SAN FRANCISCO — When Jared Oliva made his major-league debut almost six years ago with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he played six games amid a global pandemic in silent ballparks. The only fans in the stands were made of cardboard.
Oliva, 30, made it back to the big leagues for 20 games the following season, playing most of them in Pittsburgh. Although there were flesh-and-blood fans in the stands, PNC Park had the population density of South Dakota.
Oliva would spend the next five years attempting to make it back, exhausting the rest of his 20s at Triple A with four different organizations and playing winter ball for whatever Mexican or Dominican team would have him.
After an off-to-the-races spring as a non-roster invitee with the San Francisco Giants, which included a Cactus League-leading 14 stolen bases in 15 attempts, Oliva achieved his goal. He’ll stand on the chalk line for pregame introductions as the Giants open their season against the New York Yankees. The ballpark will be packed with fans who have working voice boxes. The noise will be overwhelming, as should Oliva’s sense of accomplishment.
The Giants parted with a former top prospect, designating outfielder Luis Matos for assignment, so they could add Oliva’s skills to a bench that will best support an established lineup by providing speed and late-inning defense over pinch hitting.
It didn’t hurt that Oliva did everything right to fit in with the rest of the group.
“To a man, you go in the coaches’ room or in the locker room, everybody’s behind J.O. and thrilled that he’s on the team,” Giants president Buster Posey said. “With a lot of hard conversations the last few days, that one stood out as a real bright spot, to tell him he was on the team.”
Giants manager Tony Vitello described Oliva’s reaction as “excited and intense, and when he reflected on how hard he’s had to work to get to an Opening Day setting, then it got different. So it’s pretty awesome, and I think he’s earned it. I’d probably have an added question here to answer if he wasn’t with us. So it’s nice when the guys make the decision for you.”
The Giants had to trim three healthy players Wednesday morning while setting their Opening Day roster. They kept Jerar Encarnacion and Oliva over Matos, who must clear waivers before he can be outrighted to Triple-A Sacramento. They chose Rule 5 draftee Daniel Susac as the backup catcher in a close competition with veteran backstop Eric Haase, who had an opt-out and was granted his release. And the Giants kept one of their two remaining non-roster bullpen candidates, purchasing the contract of right-hander Caleb Kilian and reassigning former Detroit Tigers right-hander Michael Fulmer to Sacramento.
The Giants chose Caleb Kilian over Michael Fulmer, Daniel Susac over Eric Haase, and Jared Oliva over Luis Matos.
[image or embed]
— Andrew Baggarly (@andrewbaggarly.bsky.social) March 25, 2026 at 9:19 AM
We know who the players will be to start the season. What we don’t know, especially when it comes to the bullpen, is how they will be deployed. Neither Posey nor Vitello offered specifics on who will serve as the closer or which relievers will begin in the highest-leverage roles, and they could play matchups to some extent while sorting through their options. But the widely held assumption is that Ryan Walker will get first crack at pitching the ninth.
As for the batting order, the Giants are splitting up their left-handed bats as much as they can against Yankees left-hander Max Fried while making the curious choice to start one of them, Luis Arraez, in the leadoff spot. An argument can be made that the Giants would be better served slotting Arraez sixth or seventh, where his contact skills could make a bigger impact in situational at-bats.
For now, they are prioritizing balance — probably because a right-handed hitting pocket would leave them even more vulnerable than they already are because of their all-right-handed bench.
“If you took a step back from how exciting this day is, what you’re trying to do is figure out what you got, what you need to do, where you can improve, what are maybe some areas you’ve got to cover up that might be a weakness,” said Vitello, who talked around a question about the lineup decisions. “But … you let the guys play. If we had our preference, we’d like to stay out of the way and let them go at it and decide who’s better, just on this given day.”
🤖 SFGiants
Your #OpeningNight lineup ⚾️
⌚️: 5:05 p.m. PT
📍: @OracleParkSF
📺: @netflix
📻: @KNBR | KSFN
#SFGiants | @CocaCola
[image or embed]
— SF Giants Bot (@giantbot.bsky.social) March 25, 2026 at 2:51 PM
How tenable will an all-righty bench be over the medium to long term? Posey said he wasn’t sure, but his group agreed that lefty-hitting outfielders Will Brennan and Drew Gilbert were best served getting everyday reps at Sacramento. With Brennan coming back from sports hernia surgery last year, and Gilbert missing time this spring with a shoulder impingement, both players could use the extra time to focus on getting healthier, too.
Of course, this means the Giants will be inconvenienced with some tough right-on-right matchups with hitters like Casey Schmitt (who is starting the opener at first base while Rafael Devers slots in at designated hitter out of an abundance of caution over his tender hamstring) and, when he’s in the lineup, Encarnacion. But for the most part, this is a lineup that will be better supported by an athletic bench than by a bunch of Michael Morse types who can pop one in a pinch.
“We feel fortunate that we have a group of position players that wants to be out there every day,” Posey said. “It’s going to be our job, Tony’s job, the medical (staff’s) job to make sure we keep them as fresh and out there as much as possible.”
For all their discussions over the 26-man roster, Posey and GM Zack Minasian kept coming back to the same point: They’ll need almost twice as many players to contribute to what they hope will be a successful season. And every unspoken hope is that one of them will be 21-year-old top prospect Bryce Eldridge.
“He’s such a physical force,” Posey said of the 6-foot-7 first baseman and lefty-hitting DH. “For a 21-year-old, his skill set is already very, very refined as a hitter. So it’s about how you compete in certain moments, whether you have to raise the energy level, bring the energy level down a little bit. And we saw between the Sacramento (exhibition on Sunday) and then the first (exhibition in San Francisco on Monday), he got some really good swings off. So Bryce has a bright future in front of him. What he’s got going for him the most is belief in his own ability, but also, from what I can tell, his understanding of changes that he needs to make to become the best player he can be.”
That concept — taking ownership of your own development — was a running theme in Vitello’s first spring training. What most struck Posey was watching Vitello over the past few days, when he had to take players aside and deliver bad news.
“He’s a relationship-maker type of person,” Posey said. “So the first time going through this, having to bond with guys for six weeks or more and then say, ‘Hey, you’re not on the team,’ was not something that was easy for him. And I personally appreciate that. Because in the professional ranks of things, it’s just part of the business, but … also you’re not only impacting that individual, you’re impacting families as well. So I’m appreciative that he is thoughtful about that.”
