SF Giants add affordable rotation arm who shut them down last season

The SF Giants have reportedly signed right-handed pitcher Adrian Houser to a two-year, $22 million contract per Jeff Passan of ESPN. The move gives them a potential rotation arm at a somewhat affordable price.

Houser is not the most exciting signing by any means, especially when bigger fish remain uncaught in free agency like Framber Valdez, Tatsuya Imai, and Zac Gallen. Yet, we have known for a while now based on reporting that the Giants do not plan to spend big on the rotation.

SF Giants sign Adrian Houser to reasonable deal

The Giants are clearly leaning towards the cost-effective and sensible route as they try to add arms to the pitching staff. They made a pair of bullpen moves on Tuesday as well, signing Gregory Santos and Jason Foley to one-year deals to add some depth to the bullpen.

Again, these are not exciting moves but they may end up being prudent ones if these guys wind up being effective relief arms for the Giants.

The Houser signing gives the Giants probably a No. 4 or No. 5 starter in the rotation for next season. Houser is coming off a 2025 campaign in which he spent time with both the Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays and pitched to a 3.31 ERA across 21 starts with 92 strikeouts and 38 walks in 125 innings pitched.

The Giants saw him twice last season, once with the White Sox and then again after he was traded to the Rays. He shut the lineup down both times as he pitched seven shutout innings against the Giants in June in Chicago and then pitched five scoreless innings in San Francisco as a member of the Rays in July.

The Giants were clearly impressed by what they saw and now they are hoping he can deliver some scoreless outings as a member of the orange and black.

We will see if 2025 was something of an aberration for Houser though since he has not been all that consistent of a pitcher earlier in his career. The 32-year-old had some solid, if not that remarkable, campaigns with the Milwaukee Brewers but 2025 was his best year statistically since 2021 when he had a 3.22 ERA in 142 innings with Milwaukee.

These are not the sexiest moves and they are unlikely to excite the fanbase but at least the Giants are making some additions after a fairly quiet offseason thus far.