Right-hander Tyler Mahle had the Giants high on his list of preferred destinations when he hit free agency this offseason.
He wanted to stay on the West Coast to be close to his family and liked that San Francisco was only a one-hour flight away from his home in Huntington Beach, Calif. He was a fan of the Giants’ orange and black, as well as Oracle Park, which has long been known as a pitcher-friendly ballpark.
As it turned out, Mahle also had someone who could vouch for him in the Giants’ front office: his former Rangers manager Bruce Bochy.
Mahle struggled to stay healthy over his two-year stint in Texas, where he made a combined 18 starts due to Tommy John surgery and right shoulder issues, but he showed he could be effective when he was on the mound. The 31-year-old logged a career-best 2.18 ERA over 16 starts in 2025, which was enough to earn a ringing endorsement from Bochy, who recently rejoined the Giants as a special advisor to baseball operations.
“When you look at the results that Tyler got last year, I think Boch liked just about everything,” general manager Zack Minasian said after the Giants finalized a one-year, $10 million deal with Mahle on Monday. “He just talked about how good [Mahle] was. Big fan of the person. Just a really strong recommendation that really came out from Boch at the Winter Meetings when we sat together. He obviously saw him pitch at a high level.
“It’s one thing to see it in a text message or on a phone call. It’s quite another to sit across from a Hall of Fame manager and hear them say, ‘I really believe in this guy.’ It was certainly encouraging, and we’re obviously happy we were able to get this done.”
The Giants entered the offseason with a desire to add two starters, and they’ve seemingly accomplished that aim by bringing in Mahle and Adrian Houser, who signed a two-year, $22 million deal in December. San Francisco’s rotation is now potentially set, with the two newcomers projected to join Logan Webb, Robbie Ray and Landen Roupp in the starting five.
Minasian said the Giants would continue to evaluate other options, but they feel good about the group they’ve assembled and the rest of their internal depth, which includes young starters like Hayden Birdsong, Carson Whisenhunt, Trevor McDonald and Blade Tidwell.
“I don’t know if we’re ever done,” Minasian said. “I think we’re very comfortable with the five that we have and then the bundle of arms behind them now. Our depth is in a much better spot than it was at the beginning of the offseason. We’ll keep working at it, but we do think this is a solid five-man rotation going into the spring.”
Still, it remains to be seen if the Giants did enough to bolster a rotation that struggled to find quality innings down the stretch in 2025. They’ve avoided shopping at the top of the free-agent market thus far, preferring to snag a pair of low-cost options in Houser and Mahle, who is coming off four consecutive injury-plagued seasons.
Mahle missed three months with right shoulder fatigue last year, but he returned to make two starts in September and said he hasn’t felt this healthy since 2021, when he recorded a 3.75 ERA over a career-high 33 starts for the Reds.
“It was big to make those last two starts and show that I was healthy going into the offseason,” Mahle said during a Zoom call with reporters. “I took a few weeks off after the season and then started throwing again, and it’s felt amazing since. I honestly haven’t felt this good — knock on wood — since probably that 2021 season.”
Minasian said the Giants did their due diligence on Mahle’s injury history and are confident that he’ll be capable of emerging as a reliable arm in 2026.
“I think it’d be foolish for us to not recognize that it’s a risk,” Minasian said. “Obviously, there’s a history there. We do a lot of due diligence, a lot of conversations with our medical group. We believe in them. We believe in where Tyler’s at. There is definitely confidence that we’re going to get more innings than he’s thrown last year.”
Mahle has a four-pitch mix that includes a four-seam fastball and a splitter, though he said he’s working on developing a new breaking ball that will help him become even tougher on right-handed hitters.
“We’ve been working on that,” Mahle said. “It’s looking good. I definitely think I can pick up where I left off [from 2025].”
