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.
7 comments:
Hey! My phone has baseball scores on it! Meaningless scores, but still....
Indeed. Baseball is back!
I was reading a post on MLBTR that said both Luis Matos and Jerar Encarnacion are out of options. One of them will likely not make the 26-man roster. I hadn't been looking at the "options" situation, but it is a big part of how rosters get finalized.
I like them both. Encarnacion has a good arm, and is not as bad a fielder as advertised, but I still think that Matos can be a really good player, and would hate to see him go. I think his upside is high. Not so sure about all these guys like Gilbert that we have. Yes the kid is fast, and he seems to be a good fielder, but it all seems like an options game in baseball, even more than on Wall Street.
It does! I feel like everything has been "financialized" these days. I mean I get it, baseball is a business, but baseball players are people, not commodities.
I think if we had to choose between the two (we may not have to), it would be best to go with Matos. He's just too young to give up on.
From David Laurila at FanGraphs:
Logan Webb leads all pitchers in games started (132) and innings pitched (820) over the past four seasons. He ranks second in WAR (19.1) and fifth in FIP (2.94).
He's signed for this year and two more. He'll be 30 in November. Let's not waste this guy's peak years!
Lucas Giolito is unsigned. The Red Sox parted ways with him after a 2-WAR 145-IP season (26 starts). He was due $14M. Hard to believe someone hasn't picked him up. He turns 32 this year.
FanGraphs rated him #36 of their Top 50 Free Agents for 2026. Giants free agent signees Harrison Bader (#26) Luis Arraez (#37) and Tyler Mahle (#48) all made the list.
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