Giants know recent freefall forced front office's hand with Tyler Rogers trade originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — For seven seasons, Tyler Rogers stuck to routines. Given that he would go out to the mound every night with the slowest fastball in baseball, perhaps that’s how he felt it had to be.
Rogers thrived on consistency, and in recent years, other Giants tried to pick up on that. When Ryan Walker broke through, he joined Rogers — and later his twin brother — in preparing for the late innings. Every night at Oracle Park, before the bottom of the third inning, Walker and Rogers would emerge from the dugout and make the long walk out to the bullpen. There they would sit and wait for a chance to help get their teammates to the 27th out.
“He’s a man of habit,” Walker said of Rogers on Wednesday. “You can see why he’s so consistent on the mound.”
That routine meant that the two right-handers were still in the clubhouse early in Wednesday’s 2-1 loss when word broke that the Giants were shaking things up. They were sitting at their lockers and watching the game when Rogers joked that he had packed more than usual for the upcoming trip to New York and Pittsburgh.
“You never know …” he said.
A few moments later, he was pulled into an office.
Rogers and Walker will be back on the same field Friday night, but in different bullpens. The Giants traded their longest-tenured reliever to the New York Mets at the start of Wednesday’s game in exchange for reliever Jose Butto and prospects Blade Tidwell and Drew Gilbert. It was Buster Posey’s first big move since he did the complete opposite and swung for the fences with Rafael Devers, and it signaled that a full sale may be on the way.
“It sucks. We lost the last six in a row and haven’t given Buster and the front office any reason to add,” third baseman Matt Chapman said. “We kind of did it to ourselves. It sucks. Obviously you can tell that everybody is pretty upset. It’s not how we saw this thing going.”
The Giants imagined Rogers, who is tied with Sergio Romo for the most holds in franchise history, pitching the eighth in a postseason game. Even in late June and early July, as they struggled, that was the goal.
But they came home last week and lost all six on a homestand for the first time since 1896. They have dropped 12 of 14 and they are under .500 for the first time all season. The latest loss left them six games out of an MLB playoff spot.
It has been a stunning fall. In a quiet clubhouse Wednesday, players felt they had left Posey with no choice.
“It’s not the position you want to be in, but I don’t blame Buster for doing something like that,” right-hander Logan Webb said.
Webb and Rogers live near each other in Arizona and are close friends. They are two of the three Giants remaining from Bruce Bochy’s final year, and they have developed into leaders of the rotation and bullpen, respectively. Webb smiled Wednesday and said he always teases Rogers for being 10 days behind him in service time.
Webb didn’t know about the big trade until after he finished his 5 2/3 innings. He got back to the clubhouse and saw weird looks on the faces of Robbie Ray and Justin Verlander and wondered what they were about to tell him. He soon found out that a key piece was leaving.
“He saved me a lot of times,” Webb said. “He has saved the Giants a lot of times. He has been one of the best relievers in baseball for seven seasons now. The Mets got a good one.”
They followed that up by trading for St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley, the kind of all-in move the Giants hoped to make. Instead, they will spend Wednesday night and Thursday morning trying to see how well they can do in what has become a market very friendly to sellers.
Dealing Ray would be the biggest potential move, but there have been no hints that’s coming. Verlander, though, is on an expiring deal, along with others like Mike Yastrzemski and Wilmer Flores. Dealing a few veterans would clear some payroll, bring in a few lottery ticket prospects, and open up opportunities for players who are more likely to contribute to San Francisco’s 2026 roster.
As they informed teams that Rogers was available, the Giants also did the same with closer Camilo Doval, who struck out three in what might end up being his final appearance in orange and black. They have set the bar high in negotiations, but given how crazy the reliever market has gotten this week, they might get what they’re seeking. The Rogers deal was an example of that, and the industry consensus was that Posey and the front office did very well.
As players packed up in a somber clubhouse, some expressed hope that this was not the start of something bigger, but it was hard to believe that would end up being the case.
“I don’t know what to expect,” Chapman said. “But when you trade one of your best arms in the bullpen, I think that kind of shows where we’re headed.”
Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast