The Giants have cleared another catcher off their 40-man picture, announcing that Andrew Knizner passed through waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Sacramento. Knizner has the right to elect free agency, and that’s the expected outcome.
His exit fits into a busy early offseason cleanup for San Francisco. The club came into the winter with a roster crunch to solve, and the pressure is only going up as the injured list disappears five days after the World Series.
Once that happens, players on the 60-day IL have to be accounted for again, and RosterResource had the Giants sitting at 56 players on the 40-man roster as of a few days ago. Since then, they’ve started peeling pieces away, losing Grant McCray and Braxton Roxby on waivers and outrighting Matt Gage, Jason Foley and Osleivis Basabe.
Knizner was part of the catching patchwork after the Giants signed him in August while Jesús Rodríguez and Daniel Susac were hurt. He split time with Drew Cavanaugh the rest of the way and appeared in 29 games, hitting .219/.288/.356 with defensive marks that didn’t help his case.
There was still some value here from a roster-management standpoint. Knizner finished the year with between five and six years of service time, which meant he could have been kept around for 2027 through arbitration.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected him for a $1MM salary. Instead, the Giants have made the move now and opened the spot, essentially treating it like an early non-tender.
That leaves San Francisco hoping Susac, Rodríguez and Cavanaugh can handle the catching duties next season, though the front office could still look outside the organization to bolster the group.
For Knizner, free agency is the likely next step. He has the right to elect it as a player with at least three years of service time, and while his big league numbers aren’t especially strong, he remains the kind of depth catcher teams tend to keep tabs on. This was his eighth season in the majors in some capacity, and he’ll probably be looking at minor league offers.
In Other News...
Giants Catcher Shuffle Left One Offseason Question Impossible To Ignore
Eric Haases stop with the Giants was always built around necessity, but it still became a useful snapshot of how thin the catching depth chart got over the course of the season. Signed to a minor league deal before the 2026 campaign, Haase was pressed into service in April after Daniel Susac got hurt, then stuck around long enough to give San Francisco a veteran presence behind the plate while the roster waited for help.
The production never really followed, and the Giants moved on July 23 to clear a spot for Susacs return after Haase hit .162/.235/.365 in 74 at-bats. Haase has since landed on minor league deals with the White Sox and Braves, but his exit leaves San Francisco back where it started, with inexperienced catchers on hand and a front office that may have to hunt for a more seasoned answer this offseason. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Face A Bullpen Decision That Could Test Their Patience
When the Giants wrapped up the 2026 season, JT Brubaker stood alone as the only player on the roster with an expiring contract, and he has now officially hit free agency. Used mostly out of the bullpen, Brubaker gave San Francisco a useful stretch of innings across 41 appearances, finishing with a 3.58 ERA over 60.1 innings and giving the club another arm it could lean on in a long season.
The question now is whether that production is enough to earn a return trip to San Francisco. Brubaker is expected to draw a one-year offer worth about $3.6 million, but the Giants have plenty of pitching depth and may decide their bullpen needs can be met elsewhere, leaving a familiar but not indispensable reliever in a holding pattern as the market takes shape. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Face A Tough Ryan Walker Decision That Could End His Run
Ryan Walkers rough 2026 season has put the Giants in a familiar winter spot, weighing performance against roster reality. The right-handed reliever struggled to the tune of a 7.16 ERA and an elevated walk rate, numbers that made him hard to trust in late-game spots and harder still to project as the club sorts through its bullpen for next year.
The timing only adds to the pressure, with San Francisco already at 51 players on the 40-man roster and the non-tender deadline looming on Nov. 20. Walker still has two minor league options left, but the Giants have to trim somewhere, and his recent track record makes him one of the more vulnerable names in the mix as the front office tries to carve out space for a roster that needs cleaner answers. [Read more 🡒]