San Francisco Giants

Antonio Senzatela is one of the best pitchers to bet against in Major League Baseball.

The Colorado Rockies right-hander comes into Friday’s matchup against the San Francisco Giants with a 5.22 ERA and seven home runs allowed.

Senzatela’s brutal form on the mound to start 2025 is the perfect sight to see for the Giants after they failed to score more than four runs in each of their last six games.

Antonio Senzatela Over 5.5 Hits Allowed (-110)

The over on Senzatela’s hits allowed feels like a steal.

The 30-year-old right-hander gave up at least nine hits in his three road starts in 2025. He’s allowed at least six hits in every appearance this season.

Senzatela isn’t a strikeout pitcher—he only has 13 punchouts in six starts—and the opponents’ expected batting average against him is .342, per Baseball Savant.

Willy Adames Over 1.5 Total Bases (+105)

There’s a cornucopia of Giants batter props that look juicy because of the matchup against Senzatela.

Willy Adames is 2-for-7 with a homer against the right-handed hurler and he’s had a pair of two-hit performances in his last three games.

Adames is also a better hitter inside his new home ballpark. He has a .236 batting average in San Francisco, which is 23 points better than his away mark.

Most of his success has come against righties. He has a .256 average, 21 hits and both of his home runs off right-handed pitching.

Heliot Ramos Home Run (+700)

Heliot Ramos has done most of his major damage against right-handed pitching.

Four of his five homers have come against righties.

Senzatela has allowed seven home runs in 2025, six of which have come against right-handed bats.

It’s the ideal matchup for Ramos, and the +700 price looks spectacular compared to Matt Chapman at +400 or Adames at +425.

Click into the DraftKings display below for more on this game and the rest of tonight's schedule.

As if things couldn't get better for the San Francisco Giants to start the season, they have now added to the good vibes by showing off their new City Connect uniforms for 2025.

The Giants and MLB dropped images of the jerseys that will be worn for select games this season.

JUST IN: The Giants have revealed their new City Connect uniforms 🟠🟣 pic.twitter.com/dvb6jXcoGM

— MLB (@MLB) April 8, 2025

A new look for a city that never stays still pic.twitter.com/s8sfLtoR3e

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) April 8, 2025

The Giants also released a hype video explaining the influence that Bay Area music artists had on the design of the jerseys.

San Francisco never stands still. Its music, its culture, its energy—always evolving, always remixing. pic.twitter.com/Ug9akr0TSK

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) April 8, 2025

This marks the second iteration of the Giants' City Connect uniforms. The original version, which was orange and white with a silhouette of the Golden Gate Bridge on the sleeve, proved to be divisive among the fan base.

Home, sweet home 🌁 pic.twitter.com/obqUArkYw7

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) July 26, 2023

Giants spokesperson Shana Daum confirmed to Gabe Lehman of SFGate.com last September that the orange and white combination was going to be retired at the end of the 2024 season in favor of a new look.

“Tonight is our last City Connect Tuesday of the regular season and there will be some changes made to the current version of the City Connect jersey in ’25,” Daum wrote in an email to Lehman.

Given how superstitious many people in MLB tend to be, Giants manager Bob Melvin did express some doubt about changing out a jersey that his team had been so successful in.

"Most of the city connects, I find, are a little unique wherever I’ve been," Melvin told reporters in September. "But I think the winning percentage has been pretty good in it, right? So there’s always that risk."

The Giants went 30-16 in 46 games with their City Connects last season. They went 50-66 in their other uniform combinations.

San Francisco will wear its new City Connect jerseys in a game for the first time on Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds at Oracle Park.

The Giants have won eight of their first 10 games to open this season. Their seven-game winning streak was snapped in a 2-0 loss to the Reds in Monday's series opener.

When the San Francisco Giants made the surprise decision to hire Buster Posey as their president of baseball operations last September, it was with the goal of bringing the once-proud franchise back to prominence in MLB.

Per ESPN's Alden Gonzalez, there was a feeling among people who know the organization intimately that the Giants "seemed to lack identity, allure, soul" under previous president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.

