There aren't any notable position battles for the 2026 San Francisco Giants Opening Day 26-man roster. The infield is set. Rafael Devers will man first base and Luis Arráez will handle second base. Willy Adames will be the shortstop and Matt Chapman gets the hot corner.
The outfield looks like Heliot Ramos, Harrison Bader, and Jung Hoo Lee going left-to-right.
Patrick Bailey will be the catcher. Bryce Eldridge has the inside track on DH.
On the pitching side Logan Webb is the number one and Robbie Ray is the number two. The rest of the starting rotation will be Landen Roupp, Tyler Mahle, and Adrian Houser.
The bullpen has some possible openings. Two guys are signed: JT Brubaker and Sam Hentges. Ryan Walker and Erik Miller will be returning. Then there's José Buttó and Matt Gage who are out of options. Add in Joel Peguero and Spencer Bivens and that's eight guys. So right now Hayden Birdsong, Carson Whisenhunt, Carson Seymour, Blade Tidwell, Keaton Winn, Tristan Beck, Trevor McDonald, etc., etc. are all on the outside looking in. We won't know the final configuration for a few weeks, of course. I see that Birdsong is getting the first start of the Spring tomorrow.
There are some spots on the bench. Daniel Susac (brother of Andrew) seems to be the favorite for backup backstop. The fourth outfielder could be Drew Gilbert or Luis Matos or Will Brennan or Grant McCray, or . . . ? Casey Schmitt could be the utility infielder and adding Jerar Encarnación to the list makes 26. Maybe we have a different catcher or it's Tyler Fitzgerald and/or Christian Koss somewhere.
Like I said there aren't really any interesting position battles. The bullpen is the most unsettled but there seems to be sufficient depth. They will leave some good arms in AAA and that should help when guys get hurt.
The 2026 Giants are largely set.
Whaddya think? Is it enough?
--M.C.
