We’re comfortably into the 2025 MLB postseason, with eight teams still auditioning for the role of “champion.” The San Francisco Giants are not one such team. But there are a few players who once were
Giants, and no longer are … because they were lucky enough to escape to greener pastures, where they can play October games and vie for titles.
So let’s take a look at some of those players, by seeing which former Giants are among the 208 players who were named to their teams Divisional Series rosters.
The Detroit Tigers do not have any former Giants players, though they have Petaluma legend Spencer Torkelson, and former Giants GM Scott Harris is their President of Baseball Operations. He is doing well in that role, hence the Tigers inclusion in this list.
They’re up against the Seattle Mariners who, despite their provision that they must make at least 10 trades with the Giants for every year of Farhan Zaidi’s employment, only have one former Giant: reliever Luke Jackson, who is playing for his fourth team since the Giants traded him at last year’s deadline. Funnily enough, the team he played for before joining the Mariners was … yep, the Tigers. Seattle, of course, also has former Giants prospect Luis Castillo.
In the other ALDS matchup, the New York Yankees roster is full of guys who have been linked to the Giants but never actually played for them: Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Paul Goldschmidt, and Cody Bellinger. They also have David Bednar, brother of Giants prospect and 2021 first-round pick Will. But more to the point of the exercise, they have a pair of pitchers who recently made the All-Star team while wearing a Giants jersey: starter Carlos Rodón and reliever Camilo Doval.
Speaking of Giants pitchers who recently made the All-Star team, the Yankees are up against one of those on the Toronto Blue Jays: starter Kevin Gausman, who is Toronto’s lone San Francisco representative.
Over in the National League, the Chicago Cubs have one pitcher who played for the Giants (Drew Pomeranz) and one pitcher who was under contract with the Giants for a while but never actually played for them (Matthew Boyd). Taylor Rogers, who was on the roster for the Wild Card Round, was left off for the NLDS. And in continuing a theme, they play a Milwaukee Brewers team that has a pitcher who briefly wore orange and black: José Quintana.
And, in finishing that theme, the most recent Giant to throw a no-hitter, Blake Snell, is suiting up for the bad guys as the only former Giant in the showdown between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies.