Giants chairman Greg Johnson went so far as to tell Gonzalez he believed there was "tension between the old-school model and the new-school analytics" that Zaidi incorporated.

"There was some noise coming from the clubhouse that maybe we didn't have the right balance," Johnson said.

Gonzalez noted Posey's hiring is an attempt to bring back an identity, allure and soul that some feel has been missing by deviating from the "analytical roster-building approach that has overtaken the industry, prioritizing hyper-efficiency and placing less emphasis on aptitude and experience."

The approach from Posey did resonate with at least two members of the organization. Justin Verlander, who joined the team on a one-year, $15 million contract in January, explained to Gonzalez his talks with Posey gave him confidence about the Giants' future:

"I think it could very much be something that can lead to having a better organization. It's like me pitching and probably him hitting and catching towards the end of his career—you were brought up in an age before analytics, and so you have this wealth of instinct. And this is why it's hard to put words on it because you have all these instincts that you gained over time from playing the game, and then all of a sudden you're inundated with numbers.

"I think the best players were able to go, 'OK, I see this, I see this,' and put them all together, and you get something magical, really. And if he's able to do that as a president, as a person bringing in players, there's potential for something that's just magical."

Zaidi did push back against Johnson's assessement, telling Gonzalez he never got the impression anyone on the team had any issues.

"Through that channel, I got positive feedback," Zaidi said. "When you postmortem things, maybe you have a different lens on it, but it was something that I was very conscious of, throughout my time with the Giants and particularly last year."

One of the issues the Giants had throughout Zaidi's tenure was getting free agents to sign. They were frequently connected to top stars when they became available, but routinely finished no higher than second.

San Francisco's list of free-agent misses includes Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. The Giants did have an agreement with Carlos Correa in December 2022, but the deal fell apart due to concerns over his physical.

There has been a lot of speculation over the years about why the Giants have struggled to sign top-tier free agents. Johnson said in May 2024 on Tim Kawakami's podcast (h/t Andy Lundquist of NBC Sports Bay Area) that position players may not want to play home games in Oracle Park because it's historically been more favorable to pitchers.

"I don’t think it’s any negative on Farhan or any negative on the team’s approach, we were aggressive in going after them. We didn’t get them, but remember our park is not viewed as one of the easy parks to hit home runs in so to go get a Bryce Harper or Ohtani or Judge for that matter, I think we’re the fifth-hardest park to hit home runs in Major League Baseball so that makes it a little more difficult to go out there and get the home run hitter."

Posey, who had no prior front-office experience prior to being hired by the Giants, has already shown a willingness to be aggressive in free agency.

The Giants signed Willy Adames to a seven-year, $182 million contract in December. It's the richest deal in franchise history, ironically surpassing Posey's nine-year, $167 million extension signed in March 2013.

The Giants hired Zaidi in November 2018 after he spent five seasons as general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Their hope was he would be able to bring the model of scouting and analytics that has made their NL West rivals the standard by which all other clubs are measured.

Things didn't go as planned for the Giants, even beyond the list of players they were unable to sign. They finished .500 or worse in four of five seasons under Zaidi.

There was one year when everything clicked into place for the Giants during that era. They won a franchise-record 107 games in 2021, but lost to the Dodgers in the NLDS.

San Francisco hasn't won a playoff series since winning the 2014 World Series. It did beat the New York Mets in the 2016 NL wild card when it was still a one-game playoff before expanding to a best-of-three series in 2022.

The San Francisco Giants have joined the group of MLB teams that are bringing in private equity to be part of their ownership group.

Per a statement released on Tuesday, Giants president Larry Baer announced private equity group Sixth Street has purchased a stake in the organization:

"Sixth Street is both locally and globally recognized as one of the premier investors in sports. This new partnership allows us to further strengthen our franchise on the field and in the community. This is our first significant investment in three decades and Greg Johnson and our ownership group are thrilled that Sixth Street believes, just as we do, in our strategic vision for our future as one of the world’s leading sports and entertainment franchises, as well as the important role our organization plays in uplifting San Francisco and the entire Bay Area."

