Giants Outright Wilkin Ramos
The Giants have sent right-hander Wilkin Ramos outright to Triple-A Sacramento, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week.
Ramos, 25, just had his contract selected by San Francisco in June. That was his first time getting a big league roster spot. That means this is his first career outright and he is nowhere close to three years of big league service time. Therefore, he does not have the right to elect free agency.
Presumably, the Giants are pleased with that outcome. They signed Ramos to a minor league deal in the offseason. He began the season at Triple-A and got out to a hot start. Through the end of May, he had thrown 27 innings with six earned runs allowed, giving him a flat ERA of 2.00. His 23.5% strikeout rate and 6.1% walk rate were both better than average, while his 61.4% ground ball rate was about 20 ticks better than par.
The Giants were intrigued enough to give him a roster spot on the first day of June, though his initial MLB audition didn’t work out. In his first appearance, he allowed two earned runs in two innings. In his second, he faced four batters and they all reached. Three of them came around to score, bumping Ramos’s ERA to 22.50. He was then optioned back to Triple-A and allowed nine earned runs in 5 2/3 innings before being designated for assignment.
Though the month of June obviously wasn’t good for Ramos, he showed enough early promise to seem like a viable big league arm prior to that. The Giants can keep him around without using a roster spot and see if he gets back on track.
Photo courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images
Giants Place Matt Chapman On Injured List
The Giants announced they’ve placed third baseman Matt Chapman on the 10-day injured list with an abdominal strain. Utilityman Christian Koss is up from Triple-A Sacramento to take his place on the active roster.
Chapman suffered the injury in last night’s loss in Arizona. He charged and made a nice barehand play to retire Gabriel Moreno on a high chopper to end the sixth inning. Chapman was in some discomfort as he made his way to the dugout. He took an at-bat in the top of the seventh, popped out to first, and left the game. Luis Arraez moved to third base for the final few innings, his first action at the hot corner in four years. Jonah Cox, an outfielder, finished the game at second base.
Manager Tony Vitello told reporters (including Justice delos Santos of The San Jose Mercury News) that it’s a mild strain. He suggested Chapman could return before the All-Star Break, which would essentially require a minimal stint. Even if the Giants keep him down through the Break, that bodes well for his chances of being reinstated for the start of the second half. Chapman was going to end up on paternity leave this week regardless, and the Giants have already been playing shorthanded in the infield as Willy Adames nurses back spasms.
Adames is out again tonight, so Koss draws into the lineup at shortstop. Casey Schmitt moves to third base. They’re playing without a backup infielder, meaning Cox would presumably come off the bench if they have another emergency situation. Adames could be back in the lineup on Friday as the Giants kick off a series at Coors Field.
San Francisco is 15 games under .500. Minor injuries for Chapman and Adames don’t change much in the overall course of the season. It’s another minor impediment to what already looked like a long shot possibility that they’d find a taker for Chapman on the trade front. He’s playing on a $25MM salary and guaranteed $100MM from 2027-30. Chapman has a full no-trade clause and is hitting .235/.324/.368 across 352 plate appearances while playing his usual plus defense.
Trade Deadline Outlook: San Francisco Giants
In a season where many clubs are caught in the middle and will take as much time as possible before determining whether to more aggressively buy or sell, the Giants have some rare — if unwanted — clarity. They’re sellers. President of baseball operations Buster Posey already conceded that things are trending that direction. It’s always possible a torrid hot streak will change their thinking, but this club hasn’t given any sort of indication that such a run is in the tank this year.
The Giants currently hold a 35-49 record — fourth-worst in all of baseball. San Francisco entered the season hoping to contend. They’re up there with the Mets, Tigers and Red Sox for most disappointing club of the 2026 season.
San Francisco’s pitching hasn’t been good but also hasn’t been awful. Giants starters are 15th in the majors with a 4.35 ERA, while their relievers also rank 17th with a near-identical 4.30 earned run average. The rotation is quite top-heavy, however, with little production coming beyond their top three starters. The bullpen recently lost one of its most effective arms, breakout righty Keaton Winn, to a right elbow strain — though there’s no structural damage, according to the team.
