Buster Posey, Giants target pitching at the deadline, could seek a future slugger in Japan

New York Times

09-07-2025

SAN FRANCISCO — Giants president Buster Posey jumped the trade deadline by six weeks when he acquired left-handed slugger Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox. Now, as the frenzy of the actual deadline approaches, Posey said his priority will be to lean into the team's strength.
'Look, I don't think you can ever have enough pitching,' Posey said Tuesday afternoon. 'So we'll just keep our options open for what might present itself on the pitching side of things.'
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The Giants offense hasn't taken off with Devers in the fold. The team averaged 4.3 runs in 71 games before the trade and 3.8 runs in 22 games after it. The Giants' season average of 4.17 runs per game is 0.2 below league average. They've often scored just enough to squeak by while winning an MLB-most 21 one-run games. But they're also fully assembled for the first time after activating third baseman Matt Chapman and second baseman Casey Schmitt over the past week.
It appears that adding Devers, and more than $250 million owed to him through 2033, will be the extent of the major lineup improvements. And Posey sounded OK with that.
'Right now I really like our lineup,' Posey said. 'I feel it's as deep as it's been with having Chapman back, Devers in the lineup now, Schmitt playing second.'
Left-handed relief has emerged as a need after Erik Miller was diagnosed with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament and placed on the injured list. Miller said he got the best possible news from an MRI result that showed a Grade 1 sprain, meaning that he could avoid Tommy John surgery with rest and rehab. It's possible that Miller, who battled shoulder issues as a prospect in the Phillies system but never had an elbow injury until now, could return by mid-August. It's also possible that he could experience a setback.
Posey said the Giants are monitoring the list of left-handed options. Minnesota Twins left-hander Danny Coulombe, an impending free agent, has an 0.71 ERA and is being scouted by several clubs. Pittsburgh Pirates lefty Caleb Ferguson is another rental option who is holding left-handed hitters to a .164 average. Boston Red Sox left-hander Justin Wilson could be available as well. He's holding lefties to a .130 average and will be a free agent after the season. Pirates right-hander Dennis Santana has one more year of arbitration and could be interesting because he's got a reverse split. Lefties are hitting .104 against him.
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The Giants are listening on potential starting pitchers as well after dealing young left-hander Kyle Harrison to Boston in the Devers deal. Acquiring another depth starter would make them less reliant on 23-year-old right-hander Hayden Birdsong, who zoomed through the upper minors and has experienced some growing pains in his last handful of starts, and Triple-A left-hander Carson Whisenhunt, who will represent the Giants at the Futures Game and is likely to make his major league debut at some point in the second half. The Giants also have to be cognizant that right-hander Landen Roupp has pitched 90 innings and is just 17 away from matching his high in a professional season.
At present, Whisenhunt is not being considered to shift to left-handed relief, Giants manager Bob Melvin said on Tuesday.
Although the Giants are not prioritizing slug at the deadline, they're already exploring avenues to bolster the lineup in the offseason. Posey said he made his first trip to Japan in April to scout Nippon Professional Baseball and meet executives. Kazuma Okamoto, a right-handed hitting outfielder for Yomiuri, is expected to be made available to clubs in the offseason. Okamoto is most notable to an American baseball audience for the home run he hit in the 2023 gold medal game of the World Baseball Classic that provided the margin of victory over Team USA.
The most significant potential prize from Japan was expected to be Minetaka Muratani, a stocky, left-handed hitting corner infielder who hit 56 home runs — an NPB record for a Japanese-born player — for the Yakult Swallows in 2022. Muratani will be 26 in February and it was expected he would be made available to major league clubs after the 2025 season, but he underwent elbow surgery and then strained an oblique in his first game upon returning. So his situation is a bit murky at the moment.
The Giants have failed to court top talent from Japan in recent years, coming up short in efforts to sign Seiya Suzuki, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto under former president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. Current GM Zack Minasian had been a big part of the Giants' efforts to evaluate Japanese players while serving under Zaidi as the club's pro scouting director. When Posey interviewed Minasian before elevating him to the GM role, he asked whether the Giants should continue to invest in a talent space that had resulted in little more than frustration.
Minasian recommended to Posey that the Giants should remain active. If Posey's travel schedule is any indication, they certainly will be.