{"id":570387,"date":"2026-02-13T15:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/570387\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T15:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:14:11","slug":"sf-giants-2026-spring-training-preview-bullpen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/570387\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Giants 2026 spring training preview: bullpen"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. \u2014 Opportunity. That was the word of the day when Buster Posey and Tony Vitello<\/a> answered questions on Tuesday about the composition of the Giants\u2019 bullpen.<\/p>\n

Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s opportunity for a lot of guys. I think that\u2019s the first thing that comes to my mind,\u201d Posey, the team\u2019s president of baseball operations, said. \u201cSo, when you have opportunity, it\u2019s exciting to me to see who wants to grab that opportunity and run with it. \u2026 I think bullpens are the one piece of the team sometimes that is really hard to predict \u2014 good or bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trades and injuries almost sapped the Giants\u2019 bullpen of its strength by the end of last season. Camilo Doval was traded to the Yankees<\/a>, and Tyler Rogers was traded to the Mets<\/a>. Randy Rodr\u00edguez underwent Tommy John surgery<\/a>, and Erik Miller sustained a left elbow sprain in early July that never healed. Ryan Walker was the team\u2019s only core reliever who ended the season on the active roster.<\/p>\n

San Francisco\u2019s bullpen still had a fine season, finishing fourth in the majors in ERA (3.48) and sixth in FIP (3.76). This group of relievers, however, doesn\u2019t form the foundation of a shutdown bullpen. Bullpens are hard to forecast, but the Giants project to have one of the worst bullpens in the majors.<\/p>\n

San Francisco barely invested in its bullpen this offseason. They gave a pair of one-year deals to left-hander Sam Hentges ($1.4 million) and right-hander Jason Foley ($2 million), the latter of whom will not be healthy until midseason. Left-hander Reiver Sanmartin was also claimed off waivers.<\/p>\n

This unit lacks the high-octane stuff that most great bullpens possess. San Francisco\u2019s bullpen has solid pieces, but collectively, the group lacks a high floor and a high ceiling.<\/p>\n

Additions: Sam Hentges (Free Agent), Jason Foley (Free Agent), Reiver Sanmartin (Waivers)<\/p>\n

Subtractions: Joey Lucchesi (Non-Tendered), Mason Black (DFA\/Trade), Sean Hjelle (MiLB Free Agent)<\/p>\n

Projected Position WAR Ranking<\/a>: 28th<\/p>\n

Vitello has been a bit ambiguous when discussing how he might manage high-leverage innings. He said during the first day of camp that things are \u201cpretty wide open\u201d as far as where guys could be slotted. Vitello also mentioned he constructed a \u201cdream scenario\u201d and was \u201cpretty stuck on a team I watched a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Vitello was asked if his \u201cdream scenario\u201d was the 2014-15 Kansas City Royals, which employed a three-headed monster of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland, Vitello had a roundabout way of answering the question.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know when your phone starts popping up ads that you were talking about? Sometimes I feel like your phone throws advertisements at you because you were thinking about something. That\u2019d be my response to that question,\u201d Vitello laughed.<\/p>\n

Teams frequently talk about exploiting late-game matchups in spring, but Vitello\u2019s first year in the majors would easier if he had a definitive guy for the ninth inning. He\u2019s yet to name a closer, but there\u2019s a certain crossfiring right-hander who\u2019d make plenty of sense.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Walker\u2019s third season can be divided into three chapters. After snatching the closer role at the end of a dominant 2024 season (1.91 ERA), Walker entered last spring as the incumbent. By June, he ceded responsibility to Doval. Over his first 21 appearances, Walker had an unrecognizable 5.21 ERA.<\/p>\n

Walker pitched in lower-leverage situations for the next three months and looked more like himself, posting a 2.62 ERA and 2.96 FIP over his next 36 appearances. He stepped back into the closer\u2019s role after Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s injury but again struggled, posting a 6.10 ERA over 14 appearances (10 1\/3 innings).<\/p>\n

When Walker is on, he combines a biting sinker with a disgusting slider. Reclaiming that ability to strike out batters en masse will be key, because this bullpen is light on strikeout material. The league-wide average strikeout rate for relievers last year was 22.8 percent, and here are the career strikeout rates of the relievers on the 40-man roster:<\/p>\n

