{"id":547401,"date":"2026-01-31T09:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/547401\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T09:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:15:22","slug":"buster-posey-talks-giants-harrison-bader-addition-rotation-and-payroll-flexibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/547401\/","title":{"rendered":"Buster Posey talks Giants\u2019 Harrison Bader addition, rotation, and payroll flexibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section 415 email newsletter here<\/a> and subscribe to the Section 415 podcast wherever you listen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If competing with the Dodgers for the National League West title or at least making noise through September for a wild-card spot is the Giants\u2019 No. 1 goal, they haven\u2019t exactly invested top dollar to assure themselves the best opportunity to reach the objective.<\/p>\n

Yet, Buster Posey is encouraged with the offseason acquisitions including the latest, center fielder Harrison Bader<\/a>, whose two-year, $20.5 million contract will push Jung Hoo Lee to right field, a clear defensive upgrade over last year\u2019s outfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, we\u2019re all excited about the additions we\u2019ve made,\u201d Posey said Friday, mentioning Bader, starting pitchers Adrian Houser and Tyler Mahle<\/a> along with a couple of relievers while also noting it\u2019ll be the first full season for Rafael Devers<\/a>, who was acquired from Boston in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, there\u2019s definitely a lot of excitement on our end. We\u2019re a couple of weeks out. We still have some balls in the air here, and we\u2019ll see how it pans out. There\u2019s nothing guaranteed, but we\u2019ll keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether any of those airborne projectiles include Framber Valdez, the premier free agent starter still available<\/a>, is anyone\u2019s guess. For now, the rotation is Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Landen Roupp and the two newcomers.<\/p>\n

Posey was asked in general if the Giants could still dive into the upper end of the pitching market.<\/p>\n

(Wink, wink).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re happy with our rotation right now,\u201d he said, \u201cwith some of the adjustments that Houser made last year, and we feel like Mahle\u2019s in a good place physically. You\u2019re never going to close doors, but we feel good with the group that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants\u2019 payroll for their 40-man roster, the one used for tax payroll purposes, is $236 million, according to Spotrac. That means they\u2019re $7.9 million under the $244 million tax threshold. If the aim is to remain beneath the threshold to avoid paying taxes, then there\u2019s little operating room to further improve the roster.<\/p>\n

The Giants rank 11th in MLB in payroll, and all 10 teams above them will surpass the tax threshold, including the division foe Dodgers (first in the majors at $412 million) and Padres (seventh, $269 million).<\/p>\n

Then come the Giants at 11 and Diamondbacks at 12. The last NL West team, the Rockies, are ranked 23rd.<\/p>\n

Is settling with a payroll that falls under threshold important at this point?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think ownership showed that they\u2019re willing to push it to that and beyond,\u201d Posey said. \u201cSo it\u2019s not an ongoing conversation we have to say you have to stay beneath that threshold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, the Giants can be considered set at every position. They filled holes in the rotation and added lefty Sam Hentges to the bullpen along with Jason Foley, who\u2019ll open on the injured list. They addressed their outfield defense by adding Bader.<\/p>\n

But business has been conducted without acquiring any of the elite players on the market. All the acquisitions were mid-level purchases with nobody earning more than $11 million in 2026.<\/p>\n

The breakdown:<\/p>\n

Houser: two years, $22 million<\/p>\n

Bader: two years, $20.5 million<\/p>\n

Mahle: one year, $10 million<\/p>\n

Foley: one year, $2 million<\/p>\n

Hentges: one year, $1.4 million<\/p>\n

The Dodgers added outfielder Kyle Tucker (four years, $240 million) and closer Edwin D\u00edaz (three years, $69 million) to a roster that\u2019s looking to win a third straight World Series. Of course, their spending trumps every other team in the majors, even both New York teams, so it\u2019s probably unfair to compare payrolls. Giants fans know that. But many of those fans also wanted their team to divvy up more than it did.<\/p>\n

Spring training starts Feb. 10 with pitchers and catchers working out in Scottsdale, Ariz., and that\u2019s where many questions will start to get answered even if several Giants are committed to leaving camp for the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n

Bader, who turns 32 in June, is coming off his best season, having set personal bests in batting average (.277), hits (124), doubles (24), homers (17), RBIs (54), on-base percentage (.347) and OPS (.796). He finished strong last year after getting traded from the Twins to the Phillies at the deadline, hitting .305 in 50 games.<\/p>\n

That he hit four homers in 18 career games at Oracle Park is a bonus. His first big-league homer was off the Giants\u2019 Johnny Cueto.<\/p>\n

Defense was the main attraction for the Giants, who immediately improved one of the worst defensive outfields from 2025 with both Lee and Heliot Ramos grading poorly with their metrics. Bader is the opposite. His 77 outs above average since 2017 are tops among active outfielders, and his 67 defensive runs saves rank fifth in that time.<\/p>\n

He won a Gold Glove in 2021 and was top 10 in Gold Glove voting in five other seasons. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great fit for us,\u201d Posey said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy that\u2019s going to play hard, play fearless in the outfield, and bring a lot of energy and a lot of insight. He\u2019s somebody who\u2019s accrued a lot of time in the big leagues, and we\u2019re thrilled to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Posey said GM Zack Minasian was in contact with Bader\u2019s camp throughout the offseason with the sides coming together in the past couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBader strikes me as a guy who loves to play the game,\u201d Posey said, \u201cand that\u2019s definitely appealing when you think about a guy that you\u2019re going to trust as the lead person in the outfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Minasian and new manager Tony Vitello spoke with Lee about making the transition to right field, though he\u2019ll likely continue to get some reps in center. Also, he\u2019ll likely play center for Team South Korea in the WBC.<\/p>\n

Right field at Oracle Park is no easy task with the quirkiness and angles of the big brick wall. Lee figures to spend significant time at Papago Park, the Giants\u2019 minor-league complex that has a right-field wall on one of the fields that closely replicates Oracle Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think he\u2019s a pretty instinctual player and expect him to transition over there very easily,\u201d Minasian said. \u201cThere were a number of things we looked at relative to center fielders in terms of jumps and routes and arm strength and also looked at him relative to right fielders. A lot of that came back really positive about how he would transition to right field and where he would rank with other right fielders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other part is the eye test of watching him last year. We feel there is an instinct to play the outfield. Getting more and more comfortable in his second full season in the big leagues and more and more comfortable with his teammates, we feel he\u2019s going to be really good as he goes to right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The anticipation is that Ramos, the left fielder who apparently has worked hard this offseason to upgrade his defensive skills, also will improve playing next to Bader.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a chance to play along somebody that\u2019s elite,\u201d Posey said, \u201cwhether it\u2019s defensively offensively, or on the pitching side, there is an opportunity whether it\u2019s through conversations or just watching that person, watching how they prepare, watching how they approach certain game situations, it can rub off on you. So it\u2019s a great opportunity for Heliot to watch a guy who\u2019s been really really good in the outfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants had cleared a spot on their 40-man roster by trading pitcher Kai-Wei Teng to Houston for catching prospect Jancel Villarroel and international slot money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,6595,162,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-547401","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-buster-posey","10":"tag-giants","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","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115988956748667156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547401","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=547401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}