The Giants have placed outfielders Harrison Bader and Jared Oliva on the 10-day injured list, per a club announcement. The former is dealing with a hamstring strain, while the latter was diagnosed with a hamate fracture, likely pointing to a somewhat notable absence. Bader’s IL placement is retroactive to April 12. Fellow outfielders Will Brennan and Drew Gilbert have been recalled from Triple-A in their place.
Bader, 31, has gotten out to a dismal start in his new environs. Signed to a two-year, $20.5MM contract in free agency, he’s started his Giants tenure with a .115/.145/.192 batting line and a glaring 30.9% strikeout rate in 55 turns at the plate. The longtime defensive standout had one of his best seasons at the plate in 2025, slashing a combined .277/.347/.449 with a career-best 17 homers in 501 plate appearances between Minnesota and Philadelphia.
It’s obviously a bit early to sound the alarm, but it’s a brutal stretch of 15 games for Bader, who hasn’t experienced strikeout troubles of this magnitude since 2018 with the Cardinals. Bader’s chase rate on balls off the plate is up six percentage points this year, while his contact rate on balls within the strike zone is down more than three percentage points. He’s been extremely aggressive early in his plate appearances and has too often found himself behind in the count as a result.
The Giants haven’t provided a firm timetable, but Bader will be down for the next week-plus at the very least. If it’s a lengthy enough stay on the IL, he could require a minor league rehab stint. For the time being, San Francisco can either slide Jung Hoo Lee back to center field or give some of that workload to Gilbert and Brennan. Lee hasn’t graded out well in his time as a center fielder in the majors — which was surely part of the Giants’ motivation in signing Bader, who perennially ranks as one of the game’s top outfield defenders. Gilbert has played all three outfield slots in Triple-A this season, spending the bulk of his time in center. Brennan has played the corners only in 2026 but has nearly 1800 professional innings in center.
As for the 30-year-old Oliva, this is his first big league action since 2021 with the Pirates. He’s appeared in seven games but been primarily a defensive replacement and pinch-runner. He’s had seven at-bats and tallied one single in that time.
Oliva impressed the Giants with plus speed and outfield range in camp this spring. In 20 games/46 plate appearances, he swiped a ludicrous 14 bags while also turning in a robust .375/.444/.550 batting line. That was more than enough for Oliva to earn a spot on the roster, even pushing out-of-options former top prospect Luis Matos out the door in the process.
Hamate fractures typically require surgery and come with a recovery period between four and eight weeks. Every instance is different, of course, but that general framework is at least worth noting. It’s doubtful Oliva will be back any earlier than mid-May, and his absence could push into early-to-mid June. Assuming Bader returns to the fold before Oliva, Gilbert stands as a natural option to fill the backup outfield role that Oliva has held throughout the season.
Well they do need to shake things up… hopefully these guys can provide a jolt, especially Drew.
I feel bad for Oliva. He hasn’t been given any consistent at bats. Now, with the hamate issue, will he return to the Major League roster or spend most of his time rehabbing and playing in AAA?
Giants desperately need his speed and base stealing ability plus his glove and arm.
Not sure why you name Gilbert in hoping for a jolt. He played almost every game after he was acquired last season, and the production was weak. He had a .598 OPS, but worst of all had a .248 OBP. Maybe he can turn that around, but it was not a promising debut.
Bader is a fine defensive CF’er, but at this stage, he is little better than a platoon guy v LHP. VERY injury prone for his whole career. Jung-Hoo Lee is likely better than his poor defensive CF performance last year, but nowhere near as good defensively as Bader. Lee does have a strong arm. Lee grades out as average in RF for DRS so far, but it is so early in the year. Lee likely takes over in CF. Lee is off to a slow start offensively, but Bader was even worse. Sure would be nice to leave Lee in RF and get his offense going. Sadly, he might well be a bust of a signing.
Lee is a natural RF— that’s what he played in Korea, and his arm should stay there. I just don’t think he’s using his speed offensively, to bunt and get on base, to steal. If he doesn’t use his natural skills the contract will be underwater. But it’s still too early for any conclusions.
Like I said all winter, whoever signs guys like Bader and Polanco will be disappointed. For Bader it’s back to the IL already after that nice platform year. And Polanco has already missed some games and will be IL-bound soon enough. They’re following in the footsteps of previous free-agent busts like Santander and O’Neil.
The San Francisco Giants…Geez, What a mess. Bad Ownership group that doesn’t care about winning that thought it was a dandy idea to hire an ex player with absolutely no front office experience, to be President of baseball operations.
