How Buster Posey, Giants plan to attack pitching problem ahead of 2027 season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — Throughout a difficult September, Giants officials tried to focus on the silver linings of their situation. The main one came on the pitching side, where the rule down the stretch basically became that if you had a working arm and could potentially be in the mix for 2027, you were going to get some innings.
Young pitchers like Yunior Marte and Cesar Perdomo received long looks, along with trade acquisitions Matt Wilkinson and Anthony Molina. Basically, the entire Triple-A bullpen was called up, and several waiver claims came and went.
Buster Posey and the rest of the front office feel that they truly might have found some guys who can be part of the solution, but there might be equal value in how they did it. As they spent October talking through what had just happened — and, possibly with Tums on hand, going back and actually watching a lot of those games — they found themselves having increased conversations about concepts that bounced around the same offices five years ago.
Over two days in Las Vegas earlier this week, “openers” and “platoons” were thrown around liberally. For Posey, this is all relatively simple.
“When you get punched in the mouth like we did last year, you have to really look in the mirror and say, ‘OK, what we’re doing is not working. Where do we need to make changes?’ ” Posey said on Thursday’s “Giants Talk” Podcast. “I guess that’s kind of a silver lining, as well, as I think this forced all of us to really try to dig deep and do the best we can to try to get this back on track.”
Posey spoke this week about the need to get Willy Adames more days off, and that will extend to veterans like Matt Chapman and Rafael Devers, as well. It’s an area where the president of baseball operations says he has “softened a little bit” as he looks back on a magical 2021, his final season in the big leagues. Five years later, he has a greater appreciation for what was done on a day-to-day basis to exploit matchups.
On the position player side, the goal will be to maximize what they get from a group of sluggers in their thirties. But with the pitchers, this might just be a necessity.
The Giants exited September with two locked-in starters in Logan Webb and Landen Roupp, but as free agency picks up, they will proceed as if they have filled one of the openings. Adrian Houser will return to starting in the second and final year of his contract, although that might not always mean throwing the first pitch of the game.
Houser, in particular, stood out as a strong candidate to pitch “bulk innings” behind an opener more often last year. He held righties to a .552 OPS, but lefties crushed him at a .884 clip.
The staff never made the adjustment to limit his exposure to bad matchups early in games and he was pulled from the rotation in June with an ERA north of five. The rest of the season, pitching primarily as a reliever and often giving Tony Vitello four or five innings, he posted a 1.81 ERA.
“I do view Houser in the rotation,” Posey said. “I think we’re going to have to consider next year being a little bit more open to using an opener from time to time and putting, not just him, but (also) other starting pitchers in some better positions to succeed. That’s stuff we’ve been discussing and going through as well right now.”
Houser — plus the occasional first-inning lefty — can fill one hole, and Posey spoke highly of his young pitchers, particularly Molina, who was a target for the pro scouting staff all year long and pitched well after coming over in the Tyler Mahle trade. On the other end of that deal, Mahle was a revelation for Atlanta, posting a 1.99 ERA after leaving San Francisco at 5.13.
The Giants watched Mahle pitch into October, but they weren’t embarrassed by those splits. The pitching coaches who worked with Mahle in San Francisco remain with the organization, although in a different hierarchy, and the belief was that the right-hander was headed in the right direction anyway. Mahle did a lot of tinkering early in the year, but Posey thought he saw a pitcher who got traded and decided to go back to his “bread and butter” approach after a rough first half.
“It’s a fair question, because maybe we have to be a little bit more heavy-handed with guys and say, ‘Hey man, this is what’s made you good and this is why we signed you here. This other stuff, you’ve got to stop this other stuff,'” Posey said of that experience.
Mahle and Houser were last offseason’s biggest additions, and at the moment it looks like this year’s approach will be pretty similar. The Giants plan to sign at least one free agent starter, but two might be a stretch, which would leave the fifth spot for the young options on the 40-man roster, along with others coming through their system.
With so many young hitters now in the mix, this would seem like a good time to trade some of that depth for a cost-controlled starter. The front office has identified several potential targets and Posey said he’s “open to talk” about anyone, but he added that it will “have to make a lot of sense for us to move some of these younger players.”
The trade market might be more helpful on the bullpen side, where the Giants intend to find a closer and at least one experienced left-handed reliever. If the Milwaukee Brewers take offers on closer Trevor Megill, a free agent after the season, you can bet one of the first conversations will be with the Giants. The two sides had talks about Megill last offseason, months before he closed out the World Series.
As far as the free agent relievers, Posey essentially closed the door on Adrian Morejon and David Bednar, the two best arms available, noting that his preference is not to sign a player who was given the qualifying offer. Doing so would cost the Giants a draft pick and international money at a time when they are still trying to rebuild their farm system.
That approach also rules out lefty Trevor Rogers, and given their ongoing financial restraints, the Giants are unlikely to win the bidding for the likes of Michael King or Freddy Peralta. Free agency should still give them plenty of options, though.
While this is not a good class overall, rival executives said this week that it should actually be pretty helpful for a team like the Giants. There are plenty of experienced starters looking for short-term deals, including old friend Kevin Gausman, Sonny Gray, Clay Holmes and Nick Martinez.
The cleanest fit might be left-hander Kris Bubic, an All-Star in 2025 who is healthy after dealing with shoulder and elbow injuries and would bring the kind of upside that many of the current Giants options lack. The 29-year-old is a Bay Area native who grew up a Giants fan, and he is certainly on the front office’s radar.
If this all feels relatively underwhelming, well, the Giants hear you. But they’re also trying to be self-aware about where they stand after losing 97 games. They’re coming off one of the worst all-around summers in franchise history, but they have the fastest-rising farm system in the game, and that includes the pitching side.
Jackson Flora could debut late next season, and he’ll lead a loaded Double-A rotation that will include Ramon Marquez, Jacob Bresnahan and Henry Lalane. Team officials have also been thrilled with the early development of 2026 draft picks Carson Bolemon and Kaden Waechter.
The Giants are confident that they’re about to return to their roots and become a powerhouse when it comes to pitching development. But it will take some time.
“I do think we can contend (in 2027). I also am realistic in knowing that we lost 97 games last year and we’ve got to be willing to do some things differently,” Posey said this week. “You’re trying to thread the needle, right? You’re trying to thread the needle of having the big league team in a spot that they can win, but also understanding that some of our top players in our system are probably two or three years away still.
“Maybe not quite two or three years, but yeah, it’s a balancing act.”
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