According to an article by longtime San Francisco Giants insider Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic, posted on October 7, 2025, the Giants are interested in signing superstar Japanese right-handed pitcher Hiroto Saiki this offseason.
Giants President of Baseball operations Buster Posey reportedly visited Japan during the 2025 season to scout Sasaki and a few other pitchers overseas.
Saiki is a 26-year old superstar for the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball. The Hanshin Tigers have yet to announce whether they are posting him for any MLB team to sign or not.
Saiki has posted a sub-2.00 ERA every season since 2022, which would be elite by MLB standards. However, if anything keeps him from being an ace in the MLB, it will be his strikeout rate. Saiki struck out only 6.9 batters per nine innings this season, a career low.
Standing at 6 feet 2 inches and weighing 202 pounds, Saiki throws five different pitches. His fastball can reach up to 98 mph, and he also throws sliders, curveballs, forkballs and cutters.
Saiki Would Help A Decimated Giants Rotation
There are many reasons the Giants did not make the playoffs in 2025. But right at the end, when they had miraculously clawed their way back into the playoff race in September, it was the pitching staff that failed them.
The Giants simply did not have enough starting pitching this season. Logan Webb had another Cy Young-caliber season, Robbie Ray was one of the best No. 2 pitchers in baseball, and Landen Roupp emerged as an excellent third option. But beyond those three, every pitcher the Giants tried in the rotation struggled.
With 42-year old Justin Verlander, who had a resurgent second half of the 2025 season, set to be a free agent, Webb, Ray and Roupp are the only players who the Giants can count on to be in their 2026 starting rotation.
There are a few prospects that showed promise. Trevor McDonald was excellent in his two starts, and Carson Whisenhunt and Kai-Wei Teng showed flashes. Blade Tidwell has also yet to get his chance in San Francisco. The Giants hope at least one of them can emerge into a reliable MLB starting pitcher.
But they almost certainly need to bring in a young starter who can immediately step in and be a pitching rotation mainstay. That’s what Saiki represents.
Giants Will Likely Be Competing With The Rival Dodgers To Sign Saiki
Yep, you read that right. Run from them, dread them, but the Los Angeles Dodgers arrive all the same.
The Dodgers have dominated the Japanese free agent market for the last several seasons, bringing not only Shohei Ohtani but pitching stars Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki to town.
And they got a closer look at Saiki than anybody when he pitched against them in an exhibition game at the Tokyo Dome on March 16, 2025 and threw five shutout innings, allowing only one hit, walking one batter and striking out seven.
The Dodgers have a plethora of starting pitching talent on their roster in 2025. Ohtani, Yamamoto, Sasaki, Blake Snell, Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, and even Emmet Sheehan form one of the most star-studded starting rotations in the MLB.
However, they are an oft-injured group and Kershaw is retiring, so they will need to replace him.
Plus, the Dodgers are never, ever satisfied with the talent in their building. They’d sign every good baseball player in the entire world if they could, seemingly.
So yes, expect them to be in on Saiki, and as a result, expect the Giants to have to offer Saiki significantly more money to convince him to want to play against Ohtani instead of with him.
Giants fans, do you want San Francisco to sign Hiroto Saiki?
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