Right-hander Tyler Mahle finalizes 1-year contract with Giants

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — At the winter meetings last month, San Francisco Giants general manager Zack Minasian sat across from Bruce Bochy and heard the former manager's endorsement of Tyler Mahle.

That meant everything — and then the pursuit was on in earnest.

The free agent right-hander finalized a $10 million, one-year contract with the Giants, who have been building their pitching staff this offseason and now have a deep rotation intact. The deal includes the potential for another $2.5 million in incentives.

Mahle pitched for Bochy on the Texas Rangers last season.

“It wasn't necessarily the first time we had heard Boch's opinion but the first time we're sitting as a group — Buster (Posey), myself, (manager) Tony (Vitello), our baseball operations group,” Minasian said on a video call Monday, speaking from Korea. “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.’ So it was certainly encouraging and obviously happy we were able to get this done.”

It's been a busy stretch of adding pitchers — and Minasian wasn't sure whether the Giants would still look to augment the staff.

San Francisco also signed right-hander Adrian Houser in December to a $22 million, two-year contract that includes a 2028 club option. Reliever Jason Foley agreed to a $2 million, one-year deal.

Mahle is set to join a rotation featuring All-Stars Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, Landen Roupp and Houser.

The Giants hope to have more stability in that group after using 15 different starters last year — and Mahle is thrilled to be coming home to California as he is from Huntington Beach. Pitching on the West Coast was a priority for him with a wife and two young children.

“I've always liked the Giants, just kind of everything, down to the colors. I like the orange and black,” he said. “The stadium's obviously awesome and right now they have a good team, great catcher. There's a ton that goes into it. It's an obvious reason why it was one of my top picks. I can go on and on.”

The 31-year-old Mahle went 6-4 with several career bests last season for Texas, including ERA (2.18), opponents’ batting average (.218), OPS against (.593), and home runs per nine innings (0.52) with a minimum of 10 starts.

He missed more than two months, from June 12 to Sept. 18, with fatigue in his pitching shoulder. Mahle also was sidelined for most of 2023 and '24 after Tommy John surgery, so he hasn't made more than 20 starts since 2022.

“I think it would be foolish for us to not recognize that it's a risk. Obviously there's a history there,” Minasian said. “Now, 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, so there is definitely confidence that we're going to get more innings than he's thrown.”

Mahle was selected by the Reds in the seventh round of the 2013 draft from Westminster High School and has pitched in nine major league seasons for Cincinnati, Minnesota and the Rangers.

Mahle said he is feeling the best physically he has in years and definitely thinks he "can carry that over to San Francisco.”

Bochy is certainly optimistic Mahle will build off the momentum from how he started last year.

“Love the competitor in Tyler, was having a terrific year before his injury setback,” Bochy said in a text message. “Didn't miss a beat when he got back on the mound.”

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