SF Giants Player Review 2026: Ryan Borucki was an important lesson for Tony Vitello

There were a number of relievers the SF Giants had throughout the 2026 season who likely made you audibly sigh when they were put in the game. Ryan Borucki was one of those bullpen arms early in the season.

The Giants acquired Borucki on the eve of the regular season after he was released by the Chicago White Sox and put him on the Opening Day roster in a bit of a surprising move. Along with Matt Gage and Erik Miller he was one of the three southpaws in the bullpen to start the season but it didn’t take long for him to distinguish himself as the least trustworthy of that trio.

That’s not entirely Borucki’s fault, though. He was used in situations he should not have been used in like when he faced Aaron Judge during the first series of the year and predictably gave up a mammoth home run.

Borucki had a 4.94 ERA on the season with San Francisco and his platoon splits were obvious for all to see. Righties hit .373 against him and lefties hit just .195. Eventually manager Tony Vitello began using Borucki correctly almost primarily against lefties and while he had some success in those left-on-left matchups, he also had some rough outings as well.

A bad outing at the end of May sealed Borucki’s fate as he gave up three earned runs in two innings of work. He was released in early June and the Cleveland Guardians decided to sign him to a minor league deal where he had a 0.79 ERA in 13 appearances but didn’t get called up to the big leagues. 

Giants probably should not have signed Borucki in the first place

In all, the Giants rolled the dice on Borucki thinking he could be an effective arm. He had a 4.63 ERA last season so the results were about the same as it seems the coaching staff was not able to get him to the next level which does not come as a huge shock.

Borucki may serve as an important lesson for Vitello, though. The rookie manager was clearly trying to figure out how to manage a big league bullpen in 2026 and Borucki was just part of the learning curve. One hopes in 2027 Vitello will have a better sense of which guys thrive in which situations although the bigger hope is that he has better talent to call upon from the bullpen which is ultimately up to the front office.

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