The Giants officially announced their two-year deal with Harrison Bader on Friday afternoon. President of baseball operations Buster Posey and general manager Zack Minasian conducted a conference call with the beat to introduce their new outfielder.
Posey confirmed that Bader will be the everyday center fielder, a move that pushes Jung Hoo Lee into right field on most days (link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). It doesn’t appear the incumbent center fielder had any issue with the change. “Jung Hoo was great,” Posey said of his reaction to the signing. “Also there’s an understanding on our end and to Jung Hoo that there’s a chance that he could still be getting reps in center field. But our plan is to have Bader playing center field.”
Lee had a decent amount of right field experience in Korea. He has played exclusively up the middle over his two seasons in the majors. Lee’s physical tools are strong. He’s an above-average runner with plus arm strength. His first step and routes weren’t as polished, and defensive metrics weren’t fond of his overall work. Statcast graded him five runs below average, while Defensive Runs Saved had him a glaring 18 runs worse than an average center fielder. No player had a worse DRS mark at the position.
The 27-year-old should grade more favorably in his new position. He’s a much better athlete than most corner outfielders. There’ll still be plenty of ground to cover in home games thanks to Oracle Park’s massive right-center gap. The move to a corner will put a little more pressure on the bat. Lee is coming off a solid but unspectacular .266/.327/.407 slash across 617 plate appearances. That’s much better than the .241/.303/.395 league mark for center fielders but lands more middle-of-the-pack in right, where the average player batted .247/.319/.422 last year.
Right field was the biggest weak point in the San Francisco lineup. After they traded Mike Yastrzemski at the deadline, their right fielders hit .202/.249/.376 across 194 plate appearances. Drew Gilbert projects as a fourth or fifth outfielder. Luis Matos was a well-regarded prospect but hasn’t found much success on either side of the ball over three MLB seasons. Matos is out of minor league options and will be a player to watch in camp, as he’ll either need to win a bench job or be taken off the 40-man roster.
Pushing Lee to right field leaves second base as the last potential position of need. The Giants have looked for upgrades over Casey Schmitt, with reports tying them to various trade targets (e.g. Brendan Donovan, Nico Hoerner, CJ Abrams). Posey declined to go into specifics in response to a question about trading for a second baseman, but that appears to be a bigger priority than further augmenting the rotation. The Giants stayed away from the top of the market, instead signing back-end arms Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser to short-term deals.
Even as Framber Valdez remains unsigned, Posey downplayed the desire to add another starter. “We’re happy with our rotation right now, with some of the adjustments that Houser made last year, and we feel like Mahle is in a good place physically,” he said (relayed by John Shea of The San Francisco Standard). “You’re never going to close doors, but we feel good with the group that we have.”
They’ve taken a similar approach to the bullpen despite losing key contributors Camilo Doval, Tyler Rogers and Randy Rodríguez (the latter to Tommy John surgery) from last season. They’ve taken one-year fliers on Sam Hentges and Jason Foley, both of whom are returning from shoulder surgeries. There’ll be plenty of high-leverage innings available as first-year manager Tony Vitello evaluates the group. That extends to the closer role. Ryan Walker has the most ninth-inning experience of their relievers but is coming off an uneven year.
Walker tells Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle that he’s hoping to win the job, though it seems like it’ll be an open competition in Spring Training. “As we sit here today, I think we’re hoping that Ryan Walker can get back to his 2024 form. But without discussing it with Tony in depth, I guess the way that I would see it now is that we’ll see who steps up,” Posey told reporters (including Slusser). “We’re not coming into this season necessarily with one guy that we say, ‘You are going to be the closer.’ There’s a chance that somebody takes the reins and does slot in to that closer role as we get into the season, but right now I wouldn’t say that there’s one person that we’re targeting for the ninth inning.”
Sign Framber. That is all.
Gonna need a whole lot more than a SP to make the Giants competitive. Gotta face facts. Everyone in the NL West except LA is playing for second place. The question remains, will the second-place finisher in the NL West have a W/L record good enough to make the playoffs.
Right now, I see the NL playoff teams as LA, PHL, CHI, ATL, NYM and MILW.
Bold predictions!
Crazy I thought they hadn’t played any games yet. Better luck next year I guess.
They’re called predictions, I believe, which are typically made prior to games being played.
Everyone had ATL and NYM last year too so maybe let’s leave the predictions for the Internet and the baseball for the field.
These predictions are literally on the internet.
Pretty much. It’s a tough gig in the NL West. Bring it on !
Why do you see the Braves as better than any of the NLW teams? They finished 10 games under .500 last season. They acquired some decent pieces, but not sure it’s enough for a 13-14 win improvement over last season. SD finished 14 games ahead of them in 2025.
