Padres Notes: Arraez, Adam, Song
Luis Arraez made his return to San Diego yesterday for the first time since signing with the division rival Giants in free agency. Speaking to reporters (including Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune), Arraez revealed that he “talked a lot” with the Padres during free agency before ultimately signing in San Francisco.
It’s a decision that Arraez chalks up to his desire to play second base, which wasn’t on the table in San Diego due to the presence of Jake Cronenworth. The Giants afforded him that opportunity, and Sanders notes that the $12MM salary he received from his new club was more than the Padres could offer. Considering that Michael King is San Diego’s only offseason addition making even $3MM in 2026, that certainly seems like a fair assessment.
Even if the team’s financial situation made a reunion all but impossible, Arraez’s strong desire to play second base this year does shed some light on his free agency. The soon-to-be 29-year-old posted the worst season of his career last year, hitting just .292 with a 104 wRC+. It seemed as though that left Arraez to sit through a very quiet offseason where his name rarely appeared in the rumor mill, if ever. Perhaps, however, Arraez’s desire to play second limited his market more than it otherwise would have. Teams like the Mariners, Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Diamondbacks, and the Padres themselves were all looking for help at first base this offseason, while teams on the hunt for second base help were far more limited. The Red Sox, Giants, and A’s were three of the only clubs looking to add at the keystone this winter, and Boston was known to be prioritizing defense.
That surely left Arraez with a very limited market in terms of teams willing to hand him the second base job, but that list could expand if he turns in a strong season this year. Of course, a tough season or even one where he doesn’t prove himself capable of handling the keystone could leave him looking at an even softer market next year. As Arraez himself pointed out to Sanders, his contract with San Francisco is for just one year.
“I don’t know what (will happen) later,” Arraez said of his future after the 2026 campaign (as relayed by Sanders).
In other Padres news, Sanders writes that right-hander Jason Adam threw 1 1/3 scoreless frames on a rehab assignment over the weekend and is making good progress as he looks to return from quadriceps surgery. The righty is poised to throw in a simulated game today before making back-to-back rehab appearances on Friday and Saturday. If those outings all go well, that could set him up for a return not long after his minimum IL stint date of April 8. When he does return, Adam will be a huge boon to the Padres’ bullpen. The veteran righty has been one of the best relief arms in baseball over the past few years, with a 2.07 ERA and 3.20 FIP since the start of the 2022 campaign. He’ll join a crowded high leverage mix alongside Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon, and Jeremiah Estrada once he’s back in action.
Speaking of rehab assignments, infielder Sung Mun Song is rehabbing after opening the year on the shelf due to oblique tightness. MLB.com notes that he began a rehab assignment last week, and he’s appeared in three games since. That includes appearances at second base and shortstop, suggesting that he might not be too far from being healthy enough to return. The 29-year-old is waiting to make his big league debut after signing out of the KBO with the Padres on a four-year, $15MM pact over the offseason. He figures to factor heavily into the club’s bench mix once healthy, seeing time all over the infield and perhaps even in the outfield corners this year.
Brewers Acquire Luis Matos
The Brewers announced that they have acquired outfielder Luis Matos from the Giants in exchange for cash considerations. San Francisco had designated Matos for assignment last week when setting their Opening Day roster. To open a 40-man spot for him, Milwaukee has designated left-hander Sammy Peralta for assignment. Matos is out of options, so the Brewers will also need to open an active roster spot for him when he reports to the team.
Milwaukee is buying low on a former top prospect. Matos was a fairly high profile international signing out of Venezuela and he performed well against lower-level pitching. Going into 2022, Baseball America ranked him the #73 prospect in all of baseball. In November of that year, the Giants added him to their 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.
He hasn’t been able to click in the majors. Over the past three seasons, the Giants sent him to the plate 593 times. His 14.2% strikeout rate was quite low but he also drew a walk at a subpar rate of 6.1%. He hit 15 home runs but his 231/.281/.369 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 80, putting him 20% below league average. He may have been held back by a .247 batting average on balls in play but his batted ball data wasn’t popping off the charts. His defensive metrics have been quite poor, though he’s been better in the corners than in center.
