Buster Posey admits that obvious 2026 roster flaw will be offseason focus for SF Giants

The SF Giants did little to address the bullpen last offseason, and that backfired spectacularly in 2026. Team president of baseball operations Buster Posey told Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard that the bullpen will be an offseason focus this time around.

Posey even admitted that the Giants should have focused on that more last winter, "We probably should have had a little bit more focus on that." Though, he added this in the context of hindsight but no one needed hindsight to know how this bullpen would play out. A lot of people had concerns about this unit heading into the season, and those concerns turned out to be true.

The bullpen was a strength early in 2025, but it eroded due to trades and injuries. Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval were moved to the New York Mets and New York Yankees, respectively, at last year's trade deadline.

Erik Miller and Randy Rodríguez finished the year on the shelf. Miller returned this year, but the Giants knew that Rodríguez would miss the entire season. The good news on that front is that he is set to begin a rehab assignment in the Arizona Fall League.

By the end of last year, the bullpen became a liabillity and one that was due for an upgrade. Unfortunately, that upgrade never came. The Giants added Sam Hentges and Jason Foley, both of whom were coming off career-altering shoulder injuries. They also signed Caleb Kilian and Gregory Santos to minor league deals.

They went into this year hoping that Ryan Walker could return to the pitcher he was in 2024. However, that quickly fell flat, and there is a good chance that he has pitched his last game with San Francisco.

The SF Giants have a starting point for next year's bullpen, but not much more

At the very least, they are finishing the year with a starting point. Trent Harris and Dylan Smith have pitched well enough to earn roles next year. Whether that is in a leverage role or not remains to be seen, but they have quickly proven to be part of a solution to a good bullpen.

Foley and Hentges are arbitration-eligible next year at an affordable cost, but the Giants will need to weigh whether they can get better value from those roster spots elsewhere. It would be a rough message to Giants fans to bring back many of the same relievers and hope for better results. Hope is not a strategy, and this is a unit that needs to be rebuilt.

At the very least, the Giants seem to be learning from last year's inactivity.

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