Battle for 3rd place in the nl west is going to be a good one between Arizona and SF. With LA and SD consistently at the top, that division will be a tough one for Colorado.
SD will be the third place team this year.
Schmitt can be decent at second, that doesn’t seem like a real problem spot. The back of the bullpen though… yiiikes
Letting Rogers go was flatly insane.
He was going to be a FA anyway. And the Giants weren’t going to give him 3/$37M.
We got 3 players back for a guy who was leaving, including Jose Buttó who is going to pitch the 6th or 7th.
We have nobody who can come close to replacing one of the most reliable and consistent performers at one of our weakest positions and we got three guys back who so far haven’t done anything on the field to justify not paying Rogers. He got the contract he was worth, it should’ve been posey to offer it.
I am mystified by the lack of leverage arms in the Giants bullpen. After the loss of Doval, Rogers and Rodriguez, they did nothing to augment the late inning spots other than sign 2 injured relievers. Walker was Jekyll & Hyde last year. Miller, when healthy walks way too many batters and his 3.97 FIP was far more indicative of his effectiveness than his 1.50 ERA. Still a good arm, don’t get me wrong but the Giants have done nothing to improve their bullpen in the last couple of months
There is still Nick Martinez, and Michael Kopech as potential leverage relief arms on the free agent market plus at least 8-10 starters including Framber, Gallen, Verlander, Bassett, Giolito, Scherzer, Littell and Buehler.
Plus the next tier down – Quintana, Canning, Civale, Gray, Gonsolin, Sugano plus another dozen or so veterans who will have to settle for MILB contracts including Cobb, Cortes, Stroman, Mikolas, Fedde, Anderson etc… My point is lots of potential starters still out there but very few quality relievers, so Buster – please get it together and give your manager a quality bullpen.
Doval was not a loss, losing that head case actually improved the team. And the only arm mentioned worth a hill of beans is Framber. He’s a season-changer. Buster needs to sign him NOW! The rest are wastes of roster space. Gallen? COBB?! I just spit up my breakfast.
Better rotation?
Free Agents:
Quintana
Canning
Gray
Gonsolin
Anderson
Civale
–or–
Rockies:
Freeland
Lorenzen
Dollander
Gordan
Feltner
Thompson
Wilmer, I agree with TellItGoodbye. After Framber none of your first tier guys is a real difference maker. And the second tier are probably worse than the Giants MiL arms.
I’d take one or two of Gallen, Verlander, Bassett, Giolito, Scherzer or Buehler. I’m more concerned about the bullpen at this point but you are punting the season if you think the current Giants starters are good enough.
I wouldn’t mind Verlander, but doubt he’d re-sign. Wouldn’t mind Scherzer either. I like Gallen as a bounce back candidate, but not with losing a draft pick.
Bassit is 37, with FIPs in the 4s for the last 3 seasons. I doubt he’s an upgrade over Hauser, or Mahle.
Giolito has ERA+s of 81, 90, 65 and 61 over the last 4 years. What the Giants have in Sac has to be better than that. Same with Buehler who was just average in 2022, and has an 80 ERA+ over the last 2 years.
I’d like to see what they have in Whisenhunt, McDonald, Beck, etc.. instead of signing marginal pieces.
100% agree
The BP is in hold down the fort mode until Hentges, Foley and Soto arrive:
Bivens (6th)
Buttó (7th)
Miller (8th)
Walker (9th)
Birdsong?
Bader helps, but a rotation of Webb + a bunch of 4s and 5s, along with no closer and a hole at 2B really seems like it puts the ceiling at 3rd place in the NL west. Why not spend the money to improve? They have it.
Because as they have told us, difference makers require contracts that will limit future flexibility. They don’t want to do that.
It’s absurd to call Robbie Ray a 4 or 5, Overall he was 16th in IP, 21st in SOs, 23rd in ERA, 24th in WHIP., and 20th in SO/9, Clearly at least a 2 on most teams in MLB.
Ray is a guy we might disagree on. He was good last year, but not good in ’23 or ’24. I don’t know which Ray we’ll get this year, at age 34.
There’s a very good reason why he wasn’t good in 2023 or 2024. TJS. He pitched 3 1/3 innings in 2023 before the elbow injury. In 2024 he pitched 30 2/3 innings coming off a 15 month layoff. It takes time to build up strength and stamina after TJS.
The lack of urgency to address the glaring (and recurring) needs of the roster by Buster & Co is ridiculous. The starting rotation, bullpen, closer, second base holes must be filled. Tired of reading “linked to”, “rumored”, & “aggressively pursuing”. The image of the organizations continues to get worse with each lackluster signing or failed trade attempt. With the current roster the Giants are a 4th place team at best and could challenge the Rockies for the cellar.