His minor league offense has been better in that time. In 823 minor league plate appearances over the past three years, he has 33 home runs and a .290/.354/.495 line. Even though most of those numbers were put up in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, wRC+ still considered him to have been 19% above league average in that time.
As he was shuttled between Triple-A and the minors, he exhausted his option years. That made it harder for the Giants to keep committing a roster spot to him. They preferred to use their bench spots to keep the power bat of Jerar Encarnación and the speed of Jared Oliva.
The Brewers will take a shot on him. They have recently gotten good results from a few guys that other clubs gave up on, with Andrew Vaughn and Jake Bauers being a couple of examples. Perhaps they can get a similar post-hype breakout from Matos. He has under two years of club control, so he can be retained through 2030 if that pans out. He will qualify for arbitration at the end of this year as a Super Two guy if he holds his spot all year.
For now, he’ll have to find some playing time in the outfield. For the moment, Milwaukee has Jackson Chourio, Steward Berroa and Akil Baddoo on the injured list. That leaves them with Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell, Brandon Lockridge and Blake Perkins, with Christian Yelich perhaps playing the field on occasion when he’s not the designated hitter. One of them could be optioned to the minors to open a spot for Matos. Perkins started the season on optional assignment and was recalled when Chourio got hurt, so perhaps he will be the move.
Matos is a righty bat and he has better numbers against southpaws, so perhaps he can carve out a short-side platoon role as Mitchell and Frelick are lefties. Matos has a .238/.302/.411 line against lefties in his big league career, compared to a .226/.267/.342 slash against righties.
Peralta, 28 in May, was just claimed off waivers from the Angels in October. He was optioned to Triple-A Nashville earlier this month and therefore hasn’t appeared in a big league game for the Brewers. He has 45 2/3 innings on his track record from the previous three seasons with a 5.12 earned run average, 17.3% strikeout rate, 11.2% walk rate and 40.8% ground ball rate.
The lefty tossed 70 2/3 Triple-A innings last year. His 4.33 ERA wasn’t especially impressive but that performance came in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. His 24.1% strikeout rate, 4.8% walk rate and 45.5% ground ball rate were all decent figures. He still has an option remaining and could appeal to a club looking for some pitching depth. DFA limbo can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Brewers could take a maximum of five days to explore trade talks.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Giants Designate Tyler Fitzgerald For Assignment
The Giants announced that infielder/outfielder Tyler Fitzgerald has been designated for assignment. That opens a 40-man spot for right-hander Dylan Smith. It was reported earlier that San Francisco would be acquiring Smith from the Tigers. Smith has been optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.
Fitzgerald had a breakout performance at the plate in 2024, his age-26 and rookie season. After a strong 2023 season in which he ripped 22 homers and swiped 32 bags in the minors, he hit the ground running in San Francisco. Through 96 games and 341 plate appearances that season. Fitzgerald hit .280/.334/.497 with 15 homers and 17 steals. A .380 average on balls in play was ripe for regression, and Fitzgerald’s 31.7% strikeout rate only further cast doubt on his ability to sustain that year’s level of production. He fell off more substantially in 2025 than one might have reasonably anticipated, however.
In 2025, Fitzgerald opened the season as the Giants’ top option at second base. He got out to a slow start, however, and hit the injured list in early May due to a rib fracture. He only missed 12 days. Fitzgerald returned and continued to struggle at the plate. By late June, he’d been optioned to Triple-A Sacramento. He was recalled a week later and spent most of the remaining time on the ’25 calendar oscillating between Sacramento and San Francisco. Overall, Fitzgerald finished out the season with a .217/.278/.327 slash line and a 28.8% strikeout rate.
Now 28 years old and with no clear path to playing time, Fitzgerald has lost not only his starting job but his grip on a roster spot entirely. His 2025 struggles contributed to the Giants’ offseason signing of Luis Arraez to serve as new skipper Tony Vitello’s second baseman. With Matt Chapman at third, Willy Adames at shortstop and Arraez at second base, none of Fitzgerald’s primary positions are available. He’s logged a bit of time in the outfield corners, but the Giants have Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee handling those roles, with newly signed Harrison Bader in center.