Per a New York Times report, Sixth Street's investment represents around a 10 percent stake in the Giants.

Sixth Street's website describes the company as a "leading global investment firm dedicated to developing themes and offering solutions to companies across all stages of growth" that was formed in 2009.

The New York Times report noted the Giants intend to use Sixth Street's investment to help pay for upgrades to Oracle Park and other facilities, as well as a real estate development adjacent to the stadium.

It also stated that more than half of the 30 MLB teams now have relationships with private equity groups.

Arctos Sports Partners has been one of the biggest private-equity spenders in the sports realm, with ownership stakes for various pro teams in different sports including MLB (Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres), NBA (Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings), NHL (New Jersey Devils, Minnesota Wild, Utah Hockey Club, Tampa Bay Lightning) and soccer (Paris Saint-Germain).

MLB became the first of the major sports leagues in the United States to allow private equity firms to purchase an ownership stake in franchises, approving a rule change in 2019.

Per an August 2024 report from ESPN's Michael Rothstein, private equity groups are limited to a 30-percent ownership stake in MLB clubs.

The addition of private equity ownership in pro sports comes at a time when the value of franchises continues to skyrocket.

Per Forbes' most recent estimates, the Giants are the fifth-most valuable franchise in MLB at $3.8 billion. The only teams ahead of them are the New York Yankees ($7.6 billion), Dodgers ($5.5 billion), Boston Red Sox ($4.5 billion) and Chicago Cubs ($4.2 billion).

The San Francisco Giants didn't talk to left-handed starting pitcher Blake Snell about a new contract in free agency before he signed a five-year, $182 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

"The Giants didn’t even talk to me. It was surprising — I thought they really liked me," Snell said Sunday.

Snell signed a two-year, $62 million deal with the Giants in March 2024, but he held a player option for the 2025 campaign. The two-time Cy Young winner then opted out of his deal this offseason after going 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA (1.05 WHIP) and 145 strikeouts in 104.0 innings (20 starts).

Despite his close relationships with manager Bob Melvin, starting pitcher Logan Webb and third baseman Matt Chapman, nothing materialized with San Francisco.

“I know Bob loves me, and I’m really close with Logan and Chappy. So I was shocked," Snell said. I thought they’d come after me right away. I really liked it there. I was happy there. But they never even said anything to me.

“I texted Bob and he didn’t reply, and Bob always replies to me, so I kind of had a feeling. But it was weird, especially with all the other teams that were interested in me.”

All is well between Snell and Melvin now, with the left-hander understanding that "managers sometimes have to go radio silent during free-agent season," as Slusser noted. But Snell has moved onto the Giants' arch-rivals now after landing a big deal.

It's unclear why the Giants never went after Snell, but perhaps his market was too rich for San Francisco's liking. The left-hander caught fire down the stretch after injuries and ineffectiveness characterized the first half of his 2024 season, as ESPN's Jeff Passan and Jorge Castillo wrote.

"In 14 starts from early July to late September, the 31-year-old left-hander posted a 1.23 ERA with 114 strikeouts and 30 walks in 80⅓ innings," the ESPN duo relayed. "On Aug. 2, he threw a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds. In eight other instances, he completed at least six innings and allowed no more than two runs."

Snell has gone 0-3 with a 9.51 ERA after his first six appearances, and he dealt with a left adductor strain and then a left groin strain, both of which landed him on the injured list. But his value clearly sky-rocketed down the stretch, leading to the defending World Series champions giving him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Newly acquired San Francisco Giants pitcher Justin Verlander's passion for the game is not something to question, as the right-hander "plans to pitch until he's 45," he told reporters.

"I wouldn't be back if I didn't think I could be great," Verlander said. "I really truly believe the experiences I had last year and leading into this year, I can be back to the pitcher I was not all that long ago when I won a Cy Young."

After signing a one-year, $15 million contract last week, the former 2011 MVP and 2006 Rookie of the Year will look to hit the ground running in San Francisco this season, coming close to his goal of continuing to pitch at 45 as he turns 42 at the start of February.

