Giants Baseball Insider

Giants Use Potential Regular Season Bullpen Lineup Behind Logan Webb

The San Francisco Giants delivered six innings of scoreless relief on Sunday, with three relievers that potentially could be on the opening day roster.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Tristan Beck.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Tristan Beck. | Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

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Everyone focused on Logan Webb on Sunday. But the San Francisco Giants bullpen was in great shape behind him.

Webb was making his last start before he heads to join Team USA for the World Baseball Classic, which starts this week. He's expected to start against Brazil on Friday. But after he left the game, San Francisco lined up three relievers that worked four scoreless innings and all of them could end up on the opening day roster.

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That made the alignment a preview of how San Francisco could use those relievers this season.

San Francisco’s Sunday Reliever Alignment

San Francisco Giants pitcher JT Brubaker throws a baseball.
San Francisco Giants pitcher JT Brubaker. | Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

The Giants handed the ball to JT Brubaker in the fourth inning, and he delivered two scoreless innings. He allowed one hit, struck out three and walked none. The right-hander has been trying to get a foothold back in the Majors since he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023 with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pirates flipped him to the New York Yankees for international signing bonus pool money in 2024. He didn’t play in 2024 and then missed part of 2025 after he fractured ribs in spring training. He ended up with San Francisco on a waiver claim last year and pitched in five games.

He’s pitched in 80 MLB games, mostly as a starter with 344.1 innings. The two-inning stint hints at a potential multi-inning role where he can work in long relief if a starter like Webb is unable to get out of the fifth inning.

Tristan Beck came on in the sixth inning and worked one inning. He gave up two hits and struck out one. The right-hander is one of the few Giants returning from last season that has a save besides Ryan Walker. Beck went 1-0 with a 4.61 ERA in 31 games with three holds and two saves in two chances.

With 71 career games and 157.2 career innings, he has shown the flexibility to work multiple innings. But San Francisco could be building him up to work in a higher-leverage set-up role.

Caleb Kilian came on in the seventh to put another zero on the board. Kilian is a former Cubs reliever who joined San Francisco on a minor league contract in December. He was dogged by injuries for much of last season. He only pitched in two games.

In the Majors, dating back to 2022, he only has eight appearances. He’s trying to rebuild his career after last season and his performance on Sunday showed that he has the stuff to be in a middle relief role, perhaps one that is low leverage to start the season.

The alignment was interesting, given how the Giants feel about those three players. With spring training moving to March, expect San Francisco to set up more alignments like that to see how players react and how relievers flow from one to the next in game situations.

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Matthew Postins
MATT POSTINS

Matthew Postins is an award-winning sports journalist who covers Major League Baseball for OnSI. He also covers the Big 12 Conference for Heartland College Sports.

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