Though Fitzgerald could factor into the bench mix, in theory, the Giants have Christian Koss in an infield/outfield role. He outperformed Fitzgerald in the majors last year (after a big 2024 in the minor leagues). Jerar Encarnacion is out of minor league options and can’t be sent down. Minor league signee Jared Oliva offers plus-plus speed and a good glove across all three outfield spots. One spot, of course, is earmarked for the backup catcher (currently Daniel Susac). And whenever top prospect Bryce Eldridge returns to the majors, that’ll push Casey Schmitt — who’s surprisingly played three games at first base thus far — into a utility role.
Increasingly, Fitzgerald just feels like a man without a true role on the roster. He’d be a nice depth option to have in the event of an injury, but the Giants are well-stocked with players who have a combination of comparable versatility, youth and more minor league options than Fitzgerald, who’s in his final option year.
Based on Fitzgerald’s versatility and 2024 production, another club would take an interest now that he’s in DFA limbo. He doesn’t have strong defensive grades at shortstop in the majors but does have plus marks at second base. He can handle third base or the outfield corners as well, and even while he struggled at the plate last season, Fitzgerald landed in the 97th percentile of big leaguers in terms of average sprint speed (29.7 feet/sec), per Statcast.
The Giants have five days to trade Fitzgerald or place him on waivers. Running him through waivers would be another 48-hour process. Within a week’s time, his DFA will be formally resolved. There’s a good chance he’ll land with another club. It’s easy to imagine some teams having interest in a small trade, and at the very least, it’d be surprising if all 29 other clubs passed via waivers.
Giants To Acquire Dylan Smith
The Giants are acquiring right-hander Dylan Smith from the Tigers, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Detroit designated him for assignment when setting their Opening Day roster last week and will get cash considerations in return. San Francisco will need to make a corresponding move to open a 40-man spot for this to become official.
Smith, 26 in May, has a limited major league track record. The Tigers added him to their 40-man roster in May of last year. He spent most of the remainder of the seasons on optional assignment and was also on the minor league injured list for a while. His major league work consisted of 13 innings over seven appearances, allowing two earned runs while surrendering six hits, five walks, hitting three batters and striking out four opponents.
His minor league track record as a reliever is also fairly limited. After being drafted in 2021, the Tigers had him working as a starter for a while. Thanks to some injuries and some mediocre numbers, he was moved to the bullpen in 2025. Around his stints in the majors and his time on the IL, he tossed 39 2/3 minor league innings with a 2.27 earned run average. His 37.7% strikeout rate was massive and his 45.5% ground ball rate was also pretty good, though his 11.3% walk rate was on the high side. His four-seamer and sinker both averaged in the mid-90s while his splitter and slider both averaged in the mid-80s.
Due to his recent move to relief work and his subpar control last year, Smith may be a bit of a project. He got squeezed off the Detroit roster but San Francisco will be the beneficiary. Smith still has a couple of options, so they can shuttle him to the minors and back fairly freely as he tries to rein in his stuff. He has just a handful of service days and could stick with the club for years to come if he takes a step forward and continues to justify a roster spot.
The Giants don’t have a lot of certainty in their bullpen. They traded away Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval last year then lost Randy Rodríguez to Tommy John surgery. They added some guys via small deals but didn’t make any massive moves to upgrade the relief corps, so there’s room for some young guys to flourish.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images
Giants Select Caleb Kilian
The Giants announced their Opening Day roster moves today. Outfielder Jared Oliva and right-hander Caleb Kilian were selected to the 40-man. In corresponding moves, left-hander Reiver Sanmartin was placed on the 60-day injured list and outfielder Luis Matos has been designated for assignment. It had been reported yesterday that the Giants were likely to select Oliva and designate Matos. The Giants also announced that catcher Eric Haase has been released from his minor league deal and that Rule 5 catcher Daniel Susac has made the team.
Kilian, 29 in June, was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason. He had an impressive camp, tossing 9 1/3 innings while only allowing one earned run. He racked up 11 strikeouts while only issuing two walks.
That strong performance will allow him to make the roster of his original organization. Kilian was drafted by the Giants in 2019 but was flipped to the Cubs as part of the Kris Bryant trade in 2021. He only got to make eight appearances for the Cubs from 2022 to 2024. He was injured for most of 2025 and only made 11 minor league appearances.