The offense is another story. Giants hitters actually rank fourth in baseball with a collective .256 batting average and fifth with a .417 slugging percentage. However, the offense as a whole is allergic to walks, resulting in a 26th-ranked .308 on-base percentage. Their collective 6.4% walk rate is the worst in baseball by a full percentage point.
Given that context, it shouldn’t be considered a surprise that far too many of the Giants’ extra-base hits have come with the bags empty. They’re 26th with 341 runs scored and tied for 19th in home runs (89). A whopping 59 of those 89 home runs (66.3%) have been solo shots. No team in Major League Baseball has seen a higher percentage of its home runs come with the bases empty.
With a -51 run differential — fifth-worst in the sport — and what can at best be described as middle-of-the-pack offense, pitching and defense, there’s not much hope of the Giants climbing out of their current hole. Posey has already more or less acknowledged as much. FanGraphs projects their playoff odds at a paltry 1.9%. How will the Giants proceed?
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Mariners Acquire Buddy Kennedy
June 29: Kennedy has reported to the team and is active for tonight’s series opener against the Angels. Seattle placed Refsnyder on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 27, with right knee inflammation to open a spot on the MLB roster.
June 28: The Mariners announced that infielder Buddy Kennedy has been acquired from the Giants for cash considerations. No further transaction was needed since Seattle already had an open spot on its 40-man roster.
San Francisco only designated Kennedy for assignment earlier today to make room for Heliot Ramos‘ return from the 10-day injured list. It didn’t make long for the M’s and Giants to work out a deal to send Kennedy to the Pacific Northwest, and the Mariners will officially be the seventh different team of Kennedy’s five-year MLB career once he appears in a game.
Kennedy signed a minor league contract with the Giants last winter, and he went hitless in eight plate appearances over seven games after his contract was selected to the 26-man roster at the start of June. Kennedy has only a .171/.265/.262 slash line to show for his 189 career PA in the majors, but he has been consistently productive against minor league pitching. Over 218 PA with Triple-A Sacramento this season, Kennedy hit .321/.424/.543 with eight homers.
At age 27 and with parts of five Major League seasons under his belt, time is running out for Kennedy to translate this Triple-A success into any kind of production in the Show. Even moderate offense would go a long way towards helping Kennedy stick on a roster as a bench piece, since he can play any of first, second or third base, plus left field or even shortstop in a pinch. Kennedy is out of minor league options, so he might find himself back on the waiver wire relatively soon if the Mariners find a better use for his 40-man roster spot.
While Kennedy isn’t the answer to Seattle’s desire to add right-handed hitting depth, his right-handed bat does provide a complement to the Mariners’ otherwise lefty-heavy infield mix. J.P. Crawford, Josh Naylor, Colt Emerson, and Cole Young are all left-handed hitters, and utilityman Weston Wilson is the only righty swinger on the bench capable of playing the infield since the M’s have used Rob Refsnyder exclusively as an outfielder.
Giants Activate Heliot Ramos, Designate Buddy Kennedy
The Giants have activated outfielder Heliot Ramos from the injured list, according to Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle. Rubin and others reported yesterday that Ramos was likely going to be activated today. Per Rubin, infielder Buddy Kennedy has been designated for assignment to clear space for Ramos. That leaves the Giants with an open 40-man roster spot.
Ramos has been on the injured list since May 16th with a right quad strain and started a rehab assignment at Triple-A Sacramento 11 days ago. That’s gone very well, as Ramos hit .346/.452/.577 in 31 plate appearances there and now appears to be back at full health. Ramos’ return may also see the Giants reshuffle their outfield defense, as manager Tony Vitello told Justice de los Santos of Mercury News and others that Ramos could play right field going forward. That would see Casey Schmitt remain in left field for the time being and Jung Hoo Lee slide over to center. Ramos has exclusively played left field since the start of the 2025 season.
The proposed move would optimize the Giants’ offense in exchange for a less-than-perfect defensive alignment. Ramos broke out with a 120 wRC+ in 2024 and has followed that with near-average production in 2025-26. That includes a line of .267/.307/.424 with a 102 wRC+ in 176 plate appearances this year. Defensively, Ramos has been worth -9 Defensive Runs Saved and -11 Outs Above Average since the start of 2025. Statcast gives him below-average range but above-average arm strength, which theoretically make sense in right field.
