The Giants have sent left-hander Reiver Sanmartin to the Nationals, with minor league righty Robert Cranz going back to San Francisco in the deal.
Sanmartin was designated for assignment by the Giants earlier in the week, and the swap was later announced by the two clubs. The 30-year-old lefty gave San Francisco 21 1/3 innings this past season, finishing with a 4.22 ERA, a 17.2% strikeout rate, a 7.5% walk rate and a hefty 63.8% ground-ball rate.
His big league résumé now spans parts of five seasons, four of them with Cincinnati, and he owns a 5.37 ERA over 105 2/3 innings in the majors. Sanmartin has built his game around a sinker that averaged 91.7 mph this season, pairing it with a slider and changeup that he used at nearly identical rates, plus a rarely thrown four-seamer that sits about a half-mile harder than the sinker.
The numbers in the minors have been much stronger. Over 10 minor league seasons, Sanmartin has posted a 3.40 ERA in 564 1/3 innings.
At Triple-A, he owns a 4.04 ERA in 214 innings, with a strikeout per frame and a 6.2% walk rate. The ground-ball profile has stayed with him everywhere, including three straight Triple-A seasons north of 60%.
Because Sanmartin is out of minor league options, the Nationals will need to carry him on the big league roster next year or else expose him to DFA again. Washington clearly sees a role for him, with president of baseball operations Paul Toboni likely lining him up for some kind of middle relief job.
Sanmartin reached two years of major league service time during the 2026 season, which gives Washington control of him for four more seasons.
For the Giants, the move came with roster pressure. San Francisco ended the year with 16 players on the 60-day injured list and had to clear 40-man space for most of them by Monday afternoon, forcing some difficult calls. A bullpen-needy club would have liked to keep Sanmartin, but the roster crunch made that tough.
Cranz, 23, was Washington’s seventh-round pick in 2024, taken 200th overall out of Oklahoma State. He put together strong results at every stop in the minors before a rough first taste of Triple-A late in 2026, when he allowed 17 earned runs in 11 2/3 innings.
Even with that rocky debut, his overall track record remains solid. Cranz turned in a 2.02 ERA across two Class-A levels in 2025, followed by a 2.25 ERA in 16 High-A innings this season and a 3.42 mark in 26 1/3 Double-A innings.
He has shown real swing-and-miss stuff, striking out more than 32% of hitters in pro ball, but the command has lagged behind, with walks at 12.6%. Triple-A hitters exposed that issue quickly, drawing walks at a 20% clip while he struck out just 13.8% of them.
Cranz’s brief Triple-A stint was rough, but the sample was small for a pitcher who had already logged more innings before the promotion than he did in all of 2025. He now joins a Giants bullpen mix with a four-seamer a little over 95 mph, an 88 mph cutter, an 83 mph slider and a changeup he almost never uses. He wasn’t viewed as one of Washington’s premium prospects, but he is close to the majors and could be in position to help San Francisco’s bullpen as soon as the 2027 season if the command takes a step forward.
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