Ryan Walker: 28.3%<\/p>\n

Erik Miller: 26.5%<\/p>\n

Sam Hentges: 25.4%<\/p>\n

JT Brubaker: 23.0%<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3: 23.1%<\/p>\n

Matt Gage: 22.0%<\/p>\n

Keaton Winn: 20.4%<\/p>\n

Joel Peguero: 19.8%<\/p>\n

Reiver Sanmartin: 19.2%<\/p>\n

Tristan Beck: 18.8%<\/p>\n

Jason Foley: 18.1%<\/p>\n

Spencer Bivens: 18.0%<\/p>\n

Carson Seymour: 16.7%<\/p>\n

Even with Doval (28.9%) and Rodr\u00edguez (28.6%), the Giants\u2019 relievers didn\u2019t generate a ton of strikeouts last season. In 2025, San Francisco\u2019s relievers ranked 25th in strikeout rate (21.0%). Strikeouts aren\u2019t everything, but with relievers, they certainly aren\u2019t nothing.<\/p>\n

One of the nastier pitchers on the Giants\u2019 40-man roster is Hentges, but he\u2019s currently recovering from both left shoulder surgery (September 2024) and arthroscopic right knee surgery (September \u201825). The left-hander threw a bullpen on Tuesday, but his status for Opening Day isn\u2019t a guarantee.<\/p>\n

If San Francisco\u2019s bullpen is light in the stuff department, the front office will need to assemble a crew that knows how to get outs in some way, shape, or form.<\/p>\n

Of the eight pitchers on the non-roster invitees list, no name stands out more than\u00a0Michael Fulmer, the 2016 AL Rookie of the Year and a one-time All-Star.<\/p>\n

The past several years have been tumultuous for Fulmer. He underwent UCL revision surgery in October 2023 and missed all of \u201824 before returning to action in \u201825. Aside from 5 2\/3 innings in the majors, he spent the entire year in the minors. Fulmer, who turns 33 in March, hasn\u2019t had a full-ish season since 2023, but his r\u00e9sum\u00e9 makes him a consideration for a spot.<\/p>\n

Right-hander Gregory Santos, who originally made his debut with the Giants, has an interesting case as well. Santos has only thrown 14 1\/3 innings in the majors over the last two seasons due to injuries. His last full season was 2023, a breakout year where he had a 3.39 ERA and 2.65 FIP over 66 1\/3 innings for the Chicago White Sox.<\/p>\n

Along with its current candidates, there\u2019s also the possibility that the Giants ask one of their young starters to pitch out of the bullpen. The main name to monitor is 24-year-old right-hander Hayden Birdsong, who made the Opening Day roster last season as a reliever and enjoyed decent success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on how things shake out,\u201d said general manager Zack Minasian. \u201cIt\u2019s not just on him. There are a lot of pitchers in camp, and we just try and put the best group together. Certainly think he has the ability to be a major league starter and a very good one. I think we\u2019ve seen that in flashes, but if we leave camp and feel really strongly that this is one of the best eight guys that go in the \u2018pen, it\u2019s at least going to be a consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Posey said on Tuesday that he understands it\u2019s rare for teams to assemble bullpens like those the Giants boasted en route to winning World Series titles in 2010, \u201812 and \u201814. The Core Four of Sergio Romo, Javier L\u00f3pez, Santiago Casilla and Jeremy Affeldt have a spot on the Wall of Fame for a reason.<\/p>\n

Vitello doesn\u2019t necessarily need a bullpen of that caliber. What he does need, though, is a group he can depend on in high-leverage situations. Yes, there will be opportunities. Whether they\u2019re seized is another matter entirely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. \u2014 Opportunity. That was the word of the day when Buster Posey and Tony Vitello answered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,5776,2178,162,5774,5775,4,5777,378,5778,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-570387","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-bay-area","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-giants","12":"tag-giants-hq","13":"tag-inside-sports","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-peninsula","16":"tag-san-francisco","17":"tag-san-francisco-county","18":"tag-san-francisco-giants","19":"tag-sanfrancisco","20":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","21":"tag-sf","22":"tag-sf-giants","23":"tag-sfgiants","24":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116063978606856306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570387","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=570387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}