The veteran started his throwing practice earlier than usual during the offseason, already hitting 93 miles per hour and feeling good early on.

Last season, he averaged 93.4 miles per hour, so hitting 93 this early in the offseason is a promising sign for Verlander and Giants fans. Verlander told reporters that he had addressed some former shoulder and back issues that had limited him to 90.1 innings last season, though he did not go into details about what that entailed.

During Verlander's latest Cy Young season in 2022, he posted a career-best ERA of 1.75, allowing 116 hits while striking out 185, with a second-lowest WHIP of 0.829. Last season, over 17 games, he had a 5.48 ERA, allowing 98 hits while striking out 75, with a 1.384 WHIP.

In addition, Verlander has hopes of reaching the age benchmark while wearing No. 35, a number he has worn every time he has stepped onto the mound since 2005, except for his first two starts of his major league career.

That is, if he can seek the blessing from former Giants legend Brandon Crawford, who wore No. 35 for 13 seasons in San Francisco.

"I'm still putting a lot of thought into this," Verlander said. "I know that Buster (Posey) has reached out to Brandon Crawford, but I have not gotten the chance to talk to him personally."

Despite the uncertainties of how the year will shape out for Verlander, he is excited for the opportunity to turn his career around in a new location after underperforming in recent years with the Houston Astros.

"I've had a phenomenal ride with Houston, it's been a helluva chapter in my career…really last year left a sour taste in my mouth, not with the organization, just with myself," Verlander told reporters.

Baseball fans at least know one team Japanese star Rōki Sasaki won't be signing with this offseason.

San Francisco Giants general manager Zack Minasian told reporters Monday that Sasaki's representatives informed the franchise it is out of the running. The Giants were among the teams with whom the starting pitcher had met ahead of his move to MLB.

The race to sign Sasaki is far more wide open than a traditional free agency sweepstakes because MLB rules cap his first contract at a fraction of what he'd get on the open market. His initial earnings will range between $5.1 million and $7.6 million because that's what teams have to spend with their international bonus pool money.

The Athletic's Will Sammon, Dennis Lin and Andy McCullough reported how interested suitors are letting some of their international targets sign elsewhere or seeing if players will wait a year to sign in order to preserve as much flexibility as they can with Sasaki in mind.

Given their luck—or lack thereof—when pursuing star free agents in recent years, the Giants probably weren't considered one of the top favorites to get Sasaki once this process got underway.

San Francisco, along with the Los Angeles Dodgers, has the lowest pool amount available and doesn't project as a serious contender heading into the 2025 season. The Giants finished 80-82 last year and the arrivals of shortstop Willy Adames and starting pitcher Justin Verlander don't make them significantly better on paper.

Landing Sasaki would've been a huge coup for Minasian and president of baseball operations Buster Posey in their first offseason running the front office. But they shouldn't come in for much criticism because fans will recognize San Francisco wasn't working with the strongest hand.

The San Francisco Giants entered the 2024-25 MLB offseason in desperate need of a spark.

They have already produced a pair of electric moments, first installing franchise icon Buster Posey as president of baseball operations and then watching him reel in star shortstop Willy Adames in free agency.

One more notable impact might be needed to take this team over the top, though. And it sounds like Posey and Co. are already working on making that happen.

The Giants and Toronto Blue Jays are "the favorites" to sign four-time All-Star and one-time Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes, per MLB.com's Mark Feinsand. The Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles reportedly remain in the running, though the sentiment from rival teams is they "might not be as aggressive" as the Giants and Blue Jays, Feinsand added.

If San Francisco wins the Burnes sweepstakes, then Posey could have the Giants back in World Series contention just like he did during his storied playing career.

To be clear, this club didn't seem particularly close to the title race coming into the winter.

Things had grown rather stale in San Francisco. It's not that the Giants were bad per se, but they were pretty boring (which some might argue is worse). During the three seasons since their surprise 107-win breakout in 2021 (a campaign that fell apart in the Divisional Series), they won six fewer games than they lost.

