SF Giants ‘comfortable’ with rotation after adding Mahle to round out rotation

Adrian Houer and Tyler Mahle, a pair of veteran right-handers who project more as floor-raisers than ceiling-raisers, don’t meet the bar for splashy signing status. Houser is coming off his best year but has had an up-and-down career; Mahle has battled injuries for the last four seasons. The Giants forecast that they wouldn’t spend big, and they proceeded to stick with the script.

Still, the number of vacancies in the Giants’ rotation hit zero with Mahle’s one-year deal becoming official on Monday morning. Between the projected rotation of Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Mahle, Houser, Landen Roupp and the team’s younger starters (Hayden Birdsong, Blade Tidwell, Carson Whisenhunt, Trevor McDonald, Kai-Wei Teng), San Francisco has more depth now compared to October.

Houser and Mahle are both on the books, and the Giants, barring the unpredictable, appear to be finished shopping in the starting pitching department.

“I don’t know if we’re ever done,” said general manager Zack Minasian on Monday afternoon in a video call with reporters. “I think we’re very comfortable with the five that we have, and then the bundle of arms behind them now to say that our depth is in a much better spot than it was at the begining of the offseason. So, happy with where we’re at. We’ll keep working at it, but do think this is a solid five-man rotation going into the spring.”

One of the people responsible for the 31-year-old Mahle landing in San Francisco is a certain future Hall of Fame manager with unquestioned clout.

Bruce Bochy managed Mahle for two seasons with the Texas Rangers in 2024 and ’25 before re-joining the Giants as a special advisor to baseball operations. During MLB’s Winter Meetings, Bochy provided the Giants’ brass with a ringing endorsement of Mahle, who had a 2.18 ERA over 16 starts with the Rangers last season.

“It’s one thing to see it in a text message or on a phone call,” Minasian said. “It’s quite another to sit across from a Hall of Fame manager and hear them say, ‘I really believe in this guy.’ It was certainly encouraging and obviously we’re happy we were able to get this done.”

Mahle, 31, joins San Francisco following his best season in recent memory. Uncoincidenally, it was his healthiest season in recent memory.

The right-hander only made eight combined starts in 2023 and ’24 after undergoing Tommy John surgery in the former year, but bounced back in ’25 thanks to mechanical changes in the preceding offseason. He sustained a right shoulder injury that limited him to 86 2/3 innings, but described the ailment as a “freak thing” because he went rouge and tried to make a mechanical tweak on his own.

“I think I can carry what I was doing over to the Giants,” Mahle said. “There wasn’t really one thing. I was pitching well and some lucky breaks, too, like we all get. I was making pitches when I needed to make pitches and things were working well for me.”

Mahle said he’s feeling “great” at this point in the offseason, adding that this is the best he’s felt since 2021, the season he had a 3.75 ERA over 180 innings in 33 starts. In San Francisco, he’ll have an opportunity to cross the 100-inning threshold for the first time since ’22.

Despite his current condition, the Giants didn’t completely overlook the injuries he’s managed.

“I think it’d be foolish for us to not recognize that it’s a risk,” Minasian said. “Obviously, there’s a history there. Now, like I mentioned, we do a lot of due dilligence, a lot of conversations with our medical group. We believe in them. We believe in where Tyler’s at.

“There is some confidence — definitely confidence — that we’re going to get more innings than he’s thrown last year. As far as what that limit is, I wouldn’t put a number on it, but I think it’s part of the reason why we’re excited about the depth that we’ve built up here.”

The Giants invested $10 million for one year of Mahle and $22 million for two years of Houser (with a club option) to fill out the rotation. With that same money, San Francisco’s brass could’ve opted to sign one starter worth an average annual value around that same price point, then fill the fifth spot with a young starter.

That course of action was “certainly discussed'” but Minasian pointed out that the team doesn’t look at Mahle and Houser as just depth. Minasian said it’s possible they use their young starters out of the bullpen but added there will be opportunities to start since no rotation survives an entire year with just five pitchers.

“These are both pitchers who did throw well last year,” Minasian said. “Obviously, we’re betting on them continuing to pitch at that level. It’s not to say that we looked at these two and said, ‘Oh boy, these are way lesser talents.’ We believe in the two pitchers we signed to take the chance on them. Now, we’ll get to spring training and the season and they’ll have to show it.”

 

After adding starters, relievers (Sam Hentges, Jason Foley, Reiver Sanmartin) and a backup catcher (Daniel Susac), the Giants’ most pressing need is right field.

Aside from Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee, the leader in career WAR (by Baseball Refrence) among the outfielders on the Giants’ 40-man roster is Justin Dean at 0.0. The remaining four — Jerar Encarnacion, Drew Gilbert, Grant McCray, Luis Matos — have negative career WAR.

This is not to say that group can’t be impactful. Encarnacion boasts awesome power, while Gilbert is a plus defender. For the all the possible upside, no one in that group has a track record of success in the majors.

“I think the goal is just to continue to improve,” Minasian said. “Whether we’re going to be able to do that or not remains to be seen. We’ll keep trying. … Obviously, there’s positions where there are players there that we believe in, but we’ll continue to look outside and see what’s available and what the cost will be.”

Giants in South Korea

Minasian is one of several members of the organization who is currently in South Korea, a group that includes himself, Lee, president of baseball operations Buster Posey, shortstop Willy Adames, manager Tony Vitello and CEO Larry Baer.

Shane Robinson, one of the new additions to the coaching staff (which has yet to be announced), will help put on clinic with high schools in the area. Additionally, Posey and Minasian will have tea with the commissioner of the KBO.

“We want the Giants to be big players in Asia,” Minasian said, “and hopefully this is an opportunity to give back a little bit.”