{"id":936616,"date":"2026-10-17T16:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T16:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/936616\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T16:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T16:28:12","slug":"nl-west-notes-giants-itoh-taira-vesia-hernandez-r-rod-rockies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/936616\/","title":{"rendered":"NL West Notes: Giants, Itoh, Taira, Vesia, Hernandez, R-Rod, Rockies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n By Mark Polishuk<\/a> |
\n at October 17, 2026 11:14am CDT <\/p>\n

The Giants are among the big league teams who have scouted Hiromi Itoh<\/a> and Kaima Taira<\/a>, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a> reports.\u00a0 The Japanese right-handers are expected to be posted for MLB clubs this offseason, even though the impending lockout will sure interrupt their 45-day posting window unless a deal is reached between the time of posting (potentially early November<\/a>) and the lockout-induced transactions freeze on December 1.<\/p>\n

At least 15 MLB teams were thought to be scouting Taira and Itoh is also drawing plenty of interest, so it isn\u2019t surprising to see the Giants on this list.\u00a0 Either righty would make a good fit on a Giants team in need of rotation help, and while Taira doesn\u2019t have a long track record as a starter, he could conceivably transition to a role in San Francisco\u2019s leaky bullpen if things didn\u2019t work out as a starting pitcher.\u00a0 Despite the team\u2019s increased NPB scouting presence, Slusser notes that \u201cthe Giants haven\u2019t fared well in their pursuit of Japanese players in recent years,\u201d with such targets as Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> and Roki Sasaki<\/a> ending up with the arch-rival Dodgers.<\/p>\n

More from around the NL West\u2026<\/p>\n

Alex Vesia<\/a> and Enrique Hernandez<\/a> are both open to returning to the Dodgers, the two impending free agents told the Los Angeles Times\u2019 Maddie Lee<\/a> and other reporters.\u00a0 Vesia has been a durable and effective staple of the L.A. bullpen over his six years with the team, and his 2.64 ERA and 31.2% strikeout rate over 58 innings in 2026 are pretty close to his average numbers from 2021-26.\u00a0 The southpaw figures to be<\/a> in line for a solid multi-year contract on the open market, whereas Hernandez might (for the fourth straight offseason) be more likely to sign a one-year pact to play with the Dodgers.\u00a0 Hernandez has been a key member of the Dodgers\u2019 bench and clubhouse mix, and while his regular-season numbers have rarely impressed, he has a reputation for big postseason performances (though Hernandez had only one hit in 15 playoff plate appearances this October.)
\nGiants right-hander Randy Rodriguez<\/a> is pitching in the Arizona Fall League, as MLB.com\u2019s Maria Guardado<\/a> writes that Rodriguez asked for the AFL assignment in order to log some game action before 2026 was over.\u00a0 Rodriguez underwent Tommy John surgery in late September 2025, and the year-long rehab prevented the reliever from any sort of minor league rehab assignment.\u00a0 Between his AFL work and presumably a full and healthy Spring Training, Rodriguez is on pace to be part of San Francisco\u2019s Opening Day roster.\u00a0 Rodriguez emerged as an elite reliever in 2025, earning an All-Star nod and taking over closer duties before his UCL injury ended his season.\u00a0 The Giants will prioritize bullpen upgrades<\/a> this offseason, and Guardado writes that the team is expected to seek out at least one more pitcher capable of handling the ninth inning, rather than entrust everything to Rodriguez after his long layoff.
\nThe Rockies may add to their coaching staff in the form of \u201ca position to help with advance reports and produce quicker in-game adjustments,\u201d the Denver Post\u2019s Troy Renck<\/a> writes.\u00a0 Such roles exist (under various names) across several coaching staffs across baseball, and the addition of such a job would be the latest example of how president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta is trying to modernize and revamp how the Rockies operate.\u00a0 One early change has already been walked back, as pitching coach Alon Leichman has already been fired<\/a> after only one season on the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Mark Polishuk | at October 17, 2026 11:14am CDT The Giants are among the big league teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[11769,49,48,129646,320852,320853,462,29228,82],"class_list":["post-936616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-alex-vesia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-enrique-hernandez","tag-hiromi-itoh","tag-kaima-taira","tag-mlb","tag-randy-rodriguez","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}