What's next for Giants this offseason after two additions to starting rotation? originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — If any talks heat up for the Giants over the next few days, they will face an interesting challenge.
Buster Posey, Zack Minasian and Tony Vitello are part of a large contingent that flew to South Korea this week for a goodwill tour in Jung Hoo Lee’s home country. Willy Adames joined, along with members of the team’s ownership group, marketing department and social media staff, with plans to hold clinics and join Lee at a dinner. Posey and Minasian are scheduled to meet with the commissioner of the KBO while in Seoul, further strengthening relationships that they hope will pay off down the line.
The time difference is significant, but right now, it doesn’t figure to be much of a problem. After the Tyler Mahle deal became official on Monday, the Giants appear to have done most of their heavy lifting this offseason.
Minasian, sitting in a hotel room halfway around the world, hopped on a Zoom call with reporters on Monday to discuss the state of the rotation. The answer has been the same most of the winter.
“It’s my stock answer: I don’t know if we’re ever done,” he said of adding more arms. “I think we’re very comfortable with the five that we have and then the bundle of arms behind them now, to say that our depth is in a much better spot than it was at the beginning of the offseason.
“We’re happy with where we’re at. We’ll keep working at it, but we do think this is a solid five-man rotation going into the spring.”
The Giants don’t want to publicly close off any potential pursuits, but there’s not really much they need to say when it comes to their rotation. The math is the math.
In Logan Webb, Robbie Ray and Landen Roupp, they already had three starters. Adrian Houser and Mahle both came to San Francisco to be in the rotation, and the Giants are hopeful that they’re getting both on the upswing, similar to what they did a few years ago with Kevin Gausman and Anthony DeSclafani.
They ended up taking a short-term approach this winter, but there were other ways, and they were discussed at length internally early in the offseason. The market was and still is full of guys — Dylan Cease, Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez, etc. — looking for big deals. There also is a middle class of experienced players and safer options who could have been had around the combined price of Houser (two years, $22 million) and Mahle (one year, $10 million). Merrill Kelly, for instance, signed a two-year, $40 million deal.
The most interesting option, at least for the fan base, was Tatsuya Imai, a right-hander from Japan who signed a three-year, $54 million deal with the Houston Astros last week. The 27-year-old seemed to check a lot of boxes, and Giants officials certainly noticed that he went out of his way to make it clear he wants to face the Dodgers. But what ultimately mattered was their evaluation of his talent, makeup and fit in a big league rotation.
The Giants viewed Imai as more of a back-end starter, with real risk that his repertoire will prove to be too limited to be a consistent big league starter. There were concerns about the way his fastball will play, and while the contract ultimately came in well short of early industry expectations, it’s structured in a way that makes 2026 particularly important. Because of the posting fee and opt-outs, it could end up becoming more of a one-year deal in the $30 million range.
That’s beyond where the Giants valued Imai, and while they checked in early in the process, they were not involved in recent weeks, per a source familiar with discussions.
Instead, it will be Houser and Mahle, although there is risk there, too, particularly with Mahle. The right-hander has made more than 20 starts just twice in the past six seasons, and while he had a 2.18 ERA last season, shoulder discomfort limited him to 16 starts.
This is the time of year when teams preach optimism, but the Giants also are realistic about the group they have put together behind Webb and Ray. Roupp had an elbow scare last summer. Houser has had fewer health issues than Mahle, but also has just one season of more than 21 starts.
The Giants dug deep on Mahle’s medical history and Minasian noted that trainer Dave Groeschner and his group have a strong history with pitchers. Still, the odds are good that a fill-in starter will be needed at some point.
“I think it would be foolish for us to not recognize that it’s a risk,” Minasian said. “Obviously there’s a history there.”
Posey said early in the offseason that his biggest lesson in Year 1 in charge was that you truly can never have too much pitching, and Minasian often mentions that the Giants used 15 starters last year. That will make the young depth particularly important, and the 2026 Giants ultimately might sink or swim based on whether they can get a couple of young starters to break through.
Hayden Birdsong is the most obvious candidate, mostly because he has shown flashes of it before. When the front office and Vitello interviewed potential pitching coaches late last year, they were asked specifically about what they might do to unlock Birdsong’s potential. Carson Whisenhunt, Blade Tidwell, Trevor McDonald, Kai-Wei Teng and others provide depth, although several could end up in a bullpen that hasn’t seen significant additions.
“We do think there’s going to be an opportunity for our young starters and we’ve shown an openness to use some of these arms in the bullpen as well,” Minasian said. “We need to put the best team on the field and if that means some of these younger pitchers going in the bullpen, we’ll have to be open-minded to that. I don’t think you can have too much pitching. A lot of these things tend to work themselves out and we’re certainly happy when you look at the amount of depth.”
The Giants have committed just under $25 million to their 2026 roster this winter, and while there have been surprises from the Posey regime — most notably the Rafael Devers deal — the current expectation is that the rest of the offseason will be spent filling gaps instead of chasing a splash.
They continue to pursue second basemen, with St. Louis’ Brendan Donovan and Chicago’s Nico Hoerner standing out as potential options in trades. That market is expected to move quickly once free agent Alex Bregman chooses a home.
It’s possible a veteran outfielder becomes the right fit as players scramble to find spots before pitchers and catchers report, although it would be a requirement that the player is a strong defender. One of the major goals in Vitello’s first season is to improve what was an awful defensive outfield in 2025.
A lot is being put on Vitello’s shoulders, and internally, there is a hope that the new staff makes a huge difference right away. That will be necessary after a relatively quiet offseason, but the front office still has several weeks to seek additional help.
“I think the goal is just to continue to improve,” Minasian said. “Whether we’re going to be able to do that or not remains to be seen. We’ll keep trying, but with us, it’s easy to look around the field and see certain positions that are completely locked in (with) players that are signed here that are proven players.
“And then obviously there’s positions where there are players there that we believe in, but we’ll continue to look outside and see what’s available and what the cost will be.”
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