Houser, who turns 33 in February, was a fixture in Milwaukee’s rotation for years. From 2021-23, Houser started 68 games for the Brewers (in addition to five relief outings) and posted a 3.94 ERA. His 17.6% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate were both worse than average, but Houser piled up grounders at a 51.3% rate and consistently avoided the long ball (0.83 HR/9).
The Brewers traded Houser to the Mets in the 2023-2024 offseason, ahead of what would be his final season in club control. He struggled through his lone year in Queens (5.84 ERA in seven starts and 16 relief outings) before being designated for assignment and let go. Last winter, he settled for a minor league contract with the Rangers in free agency. Texas didn’t bring him to the major leagues before an opt-out date, so Houser returned to the market and signed a big league deal with the White Sox – a decision that now marks a turning point in his career.
Houser took off running and never looked back. In 11 starts with the ChiSox, he threw 68 2/3 innings of 2.10 ERA ball. As was the case in Milwaukee, Houser recorded a strikeout rate well below the league average of 22% (17.1%), but he did so with better command (8% walk rate) and even fewer round trippers (0.39 HR/9). Houser’s suppression of home runs did not seem sustainable; only 4.6% of the fly balls he surrendered to the Sox turned into home runs – miles south of the league average of 11.9% and his own career mark of 11.5%.
After a trade to Tampa Bay, Houser indeed saw his home run luck run out. His homer-to-flyball percentage increased to 11.9%, and he averaged 1.12 home runs per nine frames. The resulting 4.79 ERA nearly matched his 4.62 SIERA with Chicago. Still, Houser proved to be a sustainable source of innings for the Rays, posting 56 1/3 frames across 10 starts. Overall, he finished the season with a 3.31 ERA, 17.8% strikeout rate, 7.3% walk rate, 48.9% groundball rate, and 0.73 HR/9.
Houser will join new skipper Tony Vitello’s rotation Logan Webb, Robbie Ray And Landen Roupp. The Giants have a host of candidates for the fifth and final spot on the staff, including (but not limited to) Blade Tidwell, Carson Seymour, Kai-Wei Teng, Trevor McDonald, Hayden birdsong and valued prospect Carson Whisenhunt.
The Giants have been looking for rotational help this winter, and while they have been linked to some of the more prominent names on the market, the owner has publicly expressed his reluctance to commit to a starting pitcher long-term. That suits pitchers like Tatsuya Imai, Framber Valdez And Ranger Suarez seems unlikely, though it’s at least plausible that the Giants could look to further expand their core staff through the trade market or another shorter-term deal like the current Houser deal.
Considering Houser’s inconsistent track record, lack of missed bats, and the White Sox’ generally unsustainable level of home run suppression, it’s a pretty high price for the Giants to pay. On the other hand, San Francisco’s Oracle Park is one of the most pitcher-friendly venues in the sport. Oracle Park is particularly heavy on left-handed home run power, which fits nicely with Houser’s skill set. He held righties to an awful .249/.293/.320 batting line in 2025 (.234/.296/.339 career), but was tagged by lefties last season for a .274/.356/.456 batting line (and .282/.367/.456 for his career).
The addition of Houser pushes San Francisco to approximately $203 million in luxury tax liabilities, per RosterResource. The Giants are more than $40 million short of the $244 million threshold at the first level. Although they have paid the tax in the past – and they did not do so until 2024 – it is not clear whether they will feel comfortable doing so in 2026. Ownership comments downplaying the possibility of adding additional long-term deals could at least raise some fear about spending to those heights.
The Giants are still looking for help in the outfield, at second base and/or in the bullpen. While the top-end free agents they were loosely associated with previously in free agency (i.e. Imai, Valdez) don’t seem like realistic targets barring a reversal of ownership over the team’s stance on long-term commitments, there are still several avenues that could be pursued. Free agency offers no shortage of veteran hitters and relievers available on short-term deals, and San Francisco is reportedly one of the teams most aggressively pursuing Cardinals infielder/outfielder Brendan Donovan.
President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey presumably has a few more moves up his sleeve, and while the addition of Houser doesn’t necessarily raise the team’s ceiling by much, it does raise the floor of a rotation that was pretty full of question marks outside of the veteran Webb/Ray tandem at the top.
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