The San Francisco Giants have spent much of 2026 reminding themselves how quickly a promising roster can unravel.
Sitting at 65-94 and near the bottom of the National League West, the club has watched injuries and inconsistency undercut the investments made over recent winters.
Life under Buster Posey has not delivered the contention many expected, yet the organization still found room for one last surprise before the regular season ends.
Camilo Doval is back, as the Giants claimed him off waivers on Thursday, via the MLB transaction log.
For the first five years of his career the hard-throwing right-hander belonged to San Francisco. He arrived as a talented prospect and left as one of the most reliable pieces in the Giants bullpen, posting a 3.29 ERA across 275 appearances.
That version of Doval vanished after the 2025 trade that sent him to the New York Yankees. The move netted San Francisco four minor-league prospects, but Doval never recaptured the late-inning dominance that once defined him.
This season only got worse. After a 4.54 ERA with the Yankees he was dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Twenty appearances later, Pittsburgh placed him on waivers. Few around Oracle Park expected to see his name on the Giants roster again so soon. The team claimed him anyway.
At 29 Doval still has the raw tools that once made him exciting. The velocity remains. What has faded is the command and the late life on his pitches that used to miss bats with regularity.
San Francisco is betting those missing pieces can return in a familiar environment. With only three games left on the schedule there is a chance he appears in a Giants uniform before the year is over.
The reunion is temporary by design. Doval will be a free agent this winter, so the claim is as much an evaluation as a roster move. The Giants get a low-risk look at a pitcher they already know well.
Doval gets a chance to finish the season where his career began and perhaps remind clubs what he can still be.
Whether the spark returns is an open question. Bullpens are volatile, and one year of struggles does not always vanish simply because a player changes cities.
Still, if there is a place where Doval might find the version of himself that once closed games in San Francisco, it is the organization that developed him. For a Giants team already looking toward next winter, that possibility was worth a waiver claim.