Then, they signed off on the insane idea of hiring a College coach w/ absolutely no professional baseball experience to be the new field manager.
It’s gonna take years for this franchise to course correct. And that will only begin to happen once they bring in an experienced, successful POB
neither of those moves are the ones that are sinking the team. if you look at what farhan did and you look at what buster did there is a through line and it is the lack of willingness to spend which is not a front office issue, it is an ownership issue. if ownership didn’t have the attitude that spending just enough is more than enough and an unwillingness to let the team sink so that it can develop young guys on the field because it pulls butts out of seats then you are never going to have a winning team.
The problem is the father and son majority owners.
Neither one have a clue about baseball and all they have is money and all they want to do is make more money. I wish Joe Lacob would buy them out, because we need local ownership and not a bunch of num nuts from Georgia that give money to the Republican Party and its followers of the worst president the world has ever seen.
underneath them are also a couple of owners that not only don’t care about baseball but aren’t from california and haven’t even seen the team play
This isn’t on Posey or Vitello, it’s on the players. The talent is there but they are underperforming.
Yeah. Good things going on in the farm.
If you need some Giant feel good, that’s the place to go
Hopefully Gilbert & Brennan gives Giants much needed spark, energy & left handed bats
Defense shouldn’t be a problem – Brennan LF, Gilbert CF & Lee RF
Very underwhelmed with Bader. Carries himself in a manner that the results don’t deserve. Yeah. Finding him difficult to love.
Bader had a great 50 game stretch with the Phillies post-last season’s trade deadline, and he was fun to watch. I wasn’t sure if he could carry it over, and apparently, the Phillies front office didn’t think so either.
That stretch might have gone to his head. The results I can live with. It’s baseball, he has been playing hurt. I’m just not enjoying the Harrison loves Harrison vibe I get when I watch. Early days, but what I’ve seen is not my style of guy at all.
Every Phillie’s fan I know loved Bader and wanted him back in Philadelphia. But to think he would replicate his career year offensively was foolish. And the Giants already have too many holes in their lineup and rotation.
His vibe definitely worked better when he was over performing.
No doubt it would. We will see what happens.
It worked better when he was going all out for that contract.
I remember Bader being so good in that 2022 ALCS. Then they were unceremoniously swept by the Astros.
Losing Matos for Oliva at this point seems absurd.
Not really. Olivia is obviously there for his speedy one trick. In my mind, Brennan and Gilbert are the guys that punted Matos.
I think that they were going to move on from him one way or another. I have a feeling they are trying not to be too committed while gilbert, dividson, bericoto are an their way
I understand both of your point but they haven’t used Oliva at all, could have given Matos a last opportunity. They don’t bunt they don’t run Oliva has been a pointless roster inclusion to me.
Fair point
I mean it is true but also I think oliva is getting about as much time as matos would have
I guess what I should have pointed out along with the puzzling roster use/construction is the talent evaluation I have in question. Getting weimer letting him go letting Matos Fitzgerald go Brennan and Gilbert and Eldridge all down no call up til now. Idk it puzzles me at times.
Fitzgerald was an offensive mess since his career month
They believed Matos was not better than Ramos, Lee or Bader so he was a bench piece at best and Oliva is a better defender and was “supposed” to be a pinch runner weapon—the plan was probably for another AAA to force Oliva out
The fact that their 3 opening day OF have been the worst in MLB has been the killer
yeah moving on from weimer but picking up oliva I didn’t get but I also have always questioned the bader move when you already had a number of options and bader has been fairly light hitting and injury prone as well
@Pete
He can’t steal first base and a base running specialist sounded like a good plan but this lineup gets no one on base
Gilbert was injured in the spring so it made sense he needed time at AAA. Was surprised they kept Oliva over Brennan who seemed a better fit overall. Hopefully they can get it going.
Giants need to give some of their young prospects a chance and get rid of half the team,specially the outfielders
Would help if Rafi hit instead of unleashing wind storms.
That’s been true for the last four years but they never do. Instead they sign mediocre free agents that they overpay never giving their young players a chance to prove if they can hack it or not.
No team is eating the years on Bader and Lee contracts this early
Giants should have known what they were getting in Bader. High strikeouts, injury prone, nice glove. Instead they got duped by his three months in Philadelphia as they often do (see Matt Chapman).
Bader had an OPS+ of NEGATIVE 6
No one saw that coming