New Giants Starter Adrian Houser Talks About Journey to Giants

Adrian Houser’s rock bottom wasn't having to go to Texas Rangers camp last February as a non-roster invitee. Rock bottom was that the 2024 trade deadline.

He was traded from Milwaukee to the New York Mets, reuniting him with former Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns. A 10-game winner as a starter in 2021, the Mets saw him as rotation depth. But it didn’t pan out. He was designated for assignment at the trade deadline. He landed with the Chicago Cubs on a minor league deal but never hit the Majors. He also briefly joined the Baltimore Orioles on a minor league deal. He wasn’t called up.

He needed a change in the offseason. That was four teams in nine months. He wasn’t happy with his performance. So, he looked inward and reflected, as he told Alex Pavlovic in a video interview on Giants Talk on NBC Sports Bay Area.

The answer? Lifestyle changes that fueled a resurgence in 2024 and his two-year deal with the Giants that starts this season.

Adrian Houser’s Lifestyle Change

Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Adrian Houser throws a pitch. — Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Adrian Houser. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

He started working on eating first. He did a 72-hour fast. He said the latter part of the first 24 hours was the hardest part. He did the carnivore diet. He connected with a friend who had a pitching facility in Oklahoma City, near his home, and got to work.

“He helped me with a lot of mechanical changes, with some overall strength things and we just kind of puzzled the pieces together over the offseason,” he said.

The results started paying off last season. With the Rangers — where he was in camp with new Giants bullpen coach Jesse Chavez — he didn’t make the opening day roster and asked to be a free agent in May. Texas was flush with starers. The Chicago White Sox were not. He signed and joined the rotation and flourished. He went 6-2 with a 2.10 ERA in 11 starts, with 47 strikeouts and 22 walks in 68.2 innings.

Chicago turned him into trade bait, and he ended up in Tampa Bay at the deadline. His numbers did take a turn, as he went 2-3 with a 4.79 ERA. But in the bulk of his season he proved he could be a fourth or fifth starter for any team in 2026. He finished 8-5 with a 3.31 ERA in 21 starts, with 92 strikeouts and 38 walks in 125 innings. It was his best season since going 10-6 with Milwaukee in 2021.

Houser has a good pitch mix. He leaned on a sinker 46% of the time in 2025, a pitche that topped out at 94.4 mph. He has a slider, a change-up, a four-seam fastball and a curveball, and he uses each about 12-15% of the time. That four-seam can hit 95.2 mph. He’s also a quality ground ball pitcher, as his 48.9% ground ball rate was in the 79th percentile in baseball. It’s a pitch mix that should fit the Giants this season.