be $244MM next year.
They are also on the lookout for upgrades at second base and the outfield. Whatever spending capacity they do have, they probably won’t dedicate all of it to pitching, but they could also address some of their other targets via the trade market. They are reportedly one of the frontrunners for the Cardinals’ Brendan Donovan, alongside the Mariners.
Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images
Go get Henry rowengarter!!
Throw em the high, stinky, LIMBURGER!
Framber
Of course the Giants need pitching. They can’t line up against Yamamoto, Snell, Ohtani, Glasnow, and Sasaki.
Adding Houser for 2/$22M to face the Dodgers lineup isn’t going to be a winning strategy.
Sadly, I doubt they do anything this off season that really moves the needle. Oh well … maybe in a few years, they’ll finally develop a better farm system and they can splurge when their future youngsters are up at the Big Show and producing.
I just love that the default Giants news picture is Buster Posey smiling, looking like a girl dad watching his kid win an award.
Keaton Winn makes the list of hopefuls ! Good work, Darragh.
Bit of a forgotten man for the Giants.
I’ll hook up all the pitchers with some gear. Get them on that good cycle. Let’s go!! I love being on roids
I think you have a problem Robbie Ray.
This just in! The Giants are still interested in pitching, even after some notable reclamation project signings in their bullpen and adding a new starting pitcher, resulting in a downgrade of their rotation from last year.
Giants should trade for Jesus Luzardo and Nick Castellanos.
Luzardo projected to make $10M in final year of arb and Nick $20M; together, they almost cancel out the surplus value/negative value of their contracts.
With no salary relief Giants can send a decent package; they send more with more salary relief.
Philly wants Castellanos gone anyway. They turn around and sign a top tier pitcher or step down to next tier. Everybody wins.
Your welcome.
I can understand not wanting to go 7 years on a guy like Cease who’s signed through he age 37 season. MLBTR, which correctly predicted 7 years for Cease, also predicted 5 years for Framber Valdez and Ranger Suarez, and 4 for Zac Gallen.
It seems to me Suarez would be reasonable for the Giants. If they gave him 5 years that deal would run through his age 34 season. Framber at 5 would run through his age 36 season. Though I’d be happier with either over Gallen and the predicted 4 years., even though that length only goes through his age 33 season.
It’s December and most of the big arms are still available… So, whatever gunk Giants fans are slinging at the front office, just keep in mind that it’s early in the process and that just about all the teams are still figuring out their offseasons.
Houser was a sneaky good pickup. He’s not supplanting Webb as the ace or anything, but he’s a solid #3 or #4. If they get a Framber or Gallen, then the Houser signing looks even better.
A month from now, the Giants could have Framber in the rotation, Brendan Donovan manning second, and the fans convincing themselves of an imminent Luis Matos breakout. And it’ll still be January.