Giants are forced into MASSIVE decision...

The San Francisco Giants have some massive choices to make over the next few weeks. Buster Posey, Zach Manessian, and this entire regime have to decide what their roster is going to look like as we enter 2027 by a certain deadline. We're going to break down those decisions and what they look like here on SF Giants Digest. If you're new here, welcome to the channel. I am your host, Michael Monreal, and if you've been here before, welcome back to SF Giants Digest. We are so, so glad you found your way back to the channel. Now, let me know down in the comment section your thoughts on this year's class of arbitration, guys. We're going to break down all of them here in today's video, but I want to hear what you guys have to say down in the comment section below. Also, if you haven't yet, make sure to go down below, hit that like button, and hit that subscribe button. Those are the two easiest ways to help support the channel, and really do help us continue to bring the best Giants content and analysis on YouTube. As a matter of fact, about 75% of you guys who watch the videos are not actually subscribed to the channel, It's completely free, takes just a second of your time, and really is appreciated by myself and everyone here at Digest Media. So if you enjoy, make sure to go down below and hit those buttons. Now, getting right into today's video. Of course, the Giants are not in the playoffs as we knew basically since April of this year. But now we start talking about the offseason, the free agency, what this team is going to do to improve throughout the winter as we enter into a lockout. And then, of course, eventually into the 2027 Major League Baseball season. And this time of year, we're talking about the arbitration guys. So the guys who the Giants are going to have to settle with, you know, maybe underpay them what they're going to do in terms of these guys who can or will or maybe won't be part of next year's roster. And some of these guys are actually going to be a pretty significant piece of what the Giants try to do in 2027. So, of course, the Giants are facing nine arbitration decisions, and let's get into all of them right here. Now, as you can see, there are nine. As I mentioned, there are two clear keeps of this bunch. That is Casey Schmitt, and that is Randy Rodriguez. Now, we're going to get deeper into all of these names over the next few minutes, but there's one big question mark of these nine guys, and that is what do the San Francisco Giants do with Camilo Doval? That is a fascinating conversation. We'll get into that in a few minutes as well. there's two guys that are most likely going to be cut and have probably played their last game in a San Francisco Giants jersey that is Andrew Kiszner and Ryan Walker and then lastly there are three guys who are kind of up in the air kind of 50-50 I wouldn't be surprised if the Giants went either way with them that is Jason Foley that is Sam Henges and that is Jose Bauto and the last one is a club option technically but that is Rowan Wick so we're going to get into all of those but we are going to start with the clear clear keeps and those guys are Casey Schmitt and Randy Randy Rodriguez as it says here they really are just kind of locks to be with the San Francisco Giants next season as we talked about over the last few weeks we talked about earlier in the season Casey Schmitt was absolutely awesome this year a .271 .301 .483 slash line as you can see that .483 slugging is in the top 10% of baseball players across the league .271 average in the top 18% of qualified hitters in the league so a very very strong season from the Giants utility man left fielder second baseman third baseman whatever position you want to clarify him as he had a .784 OPS he was absolutely awesome by virtually every way you look at it was a bit of a breakout was a little bit surprising but for the majority of the first half he was arguably the Giants best and most consistent player now yeah you'd probably give that nod to Luis Ruiz but there is no doubt that Casey Schmitt is going to be a big part of the San Francisco Giants future now the next name that is going to be Randy Rodriguez now i'll make this a little bigger so you guys can actually see but we didn't see him last year of course he was dealing with Tommy John recovery but in 2025 Randy Rodriguez was the Giants best reliever he was one of their all-star representatives that's how good he was he posted a 1.78 ERA in 15 two-thirds innings it was 1.9 wins above replacement a whip of 0.89 that is ridiculously impressive it was 67 strikeouts in those 50 innings so again a very dominant season in 2025 he was an all-star even though he wasn't a closer which is just wildly difficult to do and wildly impressive so this is a guy who is not getting talked enough as being a big part of next year's relief group next year's bullpen and I'm glad that he's kind of coming off of Tommy John now he's pitching in the Arizona Fall League so he should have a couple months under his belt in terms of returning from injury so hopefully we don't get that kind of rough transition we get from guys coming off of shoulder or elbow surgeries in the big leagues now just to quickly wrap up what this is going to look like these are the price tags for what Casey Schmitt and