Buster Posey appears ready to live with a little more risk if it means squeezing every bit of juice out of the Giants’ pitching pipeline.
Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic recently reported on Posey’s thinking as the organization looks ahead to 2027, and the message from San Francisco’s president of baseball operations was hard to miss: the Giants want more out of their arms, even if that comes with a higher chance of injury. The club has already made some small changes on the coaching side, but the bigger theme is clear - Posey wants the pitching staff pushed harder.
“I’ve been very clear that we’ve got to remove that fear and we’ve got to push it to the brink with these guys in their training. You can see it’s part of how the game has changed.
Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, there was more value to keeping a guy on the field, and of course, if we could keep every guy on the field, yes, we want to. But we have to push it to the point where you’ve got to be OK if a guy has a setback…”
Posey also said that missing a season because of Tommy John surgery is now basically part of the territory for pitchers, and that the old fear around elbow injuries doesn’t carry the same weight anymore. That’s a striking stance, especially with the Giants having had four young pitchers - Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald, Carson Whisenhunt, and Blade Tidwell - go through elbow surgery in 2026.
Still, the logic behind it is easy to see. Posey pointed to the raw stuff pitchers are bringing now and the challenge hitters face against those arms in the playoffs as reasons the Giants need to wring more out of their own pitching development.
That doesn’t mean development alone is going to fix everything. Keaton Winn isn’t suddenly going to light up the radar gun at 103 miles per hour next season like he's Jacob Misiorowski just because the Giants adjust their approach. Some of that is just natural talent, which is why San Francisco still needs to be aggressive in adding better arms through both free agency and trades.
And it doesn’t have to be an either-or decision. The Giants can develop pitchers and chase outside help at the same time. The real question is what happens if the organization keeps cycling through arms and losing pitchers to elbow issues along the way.
For now, though, the Giants at least seem committed to changing course after a rough season. They added a lot of young pitching talent in 2026 through the trade deadline and the MLB Draft, so perhaps the idea is to build enough depth to absorb the damage if some of those arms eventually go down. Either way, Posey and the Giants are clearly trying to find a different path forward, even if that means accepting more danger on the mound.
In Other News...
Giants Rotation Collapse Made Two Arms Matter More Than Ever
The Giants spent much of the 2026 season trying to patch together a starting rotation that never really settled in, and the result showed up in the standings. Fourteen different pitchers made starts for San Francisco, a number that speaks to how often the club had to improvise just to get through the year. Amid all that churn, Logan Webb and Landen Roupp stood out as the only two starters to get beyond 155 innings, giving the staff a rare sense of durability even as the group around them kept changing.
Webb still carried the kind of workload the Giants have come to expect, though his numbers dipped some from his usual standard, while Roupp emerged as a steady presence in a season where steadiness was hard to find. For a team that needed reliable innings every week, those two arms became even more important than their raw totals suggested. The larger question for San Francisco is how much support they can finally build around them after a year when the rotation never came close to holding together. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Rotation Problem Points To One Type Of Free Agent
Control was a recurring issue for the Giants all season, and it showed up in the most frustrating way possible: too many free passes, not enough strikeouts, and too many innings that got away from them. Buster Posey acknowledged how damaging the walks were to the clubs performance while also sticking with the organizations choice to emphasize internal development instead of making a sweeping coaching change.
That leaves the front office looking at a very specific type of pitcher this winter, one whose value comes as much from command as from stuff. Shota Imanaga fits that profile as a low-cost possibility for a rotation that needs steadier at-bats, and his elite control is exactly the trait the Giants have been missing. [Read more 🡒]
Giants May Be Turning To Daniel Susac Sooner Than Expected
Daniel Susacs first year with the Giants already gave the club a clearer picture of what it has behind the plate. Acquired after being selected by the Twins in the 2025 Rule 5 draft and immediately flipped to San Francisco, he broke camp on the 2026 Opening Day roster and quickly showed why the organization was willing to keep him close. In 53 games, Susac hit .243 while drawing praise for his defense, a combination that helped stabilize the catching picture before his season was cut short by a left knee patella fracture.
Now the focus shifts to how soon the Giants can count on him again. Susac is expected to be ready for the 2027 season, and the bigger question is how quickly he can move from promising option to the clubs primary catcher. With his defensive work already standing out and the bat showing enough to keep him in the conversation, the Giants may be looking at a much more important role for him sooner than expected. [Read more 🡒]