Why is everyone’s crystal ball so murky ?
Lots of talent on this team. I understand the trolls from other teams fans, but the constant whining from so called SFG fans is pathetic. The fans can’t control the team, get over it.
Some talent on this team, for sure. But also, lots of holes, you must admit. The fans are salty because they have endured 10 years of mediocrity, at least the last half dozen of which felt even less like a rebuild and more like a constant retread. This year seems like another helping of the same old leftover.
Just a couple holes, every team has them. Enduring mediocrity, how painful.
This year hasn’t even started.
Didnt they win like the 3rd most games in the history of the National league in 2021?
They did! But that definitely was an aberration and it even felt like it at the time. That year they won the NL West but got quickly dispatched by the Dodgers with whom they really haven’t been competitive with in a long time. To be fair, though, neither has anyone else, lol.
They absolutely were not “quickly dispatched by the Dodgers”. That was a 5 game series that went the distance with the Dodgers winning by 1 run on a very questionable check swing call on Wilmer Flores with the tying run on base. It could not have been closer.
What if :
Chapman doesn’t miss time
They sign Framber last minute
Peguero becomes a good closer
Birdsong regains control
Devers continues to be Devers
Donovan trade happens
Lee hits 40 doubles
Eldridge is ROY candidate
Skubal acquired at the deadline
Schmitt hits 20 homers
Pick any 2 and this team is in the playoffs !
“What if” & “pick 2” isn’t a strategy or a formula for building a playoff contending roster.
Not my job.
I would bet at least two happen tho.
Certainly not the 4th place you predict.
“They owe me and I deserve better !”
Don’t forget; “I’m a far better pitching evaluator than a future first ballot HOF catcher, my crystal ball says so !”
If not signing Framber, probably due to that intentional cross up, then make some trades for the bullpen. To me that need is so glaring, followed by another rotation arm(due to the injury history of 4 out of 5 arms) is so obvious it disrespectful to the fan base. I see theyre trying to upgrade 2nd, but Schmitt deserves a crack there, he solid defensively and has improved with the bat each year, plus it seems like he kills the ball when he makes contact. Focus on the pitching is what I would like to see.
Schmitt is not solid defensively. He’s below average, and might even be said to be a poor defender. Over his career at 2B he has -5 DRS, -4 OAA, and a FRV of -3.
I was referring to his natural position at 3rd. He jumped to 2nd last year, those are serviceable grades from someone with little experience at that position. No matter tho. They signed Arraez.
Not sure how valid an argument for Schmitt playing 2B is, by saying he’s good at 3B. The best yardstick for his work at 2B is his defensive grades at 2B, which are below average.
The 2 positions are very different. At 3B it’s coming in on the ball and having a strong arm. 2B is more about range side to side, and a strong arm is kind of a waste there. There’s a reason why so many guys playing 2B in MLB are converted SSs with below average arms.
I’m not sure Arraez is going to stick at 2B. He’s a worse defender than Schmitt, and I like a better defense up the middle.
Bullpen arms is where they need to spend some money. Walker as the closer guarantees some heart breaking losses in 2026.
As much as I want them to sign Framber, they won’t because of the QO and needing to keep their draft picks.
They need to sign kopech and another vet reliever this bullpen can be fine
As for 2nd I would push in the chips, outside of Eldridge for Abrams, the cards don’t want any of the giants players it seems so I think it’s abrams or Schmidt in 26. I would call Boston and see if cambell is available as well but I’d say it’s unlikely
Tony is going to be working hard in the late innings. Not a widely recognisable name in sight. Ha ha. Welcome to MLB !
Lee is a decent athlete but he needs to steal more bases this year. 10 steals last season with his speed is not enough.
An upgrade at 2B would be great, but I’m most worried about the bullpen…..basically the whole thing!
I don’t understand multiple posts saying Schmitt should be okay at 2B. I guess people see what they want. Schmitt is not a 2B. He’s a below average defender, whose greatest asset, his arm, is wasted at 2B. He’s best as a utility guy, not an everyday 2B.
The Giants would sign Framber if he’d come off the 5 year ask. If he’d agree to something like a 3 year with opt-outs, or a 3 year with vesting for a 4th based on performance, they’d be all over that. But so would other teams, since it’s the 5 year ask that’s making teams balk.
So many are willing to roll the dice on Schmitt at 2B, but think the bullpen is a disaster. Unlike them I think it’s fine to roll the dice on some combination of Whisenhunt. McDonald, Tidwell, Hentges, Sanmartin, or any of the other guys on the 40-man that need to get innings to show what they’ve got.
To be serious competitors they would need to add a top starter and a backend bullpen arm but they don’t seem to want to do anything more than needed to get enough fans to make some money.