Randy Rodriguez are estimated to get in arbitration this year for Schmitt it's two and a half million dollars now I wouldn't be surprised if his you know his side his party is going to ask for a little more maybe they try to get a little bit more after the season he put together but he was injured he's dealt with some injuries over here he hasn't been super consistent before this season so I do think they'll probably settle right around two and a half million and then Randy Rodriguez 800k yeah you are taking that 10 out of 10 times for what he can bring to your bullpen and this is because he didn't play last year so that's why it's such a low number but very very nice number for the Giants to get a guy like Randy Rodriguez who could be immediately one of their better high leverage relief options now we're going to get into the biggest question mark for the San Francisco Giants arbitration case right now and that is Camilo Doval now Camilo Doval was obviously a guy who was claimed by the Giants in the last few days of the season he got traded to the Yankees last trade deadline so I guess not last one before technically from the Giants of course the guy he's Rodriguez Parks Harbor he went to the Pirates at this year's trade deadline and actually looked a lot better than he did in his time with the Yankees came to the Giants and looked really really good in that last series against the Dodgers actually looked kind of back to that all-star form but it was an interesting season for him this past year it was 60 and two-thirds inning a 4.15 ERA he did strike 66 guys in those 60 innings so not his most dominant season by any means it was 9.79 strikeouts per nine innings he did allow seven home runs he does allow a very high hard hit rate which we're not going to get too deep into that but it is one of the concerns with potentially bringing back Camilo Doval we just need to just find out what the Giants have here and obviously we won't until next year but if they can get anyone close to you know 2023 2022 Camilo Doval then that is a absolute win but he is going to be relatively pricey so it is a pretty big debate of course really quickly Doval is headlined by kind of the sinker cutter mix those are the pitches he throws the most and then the slider which when it's on is one of the best pitches in baseball it is absolutely disgusting but again headlined by that hard sinker cutter both right around 98 miles an hour and personally I kind of think you should just cut one of those just throw a strict sinker throw a strict cutter get back to sitting 100 to 101 which he saw in his prime and that'd be great but of course it's not as easy that he's also older than he was back then so i'm interested to see if the Giants keep him and then try to adjust maybe his pitch usage or any of those pitches now this is the real dilemma with Camilo Doval he's projected a salary of 6.6 million dollars in arbitration which is a pretty hefty price for a guy who had a four ERA over his past two seasons. Now, of course, there is some real velocity and upside with Camilo Doval. That's kind of what he does. He throws hard, and when he's on, he can be a dominant closer. We've seen that time and time again. However, there are some clear risks. He gives up a lot of hard contact. He'll get up a good amount of home runs, and there's just a lot of volatility with him. He's not going to be uber consistent over the course of 162 games. I think we've kind of seen that outside of that all-star season with the Giants back in 2023. Now, that last point is what I want to really point out is the Giants could attempt to get him at a lower price tag due to him being so happy to be back in San Francisco when he got traded back to the Giants he was smiling ear to ear he was doing media which he usually didn't do back in the day and he just seemed really excited to be back in San Francisco he said he wants to finish his career as a Giant if that's possible if that's up in the air so I do wonder if the Giants try and you know say hey six million five and a half million in arbitration and maybe he agrees to it just because he's so happy to be back in San Francisco so that is a real debate now right now let me know down into the comments do you think the Giants should tender a contract to Camilo Doval at 6.6 million dollars it's pretty hefty price tag for his production over the last few years but it is a wildly fascinating conversation now we are going to get into one of the more interesting conversations of this entire debate Ryan Walker and Andrew Kisner are the most likely cuts in this scenario now we are going to get into Ryan Walker first because this is a wildly popular name with the San Francisco Giants. This past year, it was rough. A 7.16 ERA in 33 games. Very, very rough year for Ryan Walker and just completely fell off a cliff, right? We saw him at the end of 2024 look like one of the best relievers in Major League Baseball. I know on justbaseball.com, he was ranked as a top 15 reliever in the game. Came back in 2025 as the full-time closer and just didn't have it and really hasn't had it since I know there's a part in the middle of 2025 where he was kind of in that seventh inning where he looked okay and then this year even there was a little stretch in the middle of the year where he was kind of a sixth inning seventh