SF Giants can still reunite with southpaw reliever after surprising non-tender

The SF Giants made a mildly surprising move earlier this offseason when they non-tendered left-handed reliever Joey Lucchesi. However, they could still bring him back as he remains unsigned at this point in the offseason.

Lucchesi was solid for the Giants in 2025. They brought him in on a minor league deal and there was some thought he might make the team out of spring training to give the team another left-handed option out of the bullpen other than Erik Miller, but he started the year in the minors.

SF Giants can still bring back Lucchesi after non-tender

Lucchesi eventually got his chance later in the season due to injuries and he took advantage of it. In 38 appearances on the season he had a 3.76 ERA. It was a solid showing for the veteran considering most of his career he had been a starter but he made the transition to the bullpen fairly seamlessly. He even became a late-inning leverage arm for manager Bob Melvin by the end of the year.

Yet, the Giants still decided they did not want to tender him a contract. Perhaps they felt that whatever he was likely to earn in arbitration would have been higher than what they were comfortable with. It was only in the $2 million range which does not seem that bad, but we know the Giants are not in a money-spending mood right now.

As part of the team's bullpen remodel, they have brought in a lot of low-priced arms, many of whom are coming off injury. The Sam Hentges signing signaled the Giants may not be all that interested in Lucchesi at all since Hentges is a lefty reliever as well.

However, as the old adage goes a team can never have enough pitching so it may not be the worst idea for the Giants to bring back Lucchesi so they have more depth in the bullpen. Not only that, but they could stretch him out into a long reliever so he can be more of an innings eater for the team and take pressure off other bullpen arms.

He would face competition from other lefties like Hentges, Matt Gage, and Nick Margevicius. But with how wide open the bullpen competition figures to be next season the Giants should have as many options as possible so they can feel confident the bullpen will not fall apart as it did last season.