{"id":540671,"date":"2026-01-27T15:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T15:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/540671\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T15:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T15:23:12","slug":"harrison-bader-explains-decision-to-sign-with-sf-in-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/540671\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrison Bader explains decision to sign with SF in free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco Giants and outfielder Harrison Bader agreed to a two-year contract<\/a> in MLB free agency on Monday. After opting out of his contract<\/a> with the Philadelphia Phillies earlier in the offseason, Bader became an intriguing outfield free agent. Following his decision to agree to a deal with San Francisco, Bader made an appearance<\/a> on The Show with Joel Sherman & Jon Heyman and revealed why he selected the Giants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell first and foremost, the opportunity,\u201d Bader said. \u201cYou know, all you can do in this game is just work to set yourself up for the best opportunity possible. I’ve always wanted to play as many games, have as many at-bats possible, be on a winning team. The Giants could not be more perfect fit for me. I’m just very excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bader, 31, is known for his defense in the outfield. He’s also a respectable offensive presence, as he hit .277\/.347\/.449 across 146 games played between the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies in 2025. His defense will be especially impactful in Oracle Park’s big outfield, however.<\/p>\n

Bader is also excited to play alongside a number of \u201csuperstars\u201d with the Giants.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I love playing with superstars,\u201d the outfielder continued. \u201cGot a lot of really, really talented players. I came up with (Matt) Chapman in the Texas League and in pro ball prior to the major leagues. Playing against Willy Adames for a number of years when I was with the Cardinals and he was on the Brewers. There’s just a lot of superstars. You know, obviously (Rafael) Devers was a big acquisition for them last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a fresh front office. It’s obviously a fresh coaching staff. Some SEC ties in Tony Vitello\u2026 Some familiarity with (Jayce) Tingler when I was with the Twins last year. It’s always good to be in a new place but have familiar faces. Opportunity, the personnel, the players, it just was a perfect fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrison Bader will do everything he can to help the Giants make a postseason push in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco Giants and outfielder Harrison Bader agreed to a two-year contract in MLB free agency on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,365,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342],"class_list":{"0":"post-540671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-harrison-bader","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-giants","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-giants","18":"tag-sfgiants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115967754521565942","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}