Before dealing with shoulder problems, Tyler Mahle was on pace to have a fantastic bounce-back season with Texas. Mahle will look for similar fortunes with the Giants, as the right-hander will reportedly sign with the team for next season.
A Look at Mahle
Two winters ago, the Rangers signed former Twin and Red Tyler Mahle with the expectation that he would miss most of 2024. Mahle underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023 and only made three starts in 2024. However, he made a strong impact with the Rangers this past season.
The 31-year-old had the ninth-best ERA (2.34) in the Majors during the first half among pitchers with 75+ IP. Mahle struck out 56 and walked 27 over 77 innings for the Rangers, and won six games for a Rangers’ rotation deep with talent, thanks to Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom.
However, things went south for Mahle once June came around. Shoulder fatigue shut Mahle down in May, and he wouldn’t pitch again until late September. He struck out 10 over 9.2 innings and posted a .93 ERA in two September starts.
The new Giant has been a four-pitch pitcher for much of his MLB career after he ditched a sparsely used curveball in the early 2020s. For Mahle, it’s a low-90s fastball with plus riding action (18.3” mean IVB in 2025), a splitter and slider that get work against left-handed and right-handed hitters, respectively, plus a cutter.
Mahle’s fastball, despite being a hide-rider and one that would theoretically get chases up in the zone, didn’t get as much as one would think. His 22.4% Chase% on the four-seamer ranked 210th out of 358 pitchers who threw at least 90 of them out of the zone.
What Mahle was able to do was elicit a fair amount of swing-and-miss (23.5% Whiff%) off the pitch last season. Much of that was concentrated up in the zone.
Additionally, the splitter was a big weapon for Mahle, as well. It didn’t get a ton of swing-and-miss (24% Whiff%) compared to some of the other ones around in Major League Baseball. However, Mahle had good command of the pitch, working with it low and away from left-handed hitters and spotting it well.
From the start of 2025 through the All-Star break, Mahle had 36 called strikes on the pitch, tied for third alongside now-Twins reliever Eric Orze. Only Kevin Gausman (41) and Paul Skenes (36) had more called strikes on the split.
Per multiple reports, including from the San Francisco Chronicle, the Giants will sign Tyler Mahle to a one-year deal.
Analysis
I noted in our NL holiday wishlist feature that the Giants should target more depth in starting pitching after acquiring ex-White Sox pitcher Adrian Houser. The Giants did just that with Mahle.
The reason this made so much sense is that, even though the Giants have a formidable top two with Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, there are still some unknowns within this pitching group.
San Francisco went through numerous young pitchers, including Carson Whisenhunt, Landen Roupp, Trevor McDonald, and Hayden Birdsong, throughout the 2025 season to piece together innings. Adding a veteran pitcher to go along with those youngsters not only provides more depth but also makes things far less risky should the Giants’ pitching staff incur injuries and/or in-season lows.
As for Mahle, he’s a heavy air-ball pitcher — one who gets a lot of fly-ball contact pitching up in the zone — going to a pitcher-friendly ballpark in San Francisco.
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