Offseason In Review: San Francisco Giants

The Giants checked a few boxes this offseason, adding a pair of back-end starting pitchers and everyday players at second base and in the outfield. Their biggest splash might be in the manager’s office, as they stayed away from the top of the free agent market.

Major League Signings

• RHP Adrian Houser: Two years, $22MM (including buyout of ’28 club option)
• CF Harrison Bader: Two years, $20.5MM
• 2B Luis Arraez: One year, $12MM
• RHP Tyler Mahle: One year, $10MM
• RHP Jason Foley: One year, $2MM (eligible for arbitration through ’28)
• LHP Sam Hentges: One year, $1.4MM (eligible for arbitration through ’27)
• RHP Rowan Wick: One year, $880K (including buyout of ’27 club option)
• RF Will Brennan: One year split contract (eligible for arbitration through ’29)

2026 spending: $44.95MM
Total spending: $68.78MM

Trades and Claims

• Claimed LHP Reiver Sanmartin off waivers from Reds
• Claimed OF Justin Dean off waivers from Dodgers (later lost on waivers to Cubs)
• Traded RHP Mason Black to Royals for minor league RHP Logan Martin
• Acquired OF Joey Wiemer from Marlins for cash (later lost on waivers to Nationals)
• Acquired Rule 5 selection C Daniel Susac from Twins for minor league C Miguel Caraballo
• Traded RHP Kai-Wei Teng to Astros for minor league C Jancel Villarroel

Option Decisions

• Team declined $4MM option on C Tom Murphy in favor of $250K buyout

Notable Minor League Signings

• Michael Fulmer, Eric Haase, Brent Honeywell Jr., Buddy Kennedy, Caleb Kilian, Nick Margevicius, Jared Oliva, Wilkin Ramos, Gregory Santos

Extensions

• None

Notable Losses

• Justin Verlander, Wilmer Flores (still unsigned), Dominic Smith, Joey Lucchesi (non-tender), Andrew Knizner (non-tender), Marco Luciano (lost via waivers), Kai-Wei Teng, Mason Black, Tom Murphy, Wade Meckler (lost via waivers)

Before the offseason got underway, president of baseball operations Buster Posey identified the priority. “Our focus is going to be on pitching, to try to fortify our starting staff. The same goes with the bullpen,” he told Alex Pavlovic and Laura Britt of NBC Sports Bay Area in early October.

Posey had acted decisively in pursuing star players during his first year running baseball operations. He’d signed Willy Adames to a franchise-record contract the previous offseason and made the biggest trade of the 2025 season when he took on the Rafael Devers contract from the Red Sox in June. The Giants were naturally a popular pick to land one of free agency’s top arms — ranging from Dylan Cease, Framber Valdez and Ranger Suárez in the rotation to Edwin Díaz at the back of the bullpen.

That was not to be. Not long after Posey’s comments, high-ranking team personnel began to downplay expectations. General manager Zack Minasian told John Shea of The San Francisco Standard they’d focus more on depth arms. CEO Greg Johnson made similar comments to Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle, noting that they were wary of making extended free agent commitments. None of that contradicted Posey’s identification of the focus, but it pointed to the more quiet offseason that would follow.

Indeed, one could argue the Giants’ biggest move didn’t involve the roster at all. San Francisco fired manager Bob Melvin at the end of the season. That was at least moderately surprising, as the Giants had exercised their 2026 option on Melvin’s services just three months earlier. The team’s 29-36 record in the second half was apparently the impetus for the change, but the Giants played at the same .500 level they had for most of the season after August despite selling multiple pieces (e.g. Mike Yastrzemski, Trevor Rogers, Camilo Doval) at the deadline.

In any case, the front office felt a change was necessary enough that they ate Melvin’s reported $4MM salary. They’d go on to make one of the boldest managerial hires in recent memory. After considering more traditional candidates like Kurt Suzuki, Nick Hundley, and Vance Wilson, the Giants wooed college baseball’s best coach.

They hired Tony Vitello away from the University of Tennessee, paying a premium to do so. Vitello is reportedly making $3.5MM annually on a three-year contract. The Giants also paid a $3MM buyout to the university. They’re committing $10.5MM to the managerial position this year all told, which is probably the most in MLB. Teams don’t publicly disclose managerial salaries, but Dave Roberts’ extension with the Dodgers pays an $8.1MM average annual value that is believed to be the most in the league.

Vitello built what had been a floundering Tennessee program into a national powerhouse during his eight years in Knoxville. It’s nevertheless a virtually unheard of hire for an MLB team. Vitello made the jump directly to major league managing without any previous experience in pro ball.