Now that he appears to be healthy and pitching well, he’ll make it back to the big leagues. He is out of options and will have to be kept on the active roster or else removed from the 40-man entirely. He has less than a year of service time, so he can be retained for the long term if this season goes especially well.
The San Francisco bullpen has opportunities available because they traded Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval last year and then lost Randy Rodríguez to Tommy John surgery. Their moves to replace those losses were mostly injury reclamation projects, such as Kilian himself.
Sanmartin’s transfer is not a surprise. A waiver claimee from November, it was reported a few weeks ago that he had suffered a significant hip flexor strain that was going to keep him out of action for at least three months.
Behind the plate, the Giants have Patrick Bailey but the backup job was up for grabs. In December’s Rule 5 draft, the Giants got Susac via a trade. The Twins technically selected him from the Athletics fourth overall in that draft but then immediately flipped him to the Giants for minor league catcher Miguel Caraballo.
The fact that the Giants actually gave up a player in order to jump the Rule 5 queue suggested they felt good about Susac’s chances of being an impact guy for them. He helped his own cause by putting up a .350/.386/.550 line in spring training. That was helped by an unsustainable .400 batting average on balls in play but it was enough to get him the job regardless.
As a Rule 5 guy, he can’t be optioned to the minors and will have to stay on the active roster all year long for the Giants to fully acquire his rights. If they want to cut him at any point this year, he could be traded or put on waivers. Any claiming team would take on the same Rule 5 restrictions. If he were to clear waivers, he would have to be offered back to the A’s.
Susac getting the job squeezes out Haase, who had signed a minor league deal in January. He had a huge spring, slashing .286/.375/.536, but also struck out in 14 of his 32 plate appearances. That’s fairly reflective of his big league career, as he has 48 home runs in 1,224 plate appearances but has been punched out at a 30.7% clip. He’ll head out to the open market to see what opportunities are available this week as all clubs shuffle their rosters.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Giants Likely To Designate Luis Matos For Assignment
The Giants are planning to designate outfielder Luis Matos for assignment, reports Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle. She adds that minor league signee Jared Oliva is expected to break camp in a bench role, so he’ll take Matos’ spot on the active and 40-man rosters.
Matos is out of minor league options. Formerly one of the organization’s top position player prospects, he was one of the most intriguing players fighting to hold his 40-man spot this spring. The Giants gave him a look long in camp, as he led the team with 23 games and 55 plate appearances.
After a quick start, Matos’ bat cooled in the middle of March. He finished the spring with a .260/.327/.440 line with two home runs. Matos only struck out three times but also took just one walk, as his on-base percentage was propped up by getting plunked by four pitches.
That aggressiveness has undercut Matos’ production in meaningful games. He’s a .231/.281/.369 hitter over parts of three MLB seasons. Matos has taken just under 600 plate appearances, the rough equivalent to one full season of playing time. He has hit 15 homers with strong contact rates but has worked walks at a modest 6.1% clip.
The Giants can wait until tomorrow morning to officially designate Matos for assignment. They’ll then have five days to try to trade him. If nothing comes together, they’d need to place him on waivers. There’s a decent chance he’ll be claimed, as he’s a 24-year-old former notable prospect who owns a .287/.345/.505 line over three Triple-A seasons. If another team acquires him via trade or waivers, they’d need to carry him on the big league roster.
Matos’ exclusion means the Giants will probably carry Jerar Encarnacion. He’s also an out-of-options outfielder who fits best in a corner or at designated hitter. He can get regular playing time at DH with Bryce Eldridge opening the season in the minors. San Francisco optioned depth outfielders Will Brennan and Drew Gilbert to Triple-A Sacramento this evening.
Rule 5 pick Daniel Susac is expected to win the backup catcher job. Casey Schmitt and Christian Koss seem ticketed for utility infield roles. That’ll very likely leave Oliva as a fifth outfielder and backup center fielder behind Harrison Bader. Assuming he’s officially selected onto the roster tomorrow, it’ll be his first MLB work in five years.
Oliva played in 26 big league games with the Pirates between 2020-21. He has bounced around the upper minors for the past few seasons without returning to the big league level. Oliva had a league average .252/.335/.413 batting line with 57 stolen bases in Triple-A with the Milwaukee organization last year. He signed a minor league deal with San Francisco over the winter and seized a job with his continued aggressiveness on the bases.
