Let’s take a look at the Opening Day roster

Humm Baby! What a surprise!

While there’s yet to be a formal announcement — this article will update once one goes out — we can use the process of elimination to look at the 2025 Opening Day roster for the San Francisco Giants. It is by no means a perfect one, but it is in some ways rather surprising.

Pitchers

This has been the group where the top has been set for most of camp, but it’s the back few spots that only took shape over the last week or so.

Rotation: Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Justin Verlander, Jordan Hicks, Landen Roupp

If Webb is Webb and Robbie Ray is healthy Robbie Ray — now with Tarik Skubal’s changeup!, then Justin Verlander becomes the pivot point. Is that Verlander-Hicks-Roupp a solid enough group to keep the bullpen fresh or will they be a turbulent ocean of varying storms and serenity? Spring Training results rarely crossover to the regular season and Verlander is by no means the Verlander of yore, so there’s potentially some question marks.

Still, as solid a group as the team could put together and one that managed to stay healthy throughout the spring.

FanGraphs doesn’t think too much of the bunch (10.6 fWAR – 22nd in MLB), but that’s okay, because most sites and projection systems never do.

Bullpen: Ryan Walker, Camilo Doval, Tyler Rogers, Erik Miller, Randy Rodriguez, Lou Trivino, Spencer Bivens, Hayden Birdsong

The Giants like Hayden Birdsong so much that they’re willing to futz around with his development by sticking him in the bullpen as a multi-inning reliever. That makes sense to me because I am a firm believer that Birdsong has the juice. With both Birdsong and Bivens, it seems the Giants are trying to insure themselves against some sweatiness in that rotation, and it makes a lot of sense. If Verlander and Hicks are only 5 and divers, having guys who can go 2+ innings on those days is very important. And if Roupp can’t translate from camp superstar to MLB-quality starter, then he can switch places with Birdsong.

Meanwhile — and most importantly — Walker, Doval, and Tyler Rogers are a great group of arms to have at the end of games with Erik Miller and Randy Rodriguez providing velocity with a potential downside of walks to come in during tricky moments or that 6th inning that just absolutely needs to be a quiet one. Trivino is an interesting Swiss army knife of a reliever who might find himself bouncing between mopup, high leverage, and setup role. With the exception of Rogers, all of these guys throw 95+.

FanGraphs doesn’t project this group to be very good (2.2 fWAR – 12th in NL, 22nd in MLB), but that’s okay, because relievers are fungible and bullpen success is hard to project.

Hitters

The Giants look like they’re going to have an Opening Day roster with fewer than five left-handed hitters for the first time since 2002, a somewhat surprising turn of events when you consider that in 2002, one of those hitters was Barry Bonds.

Catchers: Patrick Bailey, Sam Huff

No surprise here. Max Stassi provides some organizational depth if the Huff move doesn’t work out.

Infielders: Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, Tyler Fitzgerald, LaMonte Wade Jr., Wilmer Flores, Casey Schmitt, Christian Koss

Big — HUGE — surprise here. Per KNBR, Christian Koss was told before yesterday’s game that he’d made the Opening Day roster. Congratulations to him and congratulations to the Giants’ scouting department. Zack Minasian talked up Koss during a radio appearance during Sunday’s exhibition game and as someone who was in the role last season to scout outside the organization, you could tell that he was very pleased with finding Koss.

With Brett Wisely and Grant McCray being optioned yesterday, the Giants have no lefties on the bench, except on days when LaMonte Wade Jr./Patrick Bailey doesn’t start — barring a trade, perhaps. Koss and Schmitt seem similar in their skillset and neither seems to be a particularly enticing sometimes-DH or a guy you’d want to test out in the outfield in-season.

Catcher (2nd), third base (3rd), and shortstop (10th) are the only infield positions where FanGraphs projects them to be in the top 10 of the league.

Outfielders: Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee, Mike Yastrzemski, Luis Matos

Yes, the Giants will once again start a new left fielder for Opening Day.

But in Ramos, they have (hopefully) found a keeper. Jung Hoo Lee had a back problem eat into his final weeks of Spring Training camp, but he’s looked healthy here in the exhibition season. Meanwhile, Luis Matos did everything he possibly could since the end of the 2024 regular season to stay front of mind in the organization and has certainly hit himself into his platoon/backup role.

Only Jung Hoo Lee (8th) projects to be in the top 10 of the league in the outfield positions, but again, that’s okay. We’re Giants fans. We expect computers to dislike the team.

While Jerar Encarnacion’s late injury certainly didn’t help matters, this is remarkably close to the group one might’ve predicted early in the offseason. Today, it’s the roster the Giants believe is the best they can field to start the season. After a wildly successful Cactus League (21-6), it was probably pretty easy to put together.