Giants Claim Joel Kuhnel

The Giants have claimed right-hander Joel Kuhnel off waivers from the Brewers, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. Milwaukee designated him for assignment this week. San Francisco has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to add him. That might be as simple as transferring Marcelo Mayer to the 60-day injured list, since he has already been shelved longer than that. Kuhnel is also out of options and will need an active roster spot when he reports to the team.

Kuhnel, 31, has been bouncing around the league for a while. He has pitched for the Reds, Astros, Rays, Athletics and Brewers over the past few years. He has a ground ball profile that hasn’t yet translated into results, as he has a 5.58 earned run average in 129 big league innings.

Teams are seemingly betting on the stuff and the minor league numbers. His four-seamer and sinker each average around 95 miles per hour and he also features a cutter, curveball, slider and changeup. He doesn’t rack up strikeouts but usually gets opponents to pound the ball into the ground more than half the time. Dating back to the start of 2024, he has thrown 119 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.08 ERA.

He is now out of options, which is why he has been shuttled around the league. This year, he has spent time with the A’s and Brewers, tossing 35 1/3 innings with a 4.84 ERA. With Milwaukee, he spent the past month on a rehab assignment, posting a 1.64 ERA in 11 Triple-A innings. When he was done that assignment, the Brewers designated him for assignment instead of putting him back on the roster.

For the Giants, they are playing out the string on a lost season. They can get a close-up look at Kuhnel in the final few weeks, if they so choose. If they like what they see, he is controllable for another four seasons after this one and won’t qualify for arbitration until after 2027.