That has some precedent in other sports but hasn’t really been done in MLB, where college staffers making the move have usually begun their careers as coaches or in player development roles. He’ll have the advice of some experienced voices. The Giants added Ron Washington to the coaching staff while bringing Bruce Bochy back to the organization as a special advisor (joining Dusty Baker in that regard)

Fascinating as the hire is, Vitello will have more constraints as an MLB manager than he did as a college coach. College coaches are also primarily responsible for putting their rosters together via recruiting and the transfer portal. That’s obviously not the case in MLB, where the front office was tasked with addressing the pitching staff and fixing two obvious holes in the lineup.

As the aforementioned comments from Johnson and Minasian suggested, the front office seemingly didn’t have much long-term payroll flexibility. They’d signed three nine-figure contracts (Jung Hoo Lee, Matt Chapman and Adames) in the previous two offseasons. They took on close to $215MM in future commitments on the Devers deal — including the money saved by attaching Jordan Hicks as a salary offset. They also paid $17MM to division rival Blake Snell in January as a deferred signing bonus from his 2024 free agent deal.

Although the Giants would take aim at a few high-impact trade targets, they limited themselves to the third and fourth tiers in free agency. That began with a two-year, $22MM deal for right-hander Adrian Houser. It’s a hefty price for a pitcher who was playing on a minor league pact as recently as last May. Houser pitched very well in 11 starts for the White Sox but struggled to a near-5.00 ERA over 10 outings following a deadline trade to Tampa Bay. He slots into the back half of the rotation as an innings eating grounder specialist.

The Giants made a similar move with a one-year, $10MM flier for Tyler Mahle. There’s maybe a little more upside with Mahle, who is coming off a 2.18 ERA across 16 starts for the Rangers. That’s driven largely by an elevated strand rate and minimal batting average on balls in play that covered for a mediocre 19.1% strikeout rate.

Mahle missed bats early in his career with the Reds but hasn’t had the same caliber of stuff since then due to injury. He pitched a total of 107 MLB innings from 2023-25. A May ’23 Tommy John surgery was the most significant injury, but he also lost chunks of time in each of the past two seasons to shoulder problems. His average fastball speed has dropped two ticks from a 94 mph high back in 2021. Mahle still has excellent command and enters camp healthy, but he has back-of-the-rotation stuff despite last year’s impressive earned run average.

Signing Houser and Mahle all but ensured the Giants wouldn’t re-sign Justin Verlander, who’d been their only free agent of much note. Verlander pitched well down the stretch, but the Giants evidently preferred the other veteran arms to betting on a player entering his age-43 season. San Francisco also traded away depth arms Mason Black and Kai-Wei Teng in minor deals.

The free agent pickups slot behind Logan Webb and Robbie Ray. Having one of the 10 best pitchers in MLB anchor the group is an excellent start. Ray shows the ability to pitch at a legitimate #2 level at times but can also battle his command and had a rough second half. Landen Roupp is the in-house favorite to round out the starting five. He’s a quality back-end arm.

It’s not a bad group, though it’s lacking the ceiling behind Webb that’d compete with the upper tier of rotations in MLB. That might need to come from an unexpected step forward from an internal arm. The Giants have some intriguing depth pieces on the 40-man roster. Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald, Carson Whisenhunt, Blade Tidwell, and Carson Seymour are all optionable starters with modest big league experience.

Individually, no one from that group projects as a high-end starter. There’s enough volume the Giants can hope someone takes an unexpected step forward with a velocity jump or new pitch. Birdsong has the best raw stuff but disappointed when given a rotation opportunity a year ago. He simply didn’t throw enough strikes.

Although Birdsong enters camp as a starter, the Giants should probably focus him on a relief role this year. They’re likely to need more than one of the rotation depth pieces in the bullpen — which they did puzzlingly little to address over the offseason. They not only stayed away from the Díaz/Devin Williams price range but also opted not to bring in any middle-tier relievers (e.g. Kyle Finnegan, Kenley Jansen).

Free agent bullpen prices were high. The Giants may have simply thought that playing in that area was bad value. However, it leaves them with one of the thinner bullpens of any team that expects to contend. In addition to the Rogers and Doval trades, they lost breakout closer Randy Rodríguez to Tommy John surgery as they were playing out the string.

San Francisco’s only acquisitions were reclamation projects. They signed Jason Foley and Sam Hentges to cheap one-year deals. Both pitchers are coming off shoulder surgery and headed for season-opening injured list stints. Rowan Wick is essentially a 2027 version of the same idea. San Francisco brought him back from Japan for barely more than the league minimum. He’ll miss the entire season after recently undergoing Tommy John surgery but could be kept around via minimal club option next year if he’s recovering smoothly.

An already thin group has taken a couple more hits in camp. Waiver pickup Reiver Sanmartin tweaked his right hip in an exhibition game for Colombia in the World Baseball Classic. Hard-throwing righty Joel Peguero was diagnosed with a Grade 2 hamstring strain just last night.

