The Giants have plenty to sort out on the pitching front this winter, and one prediction has them landing a name that could quietly make a real difference.
In his Top 25 Free Agent predictions, Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report projected San Francisco to give Nick Martinez a two-year, $36 million deal. Martinez is coming off a career year that ended with a World Series berth with the Rays, and the fit is easy to see from the Giants’ side.
Martinez’s 2026 season was a strong one by any measure. The All-Star logged a 3.10 ERA over 180 innings for Tampa Bay, striking out 109 batters while walking only 26. Those numbers would have stood out on the Giants last season, where no qualified starter matched that level of production, including Logan Webb.
The innings total matters just as much as the run prevention. Martinez showed he could work deep into games, which would take some pressure off a Giants bullpen that also needs help.
And the walk total jumps off the page. Among qualified pitchers in 2026, Martinez led Major League Baseball with a 1.3 walks-per-nine rate, a huge upgrade for a San Francisco staff that finished sixth in the league in walks allowed.
The Rays, by contrast, were the best team in baseball at avoiding free passes.
There’s also a division angle here. Martinez already has NL West experience from his time with the Padres.
Over two seasons in San Diego, he was mostly used in relief, but he still topped 100 innings in both years and posted an ERA under 3.50 each time. That track record against familiar opponents only adds to the appeal.
Still, Martinez alone won’t be enough. If the Giants want to be taken seriously in the National League next season, they need more than one rotation addition. Tarik Skubal sits at the top of the market, and San Francisco has the money to chase him, but the club already has three expensive long-term contracts on the books and may not want to go that route.
That leaves Michael King and Freddy Peralta, Martinez’s teammate, as the other big names in play behind Skubal. If the Giants can pair one of them with Martinez, the offseason starts to look a lot better than if Martinez is the only real splash.
Buster Posey has a long list of pitching questions to answer, and most of them lead right back to the rotation. If Martinez ends up in Orange and Black, it would be a solid step. Just not the last one they need to make.
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