Landen Roupp’s Continued Success Goes a Long Way

Heading into spring training of 2025, the San Francisco Giants had no idea who their fifth starter would be. With Justin Verlander being freshly signed at the time and familiar faces like Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, and Jordan Hicks returning, there was just one rotation spot left.

There were three names in the conversation with two heavy favorites. Kyle Harrison was the top ranked left-handed pitching prospect in baseball within the last year, while Hayden Birdsong was a rising young prospect with eye-opening stuff.

The last name was Landen Roupp, a solid arm who had flown under the radar while rising through the organization. After a phenomenal spring, it would end up being the least likely of the three securing the final rotation spot.

This came to be one of the best, and most important, decisions the Giants would make all season. Roupp ended up having somewhat of a breakout season while being the Giants best starter at times.

Now, heading into 2026, Roupp is someone that the front office has put a lot of faith in. With the only two additions to the rotation being backend starters, him building off last season will be huge for San Francisco’s chances at contention.

Roupp’s Surprise Season

While Roupp’s 2025 may not have been the elite breakout we see from young players, it might as well have been considering the lack of hype on him as a prospect.

He was a former 12th-round draft pick and never made it into the organizations top 10 ranked prospects. Preseason projections didn’t hate Roupp going into 2025, but they certainly didn’t expect him to be as much of a contributor as he was.

He did deal with a few injuries, but in the 106 innings he threw in 2025, Roupp was undoubtedly the Giants’ third-best starter. In 22 games, he threw to the tune of a 3.80 ERA with a 21.4% strikeout rate.

Those numbers may not jump off the page, but they also don’t tell the entire story. Yes, it’s a hypothetical, but if you take out Roupp’s last two starts of the season, his numbers improve dramatically.

His ERA would drop to 3.11 with a 3.62 FIP and a groundball rate north of 45%. Throughout the entirety of the season, he became a true piece of consistency. This was especially important considering how inconsistent the Giants of last year were as a whole.

His numbers for the entire year were encouraging, but it was a month-long stretch in the dog days of summer that really opened some eyes in the Giants organization.

From June 25 to July 25, Giants ace Logan Webb would have his worst stretch of the season, by far. In six starts, he ran a 6.03 ERA giving up 23 earned runs in just 34.1 innings.

Roupp decided to pick him up and be the Giants’ best starter from June 21 to July 22. During that stretch, he would win three games with 32 strikeouts in 31.1 innings. The 1.15 ERA he posted was the third best mark in baseball among qualified starters in that time.

In a season where he didn’t even know if he’d start the season in the big-leagues, Roupp took full advantage. Despite injury issues in the last two months of the season, he was one of the Giants’ best starters for the majority of 2025.

Is There More In the Tank?

Now, the biggest thing for Roupp in 2026 will be availability. He’s never reached the 110-inning mark in his professional career and the Giants will definitely need more than the 106 innings he threw last year.

Thankfully, his elbow appears to be completely healthy after a brief IL stint with inflammation, while his knee has fully recovered from the freak injury on a comebacker that ended his season.

After a strong start to the spring, all signs point to a successful season on the horizon for the 27-year-old. While he did surrender a walk, he also struck out two in a scoreless inning. More importantly, his sinker averaged 94.6 mph—a big uptick from his 92.8 mph average last year.

Roupp’s also been working on an improved cutter with new assistant pitching coach Christian Wonders while adding a four-seamer into the repertoire.

If he can sustain a small velocity bump while staying healthy for the majority of the season, the Giants would be thrilled. Outside of Webb, this rotation is going to be fishing for innings.

Free agent signee Tyler Mahle is projected to make just 18 starts while Robbie Ray and Adrian Houser are both projected to throw under 150 innings. Ray and Houser are also projected to post an ERA north of 4.00, which would be a nightmare situation for San Francisco.

Roupp projects to have the second-lowest ERA among starters on this team, but that is across just 99 innings. While these systems are wrong all the time, they typically give us a decent idea of what we can expect from guys in the coming season.

For the Giants, Roupp is one of the most important names to follow throughout the spring and the first few months of the season. Can he take a step and solidify himself as the number three starter behind Webb and Ray?

For Roupp, the 2026 campaign will be a prime opportunity to cement himself as a true building block and piece of the future for the San Francisco Giants. Will we see continued success for the righty? Or will his injury history repeat itself and put the Giants in a tough situation?