The Giants announced their Opening Day roster moves today. Outfielder Jared Oliva and right-hander Caleb Kilian were selected to the 40-man. In corresponding moves, left-hander Reiver Sanmartin was placed on the 60-day injured list and outfielder Luis Matos has been designated for assignment. It had been reported yesterday that the Giants were likely to select Oliva and designate Matos. The Giants also announced that catcher Eric Haase has been released from his minor league deal and that Rule 5 catcher Daniel Susac has made the team.
Kilian, 29 in June, was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason. He had an impressive camp, tossing 9 1/3 innings while only allowing one earned run. He racked up 11 strikeouts while only issuing two walks.
That strong performance will allow him to make the roster of his original organization. Kilian was drafted by the Giants in 2019 but was flipped to the Cubs as part of the Kris Bryant trade in 2021. He only got to make eight appearances for the Cubs from 2022 to 2024. He was injured for most of 2025 and only made 11 minor league appearances.
Now that he appears to be healthy and pitching well, he’ll make it back to the big leagues. He is out of options and will have to be kept on the active roster or else removed from the 40-man entirely. He has less than a year of service time, so he can be retained for the long term if this season goes especially well.
The San Francisco bullpen has opportunities available because they traded Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval last year and then lost Randy Rodríguez to Tommy John surgery. Their moves to replace those losses were mostly injury reclamation projects, such as Kilian himself.
Sanmartin’s transfer is not a surprise. A waiver claimee from November, it was reported a few weeks ago that he had suffered a significant hip flexor strain that was going to keep him out of action for at least three months.
Behind the plate, the Giants have Patrick Bailey but the backup job was up for grabs. In December’s Rule 5 draft, the Giants got Susac via a trade. The Twins technically selected him from the Athletics fourth overall in that draft but then immediately flipped him to the Giants for minor league catcher Miguel Caraballo.
The fact that the Giants actually gave up a player in order to jump the Rule 5 queue suggested they felt good about Susac’s chances of being an impact guy for them. He helped his own cause by putting up a .350/.386/.550 line in spring training. That was helped by an unsustainable .400 batting average on balls in play but it was enough to get him the job regardless.
As a Rule 5 guy, he can’t be optioned to the minors and will have to stay on the active roster all year long for the Giants to fully acquire his rights. If they want to cut him at any point this year, he could be traded or put on waivers. Any claiming team would take on the same Rule 5 restrictions. If he were to clear waivers, he would have to be offered back to the A’s.
Susac getting the job squeezes out Haase, who had signed a minor league deal in January. He had a huge spring, slashing .286/.375/.536, but also struck out in 14 of his 32 plate appearances. That’s fairly reflective of his big league career, as he has 48 home runs in 1,224 plate appearances but has been punched out at a 30.7% clip. He’ll head out to the open market to see what opportunities are available this week as all clubs shuffle their rosters.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
I guess the Giants won the Kris Bryant trade.
But for one cubs team nobody wins when Kris Bryant is involved
The Cubs also won, because it prevented them from giving him that contract the Rockies gave him.
Oliva has elite speed . I don’t know how his glove work is but I assume he’ll be a pinch runner defensive replacement type.
Heliot Ramos was one of the worst defensive outfielders last year so he’ll need late inning replacement.
Oliva is above average defense with a solid arm, can play all 3 OF positions and can even hit a little (see ST stats).
Ramos is improved defensively but it won’t be surprising if Oliva takes over in the late innings, even as a pinch runner. The guy stole 57 bases last year (against 6 CS). The guy can fly!
not to nitpick but spring training stats are not at all a good indicator that someone is a viable hitter. Nick Allen had a 1.683 OPS in 2022. Would you call him someone who can “hit a little”?
He hits very little, choof
Unfortunately, he has to face major league pitching once the season starts.
What happens to Michael Fulmer? Did he make the team too?
Nope.
Keaton for the Winn !
Similar stuff, but Keaton already on the 40 man. Makes sense.
Kilian can go in to win the Cy Young and I would still say the Cubs won that trade.
Always more to come…
Susac was the A’s 2022 first round pick and hit well in the minors. Why didn’t they protect him?
Good question. Yeah, that was odd. They protected Zhuang, a 25-year old RHP with an overall scouting grade of 40, who was their 29th or 30th ranked prospect. Susac was ranked 12th, their top, and only ranked catching prospect. Even if they saw Langeliers and McCann as the long term guys, it seems like they could have gotten something decent in trade for Susac.
McCann is not on the A’s roster and hasn’t been for a minute…
Oops, my mistake. I thought he was when the A’s decided to not protect Susac, but no. Long gone by then.
Man. I’ve been wrong a lot. Maybe I should refrain front posting for awhile.
I thought I was wrong once,
but I was mistaken…
You people care too much about being wrong. It’s ok to be wrong. It really is. There is really only one country where it’s a huge deal. Keep posting. Your work is good.
I don’t care what others do, but it’s important to me to admit when I’m wrong.
Yes. That’s the only thing that matters. Your Matos apology stunned me. You went out of your way to defend a fellow human and present his case. Awesome. Who cares if it eventually didn’t fall the way you said it would. Like I said mate, keep posting.
Dont stop posting. We’re all in ST mode. Lol
Shea langaliers was signed to long term deal and they felt comfortable there – maybe give him an opportunity elsewhere
His numbers in LV were deceptive too pretty much everyone hits well and he was one of the lower ones and his K rate may have been too high for their taste
He also had issue with throwing out runners at 2B compared to other catchers they had
Couple of quick observations after opening night.
1) Netflix sucked
After hearing “Brandon Webb” several times by the coverage clowns finally he got called out.
2) We were all concerned about the bullpen, and that was literally the only bright spot for SFG in the game. That’s baseball folks..
Did enjoy the lackluster performance of Arson Judge, and the fans giving him hell though..
Go get em Robby Ray
Fight on another day!
Yep Netflix was painful. I stopped watching (you can guess why) and just listened to the SF radio team—far more insightful.