Moving Ramos to right would push Lee into center field. As Giants fans remember, Lee struggled badly up the middle in 2025, earning -18 DRS and -5 OAA in just under 1,300 innings. He’s been better as a right fielder this year, but still below average. As with Ramos, Statcast credits Lee with an above-average throwing arm, although his poor range will once again limit what he can do as a center fielder.
Clearly, the Giants are comfortable with the loss of defensive value as long as Lee continues to hit. The 27-year-old’s 129 wRC+ is tops among the Giants’ qualified hitters. While Lee’s .343 average on balls in play will eventually come down, he’ll continue to make above-average contact, as his 9.6% strikeout rate is in the 98th percentile and better than all Giants hitters except Luis Arraez.
The same logic applies to Schmitt, who is second to Lee with a 127 wRC+ this year. Schmitt is far from a proven quantity as an outfielder, having played just 30 games in left field in the Majors. All of them have come this year following the promotion of Bryce Eldridge, which blocked Schmitt from regular playing time as an infielder and DH. The Giants remain bullish on Schmitt’s athleticism, and while he could always improve with more reps, he’s held his own in left field so far.
If the team was closer to contention, they might give more weight to optimizing their defense. Instead, at 34-48 and 9.5 games out of a Wild Card spot, the Giants can afford to showcase their best hitters regardless of defensive fit, especially if Lee and others end up on the trading block in a selling scenario.
The Giants signed Kennedy to a minor league deal in December, starting him at Triple-A before selecting his contract on June 1st. He now loses his 40-man roster spot having taken just eight plate appearances in seven games and failing to record a hit. In 189 big league plate appearances dating back to his 2022 debut with Arizona, Kennedy has hit .171/.265/.262 with just two home runs and a wRC+ of 50. He’s been outrighted in the past and could reject another such assignment if he clears waivers, which seems likely.
Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images
Giants Designate Wilkin Ramos For Assignment
The Giants announced that right-hander Wilkin Ramos has been designated for assignment. That opens a 40-man spot for catcher Drew Cavanaugh. It was reported earlier today that Cavanaugh would be added to the roster.
Ramos, 25, was just added to the roster at the start of this month. Shortly after being added to the roster, he made two big league appearances, allowing five earned runs in two innings. He was optioned back to the minors after that. He has since tossed 5 2/3 Triple-A innings, allowing nine earned runs.
It seems that his rough month has led the team to quickly sour on him, just as quickly as they grew sweet on him earlier this year. He signed a minor league deal with the Giants in the offseason and began the season at Triple-A. He then cracked of 27 innings with a 2.00 earned run average, 23.5% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate and 61.4% ground ball rate. That led to him getting called up to the majors but, as mentioned, his results have been awful since then.
He will now head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Giants could take as long as five days to explore trade interest, though they could also put him on the waiver sooner than that. Ramos had no major league experience prior to this month, so he doesn’t have much of a track record to go on. His work in the minors has generally been strong. Over the 2024 and 2025 seasons, he tossed 115 2/3 innings on the farm with a 2.80 ERA, 23.7% strikeout rate, 10.7% walk rate and grounders on well over half the balls in play he allowed.
Photo courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images
Giants To Select Drew Cavanaugh
Catching prospect Drew Cavanaugh is in the Giants lineup tonight, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. Fellow catcher Daniel Susac is heading to the injured list with a back injury. Cavanaugh is not officially on the 40-man roster yet, so the Giants will need to make a corresponding move to add him.
Cavanaugh, 24, was a 17th-round pick of the club in 2023. He has since been climbing the minor league ladder without a lot of fanfare. Baseball America has never ranked him as one of the club’s top 30 prospects.
He has some helium this year. Splitting his time between Double-A and Triple-A, he has a combined lined of .311/.449/.550 and a 164 wRC+. That performance is propped up by a massive .402 batting average on balls in play but Cavanaugh has also been doing his part with nine home runs and a huge 15.4% walk rate. His 24.2% strikeout rate is a bit high but only by a couple of ticks. Earlier this month, FanGraphs ranked him the #17 prospect in the system. That report praised his well-rounded game, highlighting both his work in the batter’s box and behind the plate.
