Giants Should Consider Employing More Bullpen Starts For Rest of Season

The 2026 season for the San Francisco Giants has been kind of a play-it-by-ear process, as the wheels fell off this year's squad before June.

Almost no aspect of the team's overall game has been played consistently well. With nothing to play for, San Francisco manager Tony Vitello is in a strange position of strength: He can mix and match, trying anything, just to make it to the finish line of the campaign.

For now, it looks as if the Giants will have plenty of reinforcements on the way, especially after president of baseball operations Buster Posey and general manager Zack Minasian just made a myriad of trades at the deadline.

Of all the problems the team has faced, starting pitching has been rather confusing. With Robbie Ray become one of the deadline departed, only Logan Webb has been solid among the strarters. Still he's not enough, and there's been a lot of crazy make-'em-ups in the rotation, due to injuries, bad performances, and (now) arm being dealt to other organizations.

To kick off Friday's game against the Detroit Tigers, Vitello started reliever JT Brubaker for one inning of work before inserting the originally scheduled pitcher for the game, Adrian Houser. However, Houser picked things up in the second inning. The move has spawned a new title/position in the game, 'the opener.'

It has been employed by other teams in Major League Baseball. In fact, the Giants in some way bought into its use before other teams did. But it was the first time the San Francisco skipper has tried it out this season.

The results were just what Vitello was looking for, as the Giants got a solid 5-2 win over the Tigers. Brubaker threw a scoreless first, while Houser followed up with five innings, allowing just one run.

“I think it was solid. I don’t think it was necessarily about strategy tonight,” Vitello said to reporters, including the San Francisco Chronicle (subscrption required). “Thought (Brubaker) threw the ball really well, and then Houser set the tone for the game … like you want a starter to do.”

No Reason for Urgency

SF Giants Move — Giants pitcher Adrian Houser | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

As a first-year manager, Vitello was handed a mess by the Bay to begin his MLB career. And while he doesn't think these random start are a cure-all or a case of reinventing the game, the team's leader said he may experiment it further with the strategy from Friday.

And with the big league staff already stretched so thin, it's something that the Giants can afford to fit in without it really affecting where the finish in the season. Still, Vitello will approach it with caution.

Deprnding on what decision is made, it's another sign that San Sfrancisco is scrambling for answers as they begin planning for 2027. However, there is still plenty of time to tinker with any aspect of the game, and Vitello can keep what works in his back pocket for later. All bets are off now, and there's nothing to lose... so what matter who trots out to the mound first?

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