How the San Francisco Giants are Actually Building Their 2026 Roster

The San Francisco Giants are a team driven by aggressiveness under president of baseball operations Buster Posey.

The former Giants catcher has wasted no time putting his imprint on the franchise. In less than two years he’s signed Willy Adames to a long-term deal that eclipsed his own team record for most money paid, traded for slugger Rafael Devers and picked up his $300+ million contract and hired Tony Vitello as manager. Vitello has no professional baseball experience.

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Now, it's about building a roster with new pieces like center fielder Harrison Bader and starting pitchers Adrian Houser and Tyler Mahle as the Giants hope to finally put an end to their playoff drought. Here are three things San Francisco appears to be prioritizing as it builds its roster for the 2026 season.

Table Set and Slug

San Francisco Giants designated hitter Rafael Devers poses with his baseball bat. — San Francisco Giants designated hitter Rafael Devers. | Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

By signing Luis Arráez to play second base, the Giants know they’re going to sacrifice a bit of defense to put more traffic on the basepaths ahead of their sluggers. The three-time batting champion has a lifetime .364 on-base percentage. He’s never struck out more than 50 times in a single season and while he doesn’t draw many walks, he has led the National League in hits two of the last three seasons.

That bodes well for the batters that will hit behind him — Willy Adames, Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman and Bryce Eldridge. San Francisco had sufficient power going into the offseason, with both Adames and Devers hitting at least 30 home runs last season. Eldridge has that kind of power and Chapman can hit 20 or more home runs. But they need traffic ahead of them and Arráez should provide that in 2026.

Innings-Eating Starters

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Tyler Mahle throws a baseball to home plate. — Texas Rangers starting pitcher Tyler Mahle. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Much has been made about the durability of Logan Webb. The right-hander has led either the National League or the Majors in innings pitched in each of the last three seasons. He rare for this age of pitching — a 200-inning starter that can be penciled in every fifth day.

The Giants would love to have more of those pitchers. But they don’t grow on trees and San Francisco doesn’t expect Houser and Mahle to emulate that. But getting six innings per game out of each isn’t out of the question.

Houser gave his teams nearly six innings per start on average last season. Mahle only reached 5.3 innings per start. But, before his injury he was averaging nearly six innings per game. Robbie Ray can get six innings per game.

San Francisco seems to be putting an emphasis on reliable starters and putting the “opener” system behind them. Doing that means getting starters that can regularly get into the sixth and seventh innings alongside Webb.

‘All-American Teammates’

San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello watches a workout during spring training. — San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello. | Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images

It seems to be a strange emphasis at first glance. But Vitello’s history is wrapped up in college baseball and team building at that level isn’t much different than at the professional level. He just had a more captive audience at Tennessee because the Vols were professional athletes in the traditional sense.

Now he’s dealing with pros, some of whom make millions of dollars and can, if they wish, ignore the manager. Part of his emphasis this spring is building camaraderie with the players that will make up the 26-man roster, as well as those players that could make the team during the season.

He used the college analogy while talking to reporters about creating that chemistry during camp.

“If anything I stressed the teammate thing,” he said. “It took me a while to become what I think is a good teammate, but I wasn't ever going to be an all-American. So, I had to become an All-American teammate. Otherwise, I wasn't going to make the travel roster. It’s not bragging on my part. It's just something that I've always valued and studied.”