Giants pitcher Tyler Mahle lists two team success stories he wants to emulate originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
As new Giants pitcher Tyler Mahle looks to rebound from an injury-shortened 2025 MLB season, the right-hander has some pretty good examples of why San Francisco is the perfect place to do it.
During an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic in Scottsdale, Arizona, for “Giants Talk,” Mahle explained how pitchers Kevin Gausman and Anthony DeSclafani producing bounce-back campaigns with the Giants helped influence his decision in MLB free agency.
“For sure,” Mahle told Pavlovic when asked if Gausman’s success in the pitcher-friendly confines of Oracle Park was on his mind. “I knew Anthony, he came here and and said great things and did well here. So, that’s another guy who kind of did it the same time as Gausman.”
Gausman experienced success with the Baltimore Orioles to begin his MLB career, then went from the Atlanta Braves to the Cincinnati Reds and then to the Giants, where he experienced a major bounce-back campaign during the COVID-shortened 2020 season and became a first-time All-Star in 2021.
As many Giants fans know, Gausman got paid by the Toronto Blue Jays in free agency before the 2022 season, signing a five-year, $110 million contract, and has continued his dominance there. He later said San Francisco never made him an offer.
DeSclafani, like Mahle, dealt with injuries before arriving in San Francisco, where he posted a 13-7 record with two shutouts (tied for the NL lead) and a 3.17 ERA in 31 starts covering 167.2 innings during the 2021 campaign. The effort earned him a three-year, $36 million contract extension with the Giants before he eventually was traded.
“So yeah, there’s plenty of guys that you know to look at,” Mahle told Pavlovic. “That was obviously one of the reasons.”
Mahle had a strong but injury-shortened 2025 with Bruce Bochy and the Texas Rangers, posting a 6-4 record with 66 strikeouts, 29 walks and a 2.18 ERA in 86 2/3 innings pitched. There were other reasons he chose San Francisco, too, he told Pavlovic, and Bochy’s ringing endorsement of him certainly didn’t hurt.
“Obviously a California team, close to home was great,” Mahle said. “Then, I knew it was a great organization, I’ve heard from other guys. Just being around baseball, you know it’s a good spot to be that guys want to be at. And then I didn’t want to wait. Obviously, I wasn’t at the top of the list of starting pitchers to sign. So, I was going to have to wait for some of those other guys to fall off the off the board, but I didn’t really want to do that. [The Giants] expressed interest, we did the same and we got a deal done.”
San Francisco officially signed Mahle to a one-year contract worth a reported $10 million on Jan. 5, and it’s clear the Orange County native is looking forward to returning to form on the West Coast.