The SF Giants have a decision looming on rehabbing reliever

The SF Giants bullpen should receive a boost soon enough. Within the next couple of days, Jason Foley will need to be activated from the injured list.

Foley began a rehab assignment with the San Jose Giants on May 10, and he was quickly moved up to the Sacramento River Cats to finish out that assignment. Rehab assignments for pitchers can last up to 30 days, with many teams leaning on the longer end of that for pitchers coming back from major injuries.

After that 30-day mark, the team needs to activate the player from the injured list. In rare cases, the team and player can agree to extend that rehab assignment. Foley will reach the 30-day mark on June 9, so he will likely be involved in one of the next roster moves.

Jason Foley should add some length to a depleted SF Giants bullpen

It is hard to ignore that it felt like the Giants were one reliable reliever short in a brutal 3-2 walk-off loss to the Chicago Cubs on Saturday. Landen Roupp covered 5.2 innings, meaning that the bullpen needed to cover the remainder of that.

This forced Tony Vitello to stretch Keaton Winn to get more than three outs. That is often a tough ask for relievers, and the Giants got burned by it, as Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning. The bullpen would then go on to lose that game in extra innings.

The 30-year-old pitcher should provide a boost to that unit. He did not pitch in 2025 after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery. That said, his fastball velocity has averaged 94.3 MPH during his rehab assignment, which is a few ticks lower than his career norm.

Foley has posted a 2.08 ERA with six strikeouts and one walk in 8.2 innings with Sacramento. Throughout his four-year career, he has a 3.16 ERA, 3.22 FIP, 1.23 WHIP, 6.8 K/9, and a 2.94 SO/W rate. Plus, Foley has experience closing out games. The Giants are extremely light on that type of experience.

The right-handed pitcher has an extreme-contact profile. He throws his sinker more than 50 percent of the time to go along with an upper 80's power slider. The breaking ball can miss some bats, but his pitch mix leads to a lot of balls in play. That can work, but it puts pressure on the defense to make the plays and can be prone to poor babip luck.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow