After a 65-win season, the Giants are staring at a long climb back. But one of their first stated offseason priorities says plenty about how the front office sees the road ahead: they’re planning to fix the bullpen, not tear the whole thing down.
That matters because bullpen upgrades usually signal a team that expects to be in the mix. A club leaning into a rebuild tends to shop differently, hunting the margins through minor league free agency or the non-tender market instead of chasing established late-inning help.
The Giants did some of that last winter, bringing in players like Caleb Kilian and Gregory Santos on minor league deals, while also dipping into the non-tender pool with Jason Foley and Sam Hentges. It did not solve the problem.
This time, the message sounds different. In his post-mortem press conference, Buster Posey took the blame for the bullpen issues and said it would be an area the club plans to address. He was even more direct in his conversation with Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, saying it would be the first place they plan to improve.
The need is obvious. The bullpen had to be better last offseason, and the Giants didn’t do enough.
The result was a spectacular backfire. Now the front office appears ready to invest more seriously in relief help, which is the kind of move contenders make when they want to raise the ceiling of a roster.
Of course, whether that approach makes sense for a team coming off 65 wins is another question entirely. John Shea of The San Francisco Standard made the case that the Giants should be focused on development in 2027, then aim to retool for the year after that.
But that is not the language the Giants like to use, especially when tickets have to be sold. Attendance was still strong this past season, even if it dipped late, and “rebuild” is not exactly the kind of word that pulls people through the gate.
So the front office is acting like a team that thinks it can compete next year. If that’s the plan, the bullpen is the natural place to start.
There are relievers on the market who could fit, including Adrián Morejón and Raisel Iglesias, and the Giants may not be shopping at the very top of that class. Still, Iglesias on a short-term deal could be among the better values available.
David Bednar of the New York Yankees is another name in the free-agent mix, and the Giants have a built-in connection there with his brother, Will, currently in the farm system.
The bigger point is simple: prioritizing bullpen help is not rebuilding behavior. It sounds like a front office trying to patch a hole and stay competitive, even after a season that gave them every reason to think bigger changes might be needed.
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For now, the interest is only part of the picture, and no signings have been made. Taira brings a separate wrinkle because his path to MLB would depend on his Japanese club posting him, which could shape whether he is even available this winter. For a Giants team trying to stabilize its pitching outlook, the market is already starting to matter in a very real way. [Read more 🡒]