The righty-hitting outfielder stole 14 bags in 15 attempts. His .375 average over 20 games is unlikely to be a precursor to much of an impact at the plate, but the Giants are opting for more speed and defense in the final bench spot than Matos would have provided.
Poll: Who Will Win The NL West?
With Opening Day just around the corner, the offseason is more or less complete for MLB’s 30 clubs and teams. Until the playoffs begin, teams will be focused on a smaller goal: winning their division. In the run-up to the start of the season, we will be conducting a series of polls to gauge who MLBTR readers believe is the favorite in each division. The Blue Jays came out on top in the AL East, and the Tigers did the same in our poll on the AL Central. Yesterday, MLBTR readers overwhelmingly voted (66%) to predict the Mariners would win the AL West. Today, we’ll be moving on to the National League, starting with the NL West. All teams are listed in order of their 2025 regular season record:
Los Angeles Dodgers (93-69)
The Dodgers may have not even qualified for a playoff bye last year, but their dominant performance during the postseason quelled any doubt about the club being the class of the National League. Los Angeles did not rest on its laurels this offseason, adding two more superstars: outfielder Kyle Tucker and closer Edwin Diaz. That duo levels up a roster that already sports Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Mookie Betts among many other high-end players. As has become the norm, the Dodgers enter 2026 as the overwhelming favorite to win the division, although their aging and injury-prone core will surely start showing cracks at some point. Will this year be that year?
San Diego Padres (90-72)
On paper, the Padres might look to some as if they’re more likely to miss the playoffs entirely than overtake the Dodgers in the NL West. The silver living for San Diego, then, is that this was also true headed into the 2025 season. Despite that narrative, the Padres managed to spend much of the summer in a virtual tie with Los Angeles, and they were in sole possession of first place as late as August 23. This year, they’ll look to defy the odds once again with a patchwork rotation that offers little certainty outside of Nick Pivetta and a lineup that wasn’t substantially improved over the offseason. The biggest additions to San Diego relative to last year, in all likelihood, will be full seasons from star closer Mason Miller and veteran outfielder Ramon Laureano.
San Francisco Giants (81-81)
After a splashy trade for Rafael Devers last June, the Giants ended up selling at last year’s trade deadline. Their efforts to get back in the playoff hunt for 2026 this winter were more complementary than impactful. Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser join a rotation that lost Justin Verlander. The lineup added a glove-first outfielder in Harrison Bader and a bat-first infielder in Luis Arraez. Still, the team looks solid on paper. Those additions leave the San Francisco offense without many obvious holes, and the rotation sports one of the game’s best starters in Logan Webb plus a former Cy Young winner in Robbie Ray. Perhaps the biggest question facing the Giants this year is in the bullpen. San Francisco traded Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval last July and lost Randy Rodriguez to Tommy John surgery in September. None have been replaced. That could leave the club bleeding runs in the late innings without big steps forward from players like Erik Miller and Jose Butto.
Arizona Diamondbacks (80-82)
Just about everything that could go wrong on the pitching side did so for the Diamondbacks last year. Zac Gallen had the worst season of his career. Corbin Burnes, Justin Martinez, and A.J. Puk all underwent elbow surgery. Brandon Pfaadt and Eduardo Rodriguez had seasons to forget. Their team is weaker on paper headed into 2026 than it was in 2025, as their big offseason additions were reunions with Gallen and Merrill Kelly, plus additions at the infield corners (Carlos Santana and Nolan Arenado) won’t match the offensive output of those positions’ previous occupants (Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez). Even so, Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll are legitimate superstars. Geraldo Perdomo might be one as well. If the team’s veteran pitchers can turn things around, perhaps the Diamondbacks could ride their strong offensive nucleus back into the postseason.
Colorado Rockies (43-119)
Following a 119-loss season in 2025, Colorado made some small moves under new front office boss Paul DePodesta but nothing that would truly move the needle. Jake McCarthy, Edouard Julien, Willi Castro, Michael Lorenzen, and Jose Quintana have certainly all had their fair share of success in the past, but each profiles as a complementary player at the best of times. Perhaps those moves working out plus steps forward from key pieces like Brenton Doyle and Ezequiel Tovar could help the Rockies avoid another 100-loss season, but a division title or Wild Card berth are both pipe dreams.