inning guy and looked okay not necessarily awful but just didn't have it through the remainder of the season and the Giants kind of made the decision here already that he spent the the last few weeks of the year in AAA when the Giants needed a ton of arms and I think that kind of just told us hey we're done with this guy we're going to move on we're not going to tender him a contract this offseason he is going to be a free agent and it is really is unfortunate because when he's on he is gross that slider that fastball coming across body is nasty it's just wildly inconsistent i don't think Buster Posey and Tony Vitello are very interested in that now getting quickly into Andrew Kisner this isn't a big debate uh this is a guy who has been the backup catcher for the Giants two years in a row obviously they went and got him in the middle this year just because the catching depth was absolutely shot and the numbers were very underwhelming in all honesty a guy who had a .644 OPS with the Giants this year in right around 30 games you're not missing much here you have three young catchers that you can kind of ride with next season just see what happens so those are the two most likely cuts now this is the price tag that the Giants would be tendering a contract to if they decided to 1.6 million for Walker 1 million for Andrew Kinsler both those guys most likely won't be Giants next year I just don't see it happening and for Andrew Kinsler I just want to point out the fact that backup veteran catchers like him like Andrew Kinsler there's a ton on the market you can always go and find one of those guys throughout the course of the year like they did with him this past season so that's one of the main reasons and they have those three catchers if they're healthy next year they can kind of rotate see what sticks with those three guys and I do think that's what the Giants will do next season now the last part of this conversation is Jason Foley, Sam Henges, Jose Butto and Rowan Wick and we will start with Jason Foley a guy who we saw a lot in the second half of this year and it wasn't necessarily great it was a 4.15 ERA in 26 innings, only struck out 15 hitters in those 26 innings. It was a relatively rough season for him. But again, this is a guy who's coming off of shoulder surgery. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Giants tender him a contract because we've seen so many guys come back from TJ or shoulder surgeries. And once they're a year removed from those, get back to the dominance they showed prior to those injuries. Back in the day, Jason Foley was the closer for the Tigers in the playoffs. So if Buster Posey thinks that upside is still in there, wouldn't be surprised if this guy was tendered a contract now the next one is Sam Henges this is a guy who is wildly inconsistent the 3.19 ERA in 36 and two-thirds innings is not the full story because so so many times he came in with other pitchers runners on base and let those runs score which it was it's a little misleading of a year for him he did strike out 41 guys in those 36 innings and we've seen when the stuff is on he can be very nasty it was 10.1 strikeouts per nine however it was also 25 walks in those 36 innings which is just too much for a guy that comes in in a lot of big situations so I do think Sam Hentges could also be back because of the same thing that Jason Foley he'll be a year removed from surgeries and he could be more consistently on and I think Buster Posey understands that so he's another guy who could definitely be back now at the end of the day these are the four guys who are 50 50 Jason Foley Sam Hentges both right around 2 million or a little above those the numbers they'd be tender in a contract at Jose Butto's 800k I think they do bring him back because it's such a cheap price and he can be a pretty big piece of their bullpen next season and then the last one is Rowan Wick he has an $800,000 club option and we know nothing about him but I have heard from several people that the Giants really do like him he went out out of state I believe in Japan and played for a year pitched great the Giants brought him in to recover from TJ with their organization and they can you know pick up that option for 800k and if they like him as much as a lot of people are making it seem then I would not be surprised At the end of the day, the Giants have some big decisions to make. Of course, Ryan Walker is a guy who was the main closer for the Giants for a big chunk of time. Didn't work out. They also have to decide, is Camilo Duval going to be back? A guy who was an all-star with the Giants as a closer, had some rough years with New York and Pittsburgh, but could be a big piece of the bullpen. Of course, Casey Schmidt, Brandon Rodriguez, those guys are absolute locks to be back. In terms of those last four bullpen names, I really think it could go either way, because the Giants are either going to just pick up as many relievers as they possibly can or completely rebuild that group that is going to do it for today's video if you enjoyed go down below hit that like button hit that subscribe button and leave a comment your thoughts on all of these arbitration cases i'm gonna hear what you guys have to say down in the comment section below as always thank you so much for watching and we will see you next time