Ryan Walker feels like the closer by default despite an up-and-down 2025 season. Righties JT Brubaker and José Buttó can’t be optioned and will make the team. Erik Miller and the out-of-options Matt Gage lead an uninspiring group of left-handers. Minor league signees Gregory Santos and Michael Fulmer have a clear path to middle relief spots. Aside from the general difficulty in predicting relief pitching, there’s not much reason for excitement unless someone like Birdsong or McDonald gets a bullpen job and runs with it.

Can the Giants outhit their pitching concerns? This was a league average lineup a year ago, a disappointing result for one that should be better than that on talent. They entered the offseason with two obvious potential problem areas: second base and right field. Tyler Fitzgerald floundered at the former position, leaving Casey Schmitt to hold the job in the second half. He’s a low-end regular who profiles better as a utilityman. Right field was an even bigger issue, as they got nothing out of the position after the Yastrzemski trade.

San Francisco addressed both positions via free agency. They added Harrison Bader on a two-year, $20.5MM contract in their second-biggest investment of the winter. The front office successfully waited out Bader’s push for a third year to add an impact defender coming off a career-best .277/.347/.449 showing. They’ll expect some regression offensively — Bader dramatically outperformed his batted ball metrics thanks to an inflated .359 BABIP — but he’s an ideal fit for the spacious Oracle Park outfield.

Bader will play every day in center field, pushing Lee to right. Lee is coming off a .266/.327/.407 season that’d be fine even with the higher offensive bar to clear in a corner outfield spot. Despite above-average speed and an excellent arm, Lee occasionally had some trouble tracking balls in center field. Bader will be a notable upgrade, while Lee’s athleticism should remain an asset with the amount of ground to cover in the right-center gap.

They’ll be joined in the outfield by Heliot Ramos, a 2024 All-Star who underwhelmed last season. Ramos had a huge May (.347/.407/.600) but had a sub-.720 OPS in every other month. He batted .248/.316/.358 in the second half. Ramos still topped 20 homers with slightly above-average offensive numbers overall, but left field could be a position to monitor at the deadline if his late-season form carries into 2026. Former Guardian Will Brennan could factor in there as a left-handed complement but seems likelier to begin the season in Triple-A after an offseason split deal.

The Giants’ biggest pursuits came at second base. Bay Area native Nico Hoerner would have been an ideal fit, but the Cubs never had much motivation to trade him. The Giants made a run at landing Brendan Donovan from the Cardinals; he wound up traded to Seattle instead. Talks with the Nationals about CJ Abrams reportedly stalled when Washington balked at a prospect package built around shortstop Josuar Gonzalez.

They ended up turning back to free agency. In a weak middle infield class beyond Bo Bichette, they opted to give Luis Arraez another opportunity at second base. It’s difficult to quibble with the price, as the three-time batting champion settled for one year and $12MM. The risk is that comes with the promise of moving Arraez back to the keystone after two years working mostly as a first baseman in San Diego.

Fans are familiar with Arraez’s skillset. He’s the most difficult player in MLB to strike out and one of a handful of hitters who can reasonably be expected to bat .300. The all-contact approach doesn’t leave much room for walks or any kind of power. Last season’s .292/.327/.392 batting line came out to roughly league average overall, by measure of wRC+.

Arraez’s career numbers are better than that (.317/.363/.413), and he should certainly be an offensive upgrade over Schmitt. They’ll probably need to live with well below-average defense in the process despite expressing hope that working with Washington can turn things around. Arraez doesn’t move especially well and has been a below-average defender from the time he reached the majors.

Schmitt is a much better defensive player and should stick around as a utility piece and potential late-game substitute. Schmitt’s name has been floated in trade rumors, but there probably aren’t many teams that view him as a clear everyday player. If most other clubs also see him as a utility piece, he’s more valuable to the Giants as an Arraez complement than netting a fairly modest trade return. Fitzgerald was a non-factor in the second half and doesn’t have much of a path back to playing time in San Francisco. A change of scenery trade for a low-level prospect could make sense.

Chapman and Adames will play almost every game on the left side of the infield. Devers will divide his work between first base and designated hitter. Top first base prospect Bryce Eldridge is trying to break camp after a brief 2025 debut. He’d play regularly alongside Devers if he’s on the roster. If the Giants have him open the season in the minors, that’d increase the odds of an out-of-options Luis Matos or Jerar Encarnación sticking around.

There’s also a camp battle for the backup catcher job. Patrick Bailey is such a good defender that he’ll remain the primary catcher despite providing very little at the plate. Prospect Jesus Rodriguez is competing with Rule 5 selection Daniel Susac and minor league signee Eric Haase for a bench spot.

The Giants hit most of the obvious needs they had entering the offseason — though the bullpen stands as a curious exception. They did so mostly with moves to raise the floor rather than upside plays, seemingly because of payroll restrictions. Did they do enough to jump the Padres and Diamondbacks as the second-best team in the NL West and at least snag a Wild Card berth?