{"id":542899,"date":"2026-01-28T20:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T20:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/542899\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T20:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T20:52:16","slug":"giants-harrison-bader-embracing-madness-of-dodgers-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/542899\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants\u2019 Harrison Bader Embracing Madness of Dodgers Rivalry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently signed San Francisco Giants outfielder Harrison Bader commented on facing the Los Angeles Dodgers in the upcoming season.<\/p>\n

Bader, 31, inked a two-year, $20.5 million deal with the Giants on Monday, and is already aiming to take down the World Series Champions.<\/p>\n

“Listen, it’s a great division,”\u00a0Bader said on “The Max Mannis Pod.”<\/a>\u00a0“I think the biggest thing with that is just taking it one game at a time. Doing your research, trusting it, being OK with being wrong. The one that stands out are the Dodgers, which is awesome. I think it just gives you an opportunity to go out and compete against some of the best players in baseball — and that’s awesome. Dive into that energy, have a game plan and trust it. Go out there and execute. That’s really all there is to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s certainly going to take a team effort to win those games, but just being able to compete at the level is going to be awesome. I love playing in LA. I love playing against the best in the world. They certainly have a bunch of those. And it’s a challenge for when it comes because it’s coming in hot in April. So I’m going to do my part, play my game and do my best to help my team win.”<\/p>\n

More news: Yankees, Mets Predicted to Compete for 2-Time All-Star at Trade Deadline<\/a><\/p>\n

Taking down the Dodgers is a tall task for any team, especially those in the NL West. L.A. has won the division in 12 of the last 13 seasons, and has won three World Series championships in the last six years. The Giants finished third in the division in 2025, ending the year with an even 81-81 record. Against the Dodgers, they won just four of their 13 contests.<\/p>\n

\"OutfielderCan Harrison Bader Get the Giants Back Into the Postseason?<\/p>\n

The Giants had a middling season as far as their outfield is concerned, with the group posting a 98 wRC+ throughout the 2025 season. As far as defense is concerned, though, the Giants’ outfield ranked worst in MLB in outs above average and 28th in fielding run value.<\/p>\n

More news:\u00a0Astros\u2019 Jose Altuve to Miss 2026 World Baseball Classic<\/a><\/p>\n

Bader can help the Giants in both of these categories, as he had one of his best MLB seasons with the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies last year. He had a .796 OPS, a career-high, and also set career highs with 17 home runs and 54 RBIs. He also performed well on defense, ranking in the 92nd percentile with seven outs above average and a fielding run value of five.<\/p>\n

Even with Bader’s help, though, the Giants will need to take a step up from 2025 to contend in the upcoming season. If their rotation can remain healthy and their bats can perform up to standard, they could be a dark horse in 2026.<\/p>\n

For more\u00a0MLB<\/a>\u00a0news, visit\u00a0Newsweek Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recently signed San Francisco Giants outfielder Harrison Bader commented on facing the Los Angeles Dodgers in the upcoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,365,57,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342],"class_list":{"0":"post-542899","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-los-angeles-dodgers","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-san-francisco-giants","15":"tag-sanfrancisco","16":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","17":"tag-sf","18":"tag-sf-giants","19":"tag-sfgiants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115974710869320758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542899","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=542899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}