Giants Designate Jared Oliva For Assignment

The Giants activated Jared Oliva from the 60-day injured list and then designated the outfielder for assignment.  (The San Francisco Chronicle’s Shayna Rubin was among the beat writers to report the news.)  The move gives the Giants 39 players on their 40-man roster.

Oliva signed a minor league contract with San Francisco in February and then made the team’s Opening Day roster.  After playing in 26 games with the Pirates in 2020-21, Oliva didn’t appear again in the big leagues until his seven games with the Giants this year, but his return to the Show was cut short by a hamate fracture in mid-April.

Such injuries usually lead to absences of 4-8 weeks, and Oliva has now logged 14 games of action during a minor league rehab assignment.  As noted by Evan Webeck of the California Post, Oliva had reached the end of his 20-day rehab period, and the Giants chose to just designate the outfielder rather than activate Olivia and option him to the minors.

Oliva had one hit and one stolen base over seven plate appearances for San Francisco, and his career slash line is .175/.212/.206 over 66 PA with the Pirates and Giants.  His career Triple-A numbers (.257/.331/.406 over 1377 PA) are better, but Oliva didn’t distinguish himself by hitting only .241/.288/.315 in 60 Triple-A plate appearances this year.

Stealing bases is Oliva’s calling card, as the 30-year-old has swiped 231 bags (out of 276 attempts) during his nine minor league seasons, highlighted by a 57-steal campaign with the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate in 2025.  Despite this ability on the basepaths and Oliva’s ability to play all three outfield positions, he hasn’t shown enough at the plate to merit much of a look at the MLB level.

Since Oliva doesn’t have the ability to reject an outright assignment, he’ll have to stick with the Giants if he clears waivers and is then outrighted to Triple-A.  It is possible another team in need of outfield depth might have some interest on a waiver claim, and Oliva has two minor league option years remaining.