Projected SF Giants starting lineup after signing outfielder Harrison Bader

The SF Giants made their first impactful change on the position player front Monday morning, waiting until almost February to do so. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that Harrison Bader has signed with the Giants on a two-year deal, with Jon Heyman of the New York Post adding the deal is for $20.5 million. It’s the first time in Bader’s career he’s been able to secure a multi-year deal, as he’s coming off consecutive one-year deals with the Mets and Twins.

Harrison Bader solidifies an SF Giants outfield that was anything but solid

Before the Bader signing, the Giants projected to have arguably the worst defensive outfield alignment in the National League. Though Bader’s just one player, and a player who only reached 500 plate appearances for the first time in his career last season, he’s an elite defender who raises the Giants’ defensive floor dramatically. In his 6,799 innings of outfield defense since his 2017 debut, he ranks fifth amongst all outfielders with 67 Defensive Runs Saved – and no one has topped his remarkable 77 Outs Above Average figure in that time.

On the other side of the ball, Tony Vitello will have to try out quite a few lineup permutations in spring training to figure out what works best. Undoubtedly we will see a lot of different lineups in April too while everything gets settled. Bader had a very nice season at the plate split between the Twins and Phillies last year, slashing .277/.347/.449 with a career-high 17 home runs in his 501 plate appearances. The 122 wRC+ that was worth dwarfs his career 96 wRC+, however, and 2025 was his first above-average season at the plate since he was a Cardinal in 2021.

The Giants will surely be hoping Bader can at least play every day against lefties, who he has historically fared better against than same-handed pitching (though the opposite was the case last season, curiously). Considering he often struggles with the injury bug and has only ever reached 500 PA’s once, as I mentioned, he may sit a fair amount of the time against righties and hit lower in the order against them than lefties. If Bader can suit up for 120 games, the Giants’ front office would probably consider that a relative success.

Considering all that, it’s hard to nail down a single lineup permutation that Vitello will use the most frequently, but initially it could look something like this:

1. Jung-Hoo Lee - If Lee does indeed get pushed over to right field, it will take off a good amount of pressure off him, which could help his game at the plate. The Giants lack another prototypical leadoff option, so Lee will at least get a chance to be that guy against RHP to start out.

2. Willy Adames - Adames became the first Giant to hit the 30-homer mark since Bonds, and his second half last year was leaps and bounds better than the first. Slotting his righty power bat between Lee and Devers could be a good choice, though the same could be said for Ramos if Adames struggles out of the gate.

3. Rafael Devers - An easy choice. The unquestioned anchor of the lineup.

4. Matt Chapman - Chapman had a very Chapman-like year at the plate when he was healthy, though he did miss over a month of time to the IL. He’ll also be playing through most of this season at age 33, so he could be entering the twilight of his prime years, but he still fits decently well into the cleanup spot on paper.

5. Heliot Ramos - Ramos’ defensive struggles last year have been written about ad nauseam, but he still managed to hit 21 homers and produce a slightly above average 106 wRC+. If he can return to the level of his 120 wRC+ from 2024, he’d further cement his belonging in the heart of the order, and he could also hit first or second occasionally against LHP.

6. Harrison Bader - Oh, you didn’t know Bader now played for the San Francisco Giants? Scroll back up to the top of this article. Bader hasn’t been a run producer for his career (his 54 RBI last season were a career-high) and his walk rate has always been below-average, so you shouldn’t ever see him hitting 3-5 unless things have gone very wrong with the rest of the lineup. Could he pair with Ramos atop the order sometimes against a LHP here and there? Sure, he definitely has the speed for it – his sprint speed lands him in the 85th percentile.

7. Bryce Eldridge/future addition - If Eldridge does make the team, he definitely could work his way up the lineup and hit fifth between Chapman and Ramos if he plays to his potential. Based on what we saw last September, though, it might be best to not put that much pressure on the kid just yet. In fact, in the likely event the Giants decide more time in Sacramento is warranted for Eldridge, this spot could go to another 1B/DH type – such as a low-risk reunion with Dom Smith or Wilmer Flores. It could also just be Encarnacion here, too.

8. Casey Schmitt - For all the effort Posey and Minasian supposedly put into trading for one of Brendan Donovan, Nico Hoerner or CJ Abrams, they came away with nothing – at least so far. Schmitt getting the lions’ share of playing time at the keystone isn’t necessarily a problem, though, as he’s perfectly cromulent for a bottom-of-the-order hitter. With Koss and Fitzgerald below him on the depth chart, there’s enough options at 2B where the outfield always seemed like the bigger problem, and they regrouped to address that issue with Bader.

9. Patrick Bailey - Bailey is a well-deserved Gold Glover, and that’s where all his value comes from. His bat is more, well, asbestos? If he can recreate his 81 wRC+ season from 2024, that may be pretty near his ceiling as a hitter. For a #9 hitter who’s a spectacular defender, that’s really all you need from your catcher, though.

The lineup already looks better bumping the Gilbert/Encarnacion platoon out of right field, and the defensive floor has been raised by a good amount with Bader’s addition, too. The Giants are probably going to tell us the outfield is a finished product now, with all that’s left to decide in Spring Training being whether Gilbert or Matos breaks camp with the team. As far as future additions go, there could still be another pitcher, a new second baseman or a Smith/Flores, but the heavy lifting is quite possibly done.