The Giants Don’t Have a Closer and They’re Paying For It

After an up-and-down 2025 that resulted in them just missing the playoffs, the holes that the San Francisco Giants needed to fill were clear heading into the offseason.

Sure, some extra offense would have been nice, but the front office seemed fairly content with the core of Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, and Matt Chapman leading the way.

The pitching, on the other hand, was a much bigger question mark. The rotation was full of uncertainty behind Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, and Landen Roupp. While the moves haven’t worked out, Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser were brought in to fill those gaps.

The bullpen, specifically, was where the most work needed to be done. At last year’s deadline, Buster Posey decided to sell two of the longest-tenured Giants in the midst of a rough stretch of games. Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval were both dealt after being mainstays in the ‘pen for years.

Randy Rodriguez — an All-Star in 2025 — had gone down with Tommy John following the deadline.

The group was barren and reinforcements were desperately needed if San Francisco had any aspirations of competing. More importantly, the roster lacked a true closer that could lock down games in the ninth inning.

Stats were taken prior to play on June 4.

A Confusing Winter

These needs were obvious. So much so that after the conclusion of the 2025 campaign, team president Buster Posey mentioned it as their offseason focus.

“What we believe is the recipe to success is great pitching and great defense, so we know we need to be better there … We’re most definitely open to trying to add some arms that we think are going to help us on the starting side and the bullpen side.”

– Buster Posey

This offered Bay Area fans hope that the front office understood what needed to be done. However, Posey and company went on to do none of that. Sure, there were some “significant” additions to the rotation, but in the bullpen, there were exactly zero major moves.

The front office opted for a different approach. Jason Foley and Sam Hentges were the biggest additions to the group, but neither of them would be ready for Opening Day.

Outside of them, the Giants were hoping for internal arms to take a step forward with a handful of minor-league journeymen finally finding their footing in the big leagues.

In terms of their closer, Ryan Walker looked like the most appealing option but struggled to secure that role in 2025.

You Get What You Pay For

Walker — the team’s most consistent option in the ninth inning for the first few weeks of the 2026 season — was simply not cut out for the ninth inning.

In 15.1 innings before an eventual demotion to Triple-A on May 10, the right-hander held a 6.46 ERA with the same amount of blown saves as actual saves, both sitting at three.

On the flip side, the group as a whole was significantly outperforming projections. Through April 30, San Francisco’s bullpen held a 3.19 ERA — the second-best mark in the league at the time. This was thanks to breakouts from arms like Keaton Winn and Caleb Kilian taking serious steps as big-league relievers.

In terms of fWAR, however, the bullpen’s value of just 0.5 came in as the 17th-best mark in the game, highlighting their lack of high-leverage outs.

This would eventually catch up with the Giants, and as it currently stands, their relief group looks like one of the league’s worst.

Not only does their bullpen have an ERA north of 6.00 since May 20, but in high-leverage situations, San Francisco’s entire pitching staff has a 11.54 ERA.

Naturally, they’ve had trouble closing games for the majority of the season as well. Before play on June 4, they sit at seven blown saves while only boasting 10 actual saves.

Those numbers being that close for a team that is currently 14 games under .500 is an issue. Of course, this is a massive hypothetical, but say San Francisco wins those seven games in which they blew a save. They’d be 30-31 and right in the thick of the National League wild-card race.

Naturally, there has been significantly more issues with this team outside of just the bullpen, but it does make you wonder why the front office was so reluctant to spend on that group this winter.

When asked about the lack of additions, Posey had an interesting response:

“I guess you probably wanted us to sign Edwin Diaz, but then you would probably be asking me why I signed Diaz when he’s on the IL … I don’t regret it. It’s my job to sit here and say do we think the cost benefit of signing this person was worth it, and we didn’t see it. So I don’t regret it.”

– Buster Posey

There were several names that could’ve found their way to San Francisco outside of Diaz, despite how they’ve performed to open 2026. Robert Suarez, Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers, Devin Williams, and a handful of other relievers made sense for the front office to sign.

However, they opted for two arms in Hentges and Foley, neither of which were exactly consistent before going down with significant injuries.

It’s no secret that San Francisco has money to spend, but they chose not to, and Posey is feeling the heat for it. Even with relievers being arguably the most volatile position in professional sports, experience in the ninth inning should have been a priority this winter.

With it currently looking like a lost year in the city by the bay, one can only wonder if this could have been prevented.