They never fell far enough out of the playoff race to abandon ship at the trade deadline and recoup long-term assets. Yet, they weren't really in the contending mix, either. They seemed stuck in the mud, not climbing up the standings or paving an upward path for the future.

Things already feel different under Posey, whom Adames cited as the "biggest reason that I'm here." Scoring the richest contract in franchise history probably didn't hurt, but it isn't hard to imagine that someone who achieved so much so recently as a player would be able connect with those following in his footsteps.

If Posey, a seven-time All-Star and MVP as a catcher, could form such a quick connection with a middle infielder like Adames, that sure feels like it bodes well for his chances to lure in a pitcher of Burnes' ilk. The Giants even have an in with the star hurler, since their newest addition spent three years with Burnes in Milwaukee.

"I haven't talked to him, but I will definitely give him a call after today," Adames told reporters at his introductory press conference Thursday. "Obviously you always want a guy like him. You're always going to have guys who are going to compete out there for you. And having a guy like that would be such an amazing addition."

If the Giants get Burnes, they wouldn't leap to the top of the World Series conversation, but they should be included in those talks.

They need a star pitcher to pair with Logan Webb atop the rotation, and few shine brighter than Burnes. Over the past four seasons, he has pitched to a 2.94 ERA and 1.02 WHIP with 858 strikeouts over his 757 innings.

It's not unlike the need for a star position player to pair with Matt Chapman that they just addressed with Adames. The newcomer may not have the accolades, but he's coming off of a 32-homer, 21-steal season. He should be an impact bat in the heart of this lineup.

If the Giants exit this offseason with Adames and Burnes, their floor will have undoubtedly elevated. And their ceiling could skyrocket next season if they have enough developmental success with the likes of Jung Hoo Lee, Heliot Ramos, Tyler Fitzgerald, Kyle Harrison and Marco Luciano. Maybe prized prospect Bryce Eldridge even forces his way into the mix at some point.

There are legitimate reasons to be excited about San Francisco's outlook. Get a contract with Burnes done, and the Giants should be a factor in next season's World Series race.

The San Francisco Giants have agreed to a seven-year, $182 million contract with former Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Willy Adames (pending a physical), per ESPN's Jeff Passan. It is the largest contract doled out in franchise history.

With the move, the Giants are projected to have an estimated $180 million payroll, per FanGraphs' Roster Resource.

Here's a look at how the batting order could shake out with Adames joining the fray.

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Potential Batting Order

1. CF Jung Hoo Lee

2. DH Heliot Ramos

3. 1B LaMonte Wade Jr.

4. SS Willy Adames

5. 3B Matt Chapman

6. RF Mike Yastrzemski

7. C Patrick Bailey

8. 2B Tyler Fitzgerald

9. LF Grant McCray

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Adames, 29, just amassed career-highs with 32 homers, 112 RBI and 21 stolen bases for the NL Central-winning Brewers. He was one of the biggest names on the free agent market and the top shortstop, so it's no surprise that the Giants were after him.

San Francisco president of baseball operations Buster Posey made it no secret that the team was looking for a shortstop at the General Managers Meetings last November, while also noting that the team could move utilityman Tyler Fitzgerald to second.

"If we could find a shortstop, that'd be great," Posey said, per Maria Guardado of MLB.com. "I think Tyler Fitzgerald did a great job at short last year. I think he has value in multiple spots on the field. I do think it's hard to play multiple spots at the same time during the season. Whether he'd be better suited to play second base long term is a discussion we're having."

The Giants did find that shortstop in Adames, which could perhaps bump Fitzgerald to second base.

Rounding out the infield, Matt Chapman, who signed a six-year, $151 million contract extension last September, is entrenched at third. LaMonte Wade is the current first baseman, though top prospect Bryce Eldridge should be getting the call-up to be the long-term solution there. MLB.com currently projects Eldridge to arrive in 2026.

San Francisco is looking to break out of a three-year stretch that's seen the team hang around .500 since a 107-win campaign in 2021. Adames should certainly help in that endeavor as San Francisco adds an important piece to the batting order.