Who do MLBTR readers think will win the NL West? Have your say in the poll:
Who will win the NL West in 2026?
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Los Angeles Dodgers 66% (2,924)
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San Diego Padres 12% (523)
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Colorado Rockies 10% (449)
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San Francisco Giants 9% (403)
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Arizona Diamondbacks 3% (138)
Total votes: 4,437
Giants Release Joey Lucchesi
The Giants have released left-hander Joey Lucchesi, the New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports. Lucchesi was non-tendered by San Francisco last November and then re-signed to a minor league deal a couple of weeks ago, but the recent signing of southpaw Ryan Borucki apparently made Lucchesi again expendable. Heyman wrote that Lucchesi was “granted his release,” so it could be that the team agreed to Lucchesi’s request to be let go, or the left-hander might have triggered an out clause in his contract if he learned he wasn’t making the Opening Day roster.
Lucchesi first landed in San Francisco on a minors deal last offseason, and posted a 3.76 ERA, 7.3% walk rate, and 18.8% strikeout rate over 38 1/3 innings out of the Giants’ bullpen after his contract was selected in mid-June. The bottom-line ERA was respectable and Lucchesi had a strong 53% grounder rate, but the Giants still decided to pass on tendering a contract rather than pay Lucchesi a projected $2MM arbitration salary.
2025 marked the first time in Lucchesi’s seven MLB seasons that he worked exclusively out of the bullpen, and he went longer than an inning in only seven of his 38 Giants appearances. Rather than acting as a swingman or even a true long reliever, Lucchesi could be settling into more of a traditional relief role, though it certainly can’t hurt that he looks capable of slightly longer stints. Left-handed hitters have rarely been able to do much against Lucchesi, as he has held lefty swingers to a .219/.296/.301 slash line over his career.
Lucchesi is out of minor league options, which adds another hurdle in his quest to land with a new team. Unless he sticks in the majors and delivers particularly solid results, Lucchesi could find himself in DFA/waiver wire limbo, as the proverbial 26th man on the roster. That said, teams are always in need of left-handed depth, so Lucchesi may not have to wait long before he finds another contract.
Giants, Ryan Borucki Agree To Major-League Deal
The Giants and left-hander Ryan Borucki are in agreement on a one-year, major-league deal. Right-hander Hayden Birdsong has been placed on the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. Borucki is a client of ISE Baseball.
Borucki, who turns 32 on March 31, joins a new organization just a day after being released by the White Sox. Since debuting with the Blue Jays in 2018, he owns a 4.28 ERA, a 19.7% strikeout rate, and an 8.9% walk rate in 256 1/3 innings. His strikeout and walk numbers are worse than average, though Borucki has shown flashes of success thanks to a strong 48.3% career groundball rate. His most recent above-average season came in 2023 with the Pirates. He posted a 2.45 ERA in 40 1/3 innings that year while walking just 2.6% of hitters and allowing less than one home run per nine innings for the first time since the pandemic season.
He has struggled mightily since then. In 46 innings from 2024-25, Borucki has a 5.28 ERA and a slightly more generous (but still not great) 4.32 FIP. His pinpoint control from 2023 now appears to be an outlier, as Borucki has walked 10.2% of hitters since the start of 2024. His hard-hit rate had reached a career-low 29.7% in 2023, though that returned to a more typical 38.5% in 2025. He missed most of 2024 with left triceps inflammation, then a month and a half of 2025 with lower back inflammation. Indeed, the 2023 season was his most recent injury-free year.
Recent track record aside, Borucki did very well in Spring Training with the White Sox. Leading up to his release yesterday, he had pitched six innings over an equal number of appearances without allowing an earned run. He also struck out eight hitters while allowing just a single walk and no home runs. As usual, spring stats should be taken with a grain of salt, though Borucki’s performance was enough to garner interest from several teams upon his release from Chicago. The Giants, who showed interest in Borucki earlier this offseason, now bring him in on what is undoubtedly a low-cost deal.
