Playing GM: 5 Moves to Complete the San Francisco Giants Roster for 2026

It’s been a quiet offseason for the San Francisco Giants up to this point. For a team with as many holes as this one had in 2025, it’s a bit surprising how they’ve gone about the winter.

Outside of a few bullpen additions and signing Adrian Houser to a two-year deal, there hasn’t been any significant moves from Buster Posey and Co.

On the Just Baseball Show, Jack McMullen and Peter Appel came up with five moves they would be looking to make if they were in San Francisco’s shoes. While a handful of targets for this team are already off the board, let’s look into a few directions the Giants could go to significantly improve this roster heading into the 2026 campaign.

1. Sign Kyle Tucker

Deal: 10 Years, $350 Million

Naturally, bringing in Kyle Tucker is going to significantly raise the floor of whichever team signs him. Adding the best free agent in this year’s class to an offensive core of Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, and Matt Chapman would give San Francisco one of the better top halves in all of baseball.

The Giants current right field situation is most likely going to be a platoon of Drew Gilbert and Luis Matos. While they’re both young and have room for development, Matos has struggled with consistency while Gilbert profiles better as more of a fourth outfielder and defensive replacement.

Tucker immediately solves their right field situation and gives the Giants one of the best, and most consistent, players in the game. Across his career, he’s put up a .273/.358/.507 slash line with a 138 wRC+ and 11.5% strikeout rate.

Not to mention, for one of the worst graded defensive outfield groups in baseball, he’d be bringing in +36 defensive runs saved and +6 outs above average from across his career.

The real question here is whether San Francisco is willing to spend the nearly $400 million it’ll likely take to bring in Tucker and commit to 10 years of the All-Star. The organization reportedly wants to avoid long-term deals with starters, but we have not heard anything along those lines when talking about positions players.

2. Sign Willi Castro

Deal: 1 Year, $10 Million

Willi Castro is one of the more interesting free agents in this year’s class. In the two seasons leading up to 2025, he slashed .252/.334/.395, held a 107 wRC+, racked up 5.4 fWAR and was named an All-Star in 2024.

However, in 2025, he looked like a shell of himself. He hit just .225 for a .679 OPS and 92 wRC+. Now, one may look at these numbers and question why any team would be interested in the 28-year-old.

While he’s never been the guy to hit the cover off the baseball, some of the advanced numbers suggest that the hitter from 2023 and 2024 is still in there.

	Barrel %	Hard Hit %	Exit Velocity
2023	6.8%	31.8%	86.5 mph
2024	7.0%	36.8%	87.4 mph
2025	6.5%	37.3%	86.7 mph

Clearly, if the Giants want to buy low on a potential above-average bat, Castro is a prime candidate. However, second base isn’t an essential need for San Francisco.

If they wanted to, they can contently run Casey Schmitt out as the everyday guy. Known as an elite defender as a prospect and providing flashes of what the bat could be in the past, he has the chance to develop into one of the better second basemen in the National League, if given the opportunity.

3. Trade for Kris Bubic

Send SP Carson Whisenhunt (SF No. 6) & INF Casey Schmitt to KC

Buster Posey and the rest of the front office were extremely outspoken about the need for more pitching as soon as the 2025 season concluded. After adding Houser to the back end of the rotation, they still need a top-end arm to slide in behind Logan Webb.

Bubic would only cost San Francisco around $4.5 million in 2026 before heading into free agency next winter. The Giants could hypothetically attempt to sign him to an extension, especially when you consider the fact that he’s a Bay Area native and attended Stanford University.

Either way, the southpaw would be a welcome addition to the group. After returning to the Royals’ rotation this season, he threw 116.1 IP with a 2.55 ERA and 2.89 FIP. Across the last three seasons, he also holds a 53.8% ground-ball rate, a quality the Giants absolutely adore in their starting arms.

When it comes to the return, San Francisco would be giving up their top-ranked pitching prospect in Carson Whisenhunt along with a young, controllable infielder in Casey Schmitt, who has shown several flashes across his three seasons of part-time big-league action.

4. Sign Pierce Johnson

Deal: 1 Year, $5.5 Million

The Giants have never been the organization to hand out huge deals to relievers. This would most likely explain them staying away from the higher-end relievers in this year’s class such as Edwin Diaz, Devin Williams, or Robert Suarez.

However, there’s still a number of good bullpen arms they can add to help improve this group that fell apart in 2025. Pierce Johnson might not be the most appealing name to fans, but he’d bring a solid amount of reliability to the Giants’ bullpen.

Across the last three seasons, he’s thrown 177.3 innings at a 3.58 ERA. He has a fairly high fly-ball percentage and has struggled with the long ball at times in his career, making Oracle Park a perfect environment for his profile.

Johnson also spent the 2018 season with San Francisco, providing a decent sense of familiarity between the two sides if a deal were to come to fruition.

5. Sign Michael Kopech

Deal: 2 Years, $15 Million

San Francisco has already been in touch with Kopech, and it’s a deal that makes sense for both sides. Kopech has shown a lot of promise since becoming a full-time reliever but is still looking for that true breakout season.

In 2024, he threw just under 70 innings with a 3.46 ERA and 11.7 strikeouts per nine innings. It was arguably the best season of his career from a production standpoint.

However, in 2025, after returning from a shoulder injury, Kopech dealt with a knee injury which resulted in him throwing just 11 innings. The good news is that is it was a 2.45 ERA in that sample and the shoulder looked completely healthy.

Across his career, Kopech has an elevated 1.45 HR/9 rate. With San Francisco being arguably the most pitcher-friendly environment in all of baseball, it appears to be an ideal landing spot for the 29-year-old.

The Giants have the opportunity to bring in a reliever option with elite upside on a multi-year deal that wouldn’t break the bank, especially considering what top-end closers are getting paid these days.