The San Francisco Giants are coming off a pretty rough 2026 campaign, finishing fourth in the National League West, sporting a poor 65-97 record.
A large part of the team's struggles was due to the overall disappointing numbers provided by the bullpen. The Giants' relief staff this year ranked 19th in the majors with a 4.14 ERA while ranking 24th overall with a 1.42 WHIP.
If you look further into the struggles of Giants relievers, you'll notice they issued a lot of walks while barely recording strikeouts.
The club's relievers gave out free passes, via the walk, at a 4.20/9 ratio, which ranked 23rd amongst the majors. Even worse, they were only able to strike out batters at a lousy 7.55/9 ratio, a mark that ranked dead last.
The Giants bullpen did, however, excel in one category: limiting home runs. They ranked seventh in the majors, only giving up 0.95 homers per nine innings on average.
However, it could partially be due to the fact that Oracle Park does a great job keeping baseballs inside the yard due to the marine layer and winds. According to Park Factors calculated by Statcast, Oracle Park ranks 26th overall and 28th in home runs specifically.
Essentially, saying that Oracle Park is not very friendly to hitters and a lot of the time will favour pitchers.
As a result of all things mentioned above, the Giants should definitely prioritize adding some established arms to their bullpen over the offseason, as they lacked production in 2026.
One of their targets should be veteran left-handed reliever Steven Okert. If a deal comes to fruition, it'd be a reunion for both parties.
Steven Okert talks with pitcher Josh Hader prior to the game against the Athletics at Daikin Park. Mandatory Credit: Erik Williams-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Okert began his career back in 2016 with the San Francisco Giants, where he remained through the 2018 campaign. The place where Okert began what's been an outstanding career.
Since debuting, he's pitched in nine major league seasons with four different teams. In 369 career innings of work, almost solely as a reliever, Okert owns a very respectable 3.41 ERA and 1.10 WHIP.
This past season with the Astros, in his age-34 season, Okert showed no signs of slowing down. It was actually the best season of his career, hence his 2.3 bWAR, better than his previous best of 1.5 set in 2025.
Anyway, this past season, Okert was one of the Astros' most used relievers, tossing 67.2 innings over 68 appearances. He put up an excellent 2.13 ERA and 0.87 WHIP, proving he's still one of the best relief arms in the majors.
What's even better is that his Baseball Savant page was a sea of red, indicating his superb 2026 campaign was no joke.
Okert was worth a total of 13 pitching run value, which placed him in the 83rd percentile, and was the second-most pitching run value he'd been worth in a single season over his career, trailing his 19 pitching run value in 2025.
On top of that, both his 3.13 xERA and .210 xBA classified him in at least the 84th percentile, a healthy place to be. This didn't get mentioned before, but opponents hit just .190 against Okert.
Further tapping into what Okert excelled at in 2026, his stuff still proved to be nasty as ever. Between his 80.9 mph slider, 91.2 mph four-seam fastball, and 90.4 mph sinker, he farmed whiff at an excellent 30.9% clip (88th percentile), resulting in a superb 26.1% strikeout rate (76th percentile).
If you want to know why Okert is such a great fit for the Giants, it's because of his elite ability to generate lots of strikeouts. Remember, San Francisco relievers ranked 30th in the majors this past season in strikeouts, only fanning 7.55 hitters per nine innings.
Okert could really make a positive difference in that category specifically.
Also somewhat related to his elite strikeout capabilities, he also proved to have great control over his pitches, limiting walks to a well-above-average 5.4% clip. Another deficiency for Giants relievers this past season, ranking 23rd overall.
Continuing, Okert did a really good job of limiting hard contact. Opponents managed just a 35.4% hard-hit rate against him, placing Okert in the 72nd percentile. He also limited barrels to a respectable 6.9% clip, good enough for the 59th percentile.
Finally on to the few flaws in Okert's game, and one further proves why a reunion in San Francisco makes a lot of sense.
The first one is that Okert's fastball only averaged 91.2 mph, however it's not really a flaw considering how elite he was this past season.
You could theoretically categorize it as a weakness, considering his average fastball velocity ranked in the 8th percentile, but it works for him and that's all that matters.
The same goes for his below-average 6.3 feet of extension. It's a below-average mark, ranking in the 34th percentile, but again, it works for him.
Here's the real flaw, and it actually fits quite well for Oracle Park. Okert only managed to keep the baseball on the ground at an abysmal 28% clip, a mark that ranked in the bottom 1st percentile.
On a positive note, Okert's poor groundball clip could be dampened by the conditions at Oracle Park, further making the Giants a great fit. As mentioned, it is a very pitcher-friendly ballpark as a result of the marine layer and winds.
An even better factor is that even though Okert was one of the better relievers in baseball this past season, he's not going to demand as big a contract as, say, some other free agent relievers on the market.
According to Spotrac , Okert is projected for a very manageable one-year deal with a yearly average value of $6.6 million.
On paper, a reunion between Okert and the San Francisco Giants looks like a perfect match, but we'll have to see what happens this winter.
Either way around it, the Giants will almost certainly add some new relievers over the offseason; the only question is if Okert will be one of them.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/giants/onsi as Reuniting with Steven Okert Is In the Giants Best Interest .
