The SF Giants outfield has too many options and too little talent

The SF Giants made multiple low-impact roster moves on Friday, acquiring Joey Wiemer from the Marlins for cash considerations, non-tendering Joey Lucchesi and Andrew Knizner, and tendering JT Brubaker a contract.

Wiemer joins a crowded outfield mix that includes fellow recent pickup Justin Dean as well as Heliot Ramos, Jung-Hoo Lee, Drew Gilbert, Jerar Encarnacion, Luis Matos, Grant McCray, Marco Luciano, and Wade Meckler. If you’re following along at home, that’s ten outfielders that are already taking up space on the 40-man roster.

More changes are coming to the SF Giants outfield

The Giants are probably only going to carry five outfielders on their 26-man roster, at most. That means half of those guys are going to be playing in Sacramento or out of the organization completely.

Luciano, Matos, Encarnacion and Wiemer are all out of minor-league options, so they’d have to be put on waivers and outrighted off the 40-man if they don’t break camp out of Spring Training. Dean still has options remaining, so that practically guarantees he’ll start the year in Sacramento as a defense-first depth option.

It's likely well past time for the Giants to move on from Luciano, once one of the Giants’ very best prospects that culminated into a bitter disappointment. Considering that Ramos, Lee and Gilbert have the inside track on roster spots, that leaves two spots for the quintet of Encarnacion, Wiemer, Matos, McCray, and Meckler. Of those five, Encarnacion and Wiemer probably have the inside track on jobs as things stand.

Encarnacion can play a little first base, which would be valuable considering Devers and Eldridge both bat from the left side. New acquisition Wiemer, though he struggles to hit for average and get on base (two departments the Giants desperately need to get better in), is a plus defender in all three outfield spots and can hit for power against left-handers, making him a feasible right field platoon-mate for Gilbert.

Wiemer’s 2025 line of .214/.294/.500 against lefties was worthy of a 102 wRC+ despite the paltry batting average, compared to an unplayable 70 wRC+ against righties. Wiemer also didn’t steal a single base in 2025, so he’d fit in as a Giant right off the bat.

If next year’s outfield consists of Ramos, Lee, Gilbert, Encarnacion and Wiemer, would that excite you? Of course it wouldn’t. That would easily project to be a bottom-10 outfield in the majors and would potentially be a weaker unit than the Giants had on Opening Day this past year with Yastrzemski in right.

There would be little to no defensive improvement from a unit that struggled with Ramos and Lee covering two-thirds of the grass, and none of the dynamism that teams with elite baserunners enjoy. For an ambitious team with the kind of financial might the Giants should wield, their current outfield situation is untenable.

Of course, subtracting one or two of those ten guys from the 40-man while bringing in one more outside option is highly probably before the offseason’s over, but it’s not necessarily a guarantee. We’ve heard for months now that the Giants plan on focusing the majority of their spending on the pitching staff, and if they spend big enough in that area, perhaps we won’t mind so much that their outfield is so mediocre. A second base upgrade could still elevate the lineup’s offensive floor, be it a trade for someone like Brandon Lowe or a signing of Jorge Polanco.

Where things stand today, though, the Giants are arguably worse off than when the offseason first began, considering they non-tendered one of their only quality relievers in Lucchesi and have dumpster-dived for their modest additions. There’s still plenty of offseason left, but their outfield situation and the roster as a whole remains a major question mark.