The Giants began the season with a catching duo of Patrick Bailey and Rule 5 pick Susac. In late April, Susac hit the IL with elbow neuritis, drawing Eric Haase and Jesús Rodríguez into the mix. As Susac was nearing his return from the IL, the Giants shipped Bailey to Cleveland. Rodríguez wasn’t getting much playing time around Haase and Susac, so he was optioned to the minors a few weeks ago. It is perhaps a testament to Cavanaugh’s strong season that he is getting the call when the Giants could have just recalled Rodríguez.
For now, Cavanaugh and Haase will share the catching duties. It’s unclear how long Susac is expected to be out of action. When he gets back, he can’t be sent to the minors since he’s a Rule 5 pick, while Haase is out of options. Perhaps Cavanaugh will be optioned back down to the minors at that point unless he plays well enough to make the Giants consider alternatives, such as going with three catchers or bumping someone else off the roster.
Photo courtesy of Stan Szeto, Imagn Images
Posey Discusses Giants’ Deadline, No Plans To Trade Logan Webb
Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey met with the media on Tuesday afternoon. He predictably expressed disappointment with San Francisco’s place 15 games under .500 while alluding to an expected deadline sale.
“I think we’ll leave all options on the table,” Posey said (links via John Shea of The San Francisco Standard and Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle). “The way things are trending now, I’d say that we’ve got to remain open to seeing what best ways we can try to improve the club.”
Despite that, Posey seemingly wasn’t interested in hearing other teams out on his ace. Asked whether they’d consider trading Logan Webb, Posey simply replied “no.” Webb is signed through 2028 and has been arguably MLB’s best pitcher in June, rebounding from a shaky start to the season that included a three-week injured list stint for knee bursitis.
Posey’s comments align with a recent column from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, who reported that Webb would likely be off the table even as the front office prepared to sell. Impending free agents Luis Arraez, Robbie Ray and Tyler Mahle will all be available. They’ll need to pay down a portion of Ray’s $25MM salary and might have a hard time finding a taker for Mahle. Arraez, however, could be the best rental position player who changes hands this summer.
San Francisco is open to shedding the long-term commitments to Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, and Willy Adames. Those are all above market value contracts, though, and they’d need to eat a significant portion of the Devers and Adames deals. Chapman, who is making $25MM this season and signed for $100MM from 2027-30, could get more attention from other clubs. Adames and Chapman also have full no-trade clauses in their respective deals.
[Related: The Giants Should Listen On Jung Hoo Lee]
Chapman, a Southern California native who has spent most of his career in the Bay Area, told Evan Webeck of The California Post last week that he hadn’t given the no-trade clause any thought. Chapman said he hadn’t heard anything from Posey about the possibility of a trade. Posey confirmed as much, telling reporters he hasn’t broached the subject with either veteran infielder.
Devers doesn’t have any no-trade protection, but he’s owed $211MM over seven years after this one. His .238/.302/.433 batting line would be his worst since his first full big league season in 2018. The three-time All-Star found himself at the center of controversy on Sunday when he attempted to wave off pinch-runner Jonah Cox in the ninth inning. Devers eventually ended up leaving the game and dodged a pat on the back from bench coach Jayce Tingler when he reached the dugout.
Posey said he hadn’t addressed the incident with Devers but would “probably sit down with him.” The first baseman addressed the media this afternoon and framed it as a misunderstanding with manager Tony Vitello (link via Maria Guardado of MLB.com).
“Two days before that, I had told him that I had a hamstring issue,” Devers said in Spanish. “I thought that was why he was taking me out of the game. That’s why I was trying to signal to him that I was fine. … I apologized, which was the right thing for me to do.” Devers added that he felt the media made the situation a bigger deal than it deserved, which he attributed to his tendency to avoid interviews. “Every time something happens with me, you guys (reporters) make a big deal out of it. I don’t care what you guys think of me because you guys are the ones who always focus on the negatives,” he concluded.
Vitello said there’s no issue and the situation was settled when the two spoke on the team’s postgame flight home from Miami. “I feel like Tony has the clubhouse,” Posey said of the first-year skipper. “I think he has the respect of the players in the clubhouse. Everything’s going to be heightened when our record is what it is, but there’s no concern on my part that he doesn’t have the respect of the clubhouse.”
