The Giants got Camilo Doval back. Now they have to decide whether to pay him
Doval struck out four of the seven batters he faced after San Francisco claimed him in September. One model projects his final arbitration salary at $6.6 million, more than a third of the club's nine-man class, on a roster that holds 57 names for 40 places once the World Series ends.
Camilo Doval found out he was going back to San Francisco from his agent. "My agent called me and said, 'Guess what? You're going back home,'" he said in Spanish, as reported by MLB.com, after the Giants claimed him off waivers from Pittsburgh on September 24. "If it were up to me, I'd stay here for the rest of my career." In two innings over the last weekend of the season he faced seven batters, struck out four and allowed no runs.
Whether he gets to stay is the first decision of the Giants' winter that comes with a real price. Doval is eligible for arbitration one last time, and MLB Trade Rumors' model projects his 2027 salary at $6.6 million. It is also a roster decision, because of how the club made room for him. To fit him on the 40-man in September, San Francisco transferred Blade Tidwell, who needs elbow surgery, to the 60-day injured list and optioned Cesar Perdomo to Triple-A Sacramento, according to MLB.com.
A player on the 60-day list does not count against the 40-man roster, but only until the World Series ends. After that, the club's own injury page says, each team must account for those players on its 40-man roster again. The space Doval occupies was borrowed from Tidwell. The club's 40-man page lists 57 players, 40 active and 17 on the 60-day list, and getting from 57 to 40 takes 17 departures by some route, before a single prospect is added to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.
The cheapest exit has a deadline#
Nine of the 57 are eligible for salary arbitration. Each of them needs a contract offer by the tender deadline, and a player who does not get one becomes a free agent. Last winter that deadline fell on November 21, per MLB.com. A non-tender needs no trade partner and no designation for assignment, which makes it the least expensive way off the roster the club has.
MLB Trade Rumors posted projected 2027 salaries for the class on October 2, from Matt Swartz's model. They are a model's estimates, not figures from the club or from the players, and the site notes that service time is not yet final.
| Player | Position | Projected 2027 salary | Status today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camilo Doval | RHP | $6.6 million | Active |
| Casey Schmitt | INF/OF | $2.5 million | 60-day list, left knee meniscus tear; club says fully healthy |
| Jason Foley | RHP | $2.3 million | Active |
| Sam Hentges | LHP | $2.0 million | Active |
| Ryan Walker | RHP | $1.6 million | Active |
| Andrew Knizner | C | $1.0 million | Active |
| Rowan Wick | RHP | $800,000 | 60-day list, Tommy John surgery |
| José Buttó | RHP | $800,000 | 60-day list, right arm surgery |
| Randy Rodríguez | RHP | $800,000 | 60-day list, Tommy John surgery |
| Nine players | $18.4 million | 5 active, 4 on the 60-day list |
Seven of the nine are pitchers. AJ Eustace's offseason outlook for the club at MLB Trade Rumors, published October 5, names six of the nine as non-tender candidates: Knizner, Doval, Foley, Wick, Walker and Buttó. That list is one writer's judgment, not reporting.
Eight spots and one price#
For eight of the nine, the money is small enough that the roster spot is the whole decision.
Wick signed in February, went on the 60-day list on February 15 after Tommy John surgery, and has not thrown a major league pitch since 2022, when he made 64 appearances for the Cubs. The club holds an $800,000 option on him for 2027 with a $100,000 buyout, per the same outlook, and his projection is the same $800,000. Buttó made three appearances and threw two innings before going on the injured list on April 2. Walker had a 1.91 ERA over 80 innings in 2024. In 2026 he had a 7.16 ERA over 32 2/3 innings, walked 19 of the 155 batters he faced, and was optioned to Sacramento three times. None of those decisions turns on whether the club can afford the salary.
Doval's does. His projection is $500,000 above his 2026 salary of $6.1 million, per MLB.com, and $6.6 million is more than a third of the class total. The other eight together project to $11.8 million. MLB.com reports he is under club control through 2027, so a tender buys one season before free agency.
What that season would buy is harder to state. Doval was an All-Star in 2023 with a 2.93 ERA and a National League-high 39 saves. The Giants traded him to the Yankees at the 2025 deadline for four prospects, Jesus Rodriguez and Parks Harber among them. In 2026 he pitched for three clubs.
- New York: 44 games, 39 2/3 innings, 4.54 ERA, then traded to Pittsburgh on August 1.
- Pittsburgh: 20 games, 19 innings, 3.79 ERA, then designated for assignment on September 22.
- San Francisco: 2 games, 2 innings, no runs, 4 strikeouts.
Across the three, he struck out 66 and walked 33 of the 273 batters he faced, a 24.2 percent strikeout rate and a 12.1 percent walk rate. The walk rate is the number a club paying $6.6 million has to believe will come down. Pittsburgh, which held his rights with the same arbitration year ahead, designated him five days before its season ended.
The case for keeping him has an on-the-record shape. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, writing on October 6 about the club's plans, named Randy Rodríguez, back from Tommy John surgery, and Doval, with a parenthetical "maybe," as the pieces that let the club begin an all-out rebuild of the bullpen. Buster Posey said at his season-end news conference on September 29 that the bullpen is where the club's offseason work begins, according to NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic.
Where last November's relievers came from#
The alternative to $6.6 million is the same market that the deadline creates, and this front office has already shopped in it. Three of the nine names in the table passed through last winter's tender week.
- Sam Hentges elected free agency from Cleveland on November 21, 2025, and signed with the Giants on December 3. In 2026 he had a 3.19 ERA over 36 2/3 innings and walked 25 of 173 batters, 14.5 percent.
- Jason Foley saved 28 games for Detroit in 2024. The Tigers designated him for assignment on November 18, 2025, he elected free agency on November 21, and he signed with the Giants on December 16. He was on the injured list after shoulder surgery until July 12 and had a 4.15 ERA over 26 innings after his return.
- Andrew Knizner was designated by the Giants themselves on November 21, 2025, played for two other organizations' Triple-A clubs, and was signed back on August 11.
Two relievers and a catcher, found for the cost of a roster spot. Hentges had the lower ERA of the two pitchers, and he walked about one batter in seven. That is the comparison Doval's number sits beside. One side is a known pitcher with a known walk problem at a known price. The other is a pick from the pool other clubs release in the same week.
The tender deadline will clear some of the 17 places for nothing. The open question is whether one of them belongs to the closer the club traded away and then claimed back with borrowed space. If the front office says the bullpen comes first, is that worth $6.6 million at the deadline, or only a roster spot?
Sources: MLB.com (Giants 40-man roster and transactions pages; Giants injuries and roster moves, updated September 29; "Giants claim Camilo Doval off waivers," September 24; Rangers offseason primer, 2025-26, for last winter's tender deadline); MLB Stats API (player season lines and transaction histories for all nine players); MLB Trade Rumors ("Projected Arbitration Salaries For 2027," October 2; AJ Eustace, "Offseason Outlook: San Francisco Giants," October 5); San Francisco Chronicle (Susan Slusser, October 6); NBC Sports Bay Area (Alex Pavlovic, September 29).
