SF Giants reunite with recently non-tendered pitching prospect on minors deal

The SF Giants brought back former first-round pick Ethan Small earlier this week. They have reunited with another arm as Kai-Wei Teng has agreed to a minor league deal according to the team's transaction log.

SF Giants reunite with recently non-tendered pitching prospect on minors deal

Presumably, Teng's deal will include a camp invite. The Giants non-tendered both Small and Teng in November at the non-tender deadline. Neither player was eligible for arbitration, but the non-tender deadline is a unique day for baseball transactions.

Instead of trying to pass a player through waivers, teams can non-tender pre-arbitration players, immediately making them a free agent. This maneuver is usually done to re-sign those players to non-guaranteed deals. That turned out to be true with both Small and Teng.

The Giants added Teng to the 40-man roster last winter along with Erik Miller and Trevor McDonald. He was originally signed as an international free agent out of Taiwan by the Minnesota Twins in 2017 but he has been in the Giants system since 2019. Teng was eligible for the Rule 5 draft, so the Giants protected him from it by adding him to the 40-man roster.

The 26-year-old pitching prospect did make his major league debut in 2024. He yielded 12 earned runs on seven strikeouts and eight walks in 11 frames early in the year. The results in Triple-A were not much better as he recorded an 8.60 ERA with 61 strikeouts and 44 walks in 75.1 innings with the Sacramento River Cats.

Teng has a starter's pitch mix that includes a low 90's fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup. The fastball has a couple of different looks to it as he throws both a four-seamer and a sinker. The slider and changeup have typically been his swing-and-miss pitches in the minors.

The righty pitcher has demonstrated below-average control in the minors and that will be what likely limits him to a bullpen role going forward.

The Giants have not made a major addition to the 40-man roster yet. However, adding depth options to the rosters in the upper minors is a process that every team must go through every offseason. The return of Teng should give Sacramento another potential starting option unless they do fully commit to him being a reliever.