Mets Claim Jared Oliva
4:40pm: Oliva has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
3:35pm: The Mets have claimed outfielder Jared Oliva off waivers from the Giants, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. San Francisco designated him for assignment a few days ago. The Mets have an open 40-man roster spot, so Oliva can take that. As for the active roster, Oliva has options, so they could send him to Triple-A if they so choose.
Oliva, 30, is an outfielder known for his speed. He is good for 30-plus steals in a minor league season, whenever he gets enough playing time to do so. Last year, he got that all the way up to 57 swipes in just 95 Triple-A games in the Brewers’ system.
He isn’t as impressive from the batter’s box, but he’s not bad either. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has a combined line of .262/.338/.415, which leads to a 102 wRC+. That’s only barely above average but that could be valuable if he’s running down balls in the outfield and stealing bases at a high rate.
Despite his attributes, he has only received minimal time in the big leagues. He got into 26 games with the Pirates in 2020 and 2021 but then was stuck in the minors for all of 2022 through 2025. The Giants signed him to a minor league deal this winter and decided to break camp with him in a bench role. Unfortunately, he suffered a hamate fracture just a few weeks into the season. Once he got healthy, the Giants decided not to add him back to the roster, designating him for assignment instead.
The Mets, as mentioned, had an open 40-man spot to work with. They could add Oliva to their bench as a potential late-game difference-maker. Though as also mentioned, Oliva is still optionable, so they could also send him to Syracuse for the time being.
Photo courtesy of Albert Cesare, Imagn Images
Giants To Move Adrian Houser To Bullpen
Struggling right-hander Adrian Houser is being moved from the Giants rotation to the bullpen, manager Tony Vitello told the California Post’s Evan Webeck (multiple links) and other reporters. With Tyler Mahle nearing a return from the 15-day injured list, Houser looks to be the odd man out of the rotation, as the Giants will instead keep Trevor McDonald in a starting role.
Houser is no stranger to relief pitching, as he worked as a swingman with the Brewers earlier in his career and was moved to the Mets’ bullpen after some other struggles as a starter early in the 2024 season. That said, it’s obviously not a great outcome for either Houser or the Giants just six months after the right-hander inked a two-year, $22MM free agent deal.
Houser expressed his disappointment over the role change, telling Webeck that “I’m not going to be happy about it, but I understand. I signed here to be a starter. I didn’t sign here to be in the bullpen. So I’m gonna do everything I can to get back in the rotation.”
Over his 10 Major League seasons, Houser has generally delivered okay numbers as a back-end starter, with a career 4.20 ERA and 50.3% grounder rate over 799 2/3 innings in the Show. Houser’s ability to keep the ball on the ground has mitigated his lack of strikeouts, though this year, his grounder rate has dropped to 40.5%. The increase in fly balls has been just one of many issues on a troublingly blue Statcast card for Houser, and his 5.73 ERA over 66 innings underlines his lack of results.
Mahle also posted a 6.04 ERA over 56 2/3 innings before a hamstring strain sent him to the IL on May 27. Between Mahle and Houser, the Giants haven’t received much return on the $32MM spent on their rotation in free agency this past winter. The lack of production from the rotation has only been part of the problem in an overall rough season for a Giants team that entered today’s action with a 31-44 record.
With the front office already considering selling at the deadline, Mahle is an obvious trade chip as a rental player, assuming that he can regain any of his old form before August 3. That means Mahle will probably get plenty of opportunity to get on track before the deadline, closing one possible door for Houser’s rotation return. As for McDonald, the rookie has a 4.64 ERA over eight starts and 42 2/3 innings pitched, and the Giants would surely want to see what McDonald can do as the team is beginning to look ahead to 2027.
If Mahle or Robbie Ray are dealt at the deadline, Houser could be moved back into one of the open slots in San Francisco’s rotation. Houser’s own trade value is next to nil at this point given both his lack of success this year, and his remaining salary — about $3MM left this year, $9.5MM in 2027, and a $4MM buyout of a $12.5MM club option for 2028.