With this signing, San Francisco figures to carry three lefties in their season-opening bullpen. Erik Miller and Matt Gage come with less experience than Borucki, though they have intriguing profiles on their own. Miller’s four-seam velocity is in the 89th percentile, while his sinker, slider, and changeup all grade slightly above average by Statcast’s run value metric. He pitched 30 innings with a shiny 1.50 ERA in 2025, albeit with less encouraging peripherals and significant time missed due to a left elbow sprain. Gage does not throw as hard as Miller, but he did well last year with a 3.19 ERA in 31 innings between the Tigers and Giants. Although he doesn’t strike out many hitters, he makes up for it with a groundball rate in the upper 40s.
Assuming he sticks on the roster, Borucki will serve as a veteran complement to those two, as well as a potential trade piece should the Giants be out of contention by the deadline. Per RosterResource, the Giants’ 2026 payroll stands at $203MM, with a projected luxury tax number of $232.89MM. That puts them under the first tier of luxury tax threshold of $244MM, so Borucki won’t cost them anything beyond his modest salary.
Meanwhile, Birdsong’s IL placement was entirely expected after Thursday’s announcement that he is set to undergo Tommy John surgery. The procedure will keep him out for all of 2026 and a good part of 2027 as well. He will earn one year of service time while he is on the IL. Birdsong turns 25 in August and will have over two years of service time upon his return, leaving the Giants with four additional years of club control.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post was first to announce that the Giants and Borucki were close to a deal. Robert Murray of FanSided reported that the two sides were in agreement. Justice de los Santos of Mercury News added Birdsong’s IL placement as the corresponding move.
Photo courtesy of Mark Smith, Imagn Images
Giants Option Bryce Eldridge
The Giants optioned rookie first baseman Bryce Eldridge, the team informed reporters (including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle). San Francisco also optioned second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald and outfielder Grant McCray.
Eldridge will open the season in the minors after finishing the ’25 season on the MLB roster. The 21-year-old top prospect made his big league debut in September. He played in 10 games and took 37 plate appearances, batting .107 without a home run. Eldridge took seven walks but struck out 13 times.
A 6’7″ power bat, Eldridge popped 25 homers in the upper minors last year. He combined for a .260/.333/.510 batting line across 433 trips. Eldridge spent the majority of the year as one of the youngest players in Triple-A. There’s immense physical upside, but he’s clearly far from a finished product. Eldridge struck out in more than 29% of his minor league plate appearances.
The whiffs have remained an issue this spring. Eldridge has fanned in 19 of his 50 exhibition plate appearances. He’s second (behind former Giants first-round pick James Tibbs III) in strikeouts among Spring Training hitters. It’s understandable the team feels he’d benefit from more reps against Triple-A pitching.
While Eldridge is surely disappointed not to have made his first Opening Day roster, it’s not exactly a career setback. Most hitters his age aren’t in consideration to break camp. He’ll very likely be back up at some point this season.
The demotion will probably have service time implications. He has 14 days of big league time, meaning he’d need to spend 158 days on the MLB roster to reach one year of service at season’s end. That won’t happen unless he’s called up before the end of April. It’s not a case of service time manipulation, to be clear. If the Giants were primarily concerned with that, they wouldn’t have promoted him last season (earlier than they needed to select him onto the 40-man roster).
The Giants are likely bypassing the chance at getting a Prospect Promotion Incentive draft pick, though it’d technically still be in play if they recall him within the first couple weeks. The PPI pick is conditional on awards voting, though, and Eldridge’s strikeout rates are concerning enough that he’d have an uphill path to winning Rookie of the Year. The primary focus is what the team thinks best for his development.
Rafael Devers will be the primary first baseman. The Giants don’t have a set designated hitter with Eldridge in the minors. There’s now more of a path to carrying both Luis Matos and Jerar Encarnación on the active roster. Both players are out of options and would otherwise need to be traded or exposed to waivers.
Casey Schmitt and a backup catcher (likely Rule 5 draftee Daniel Susac) are going to have bench spots. That’d leave one position player spot available between Will Brennan, Drew Gilbert, Christian Koss or a non-roster invitee. Corner bat Victor Bericoto and speedy outfielder Jared Oliva are among the minor league invites who have impressed this spring.