Giants sign reliever Austin Warren to one-year contract
SAN FRANCISCO — Free-agent pitcher Austin Warren has signed a one-year contract with the San Francisco Giants.
The team announced the deal Wednesday as spring training began in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Warren went 1-0 with a 5.40 ERA in two games for the Los Angeles Angels last season and pitched seven more innings over five games for Triple-A Salt Lake.
The right-hander is 6-0 with a 3.55 ERA and one save over 32 career relief appearances and 38 innings with the Angels from 2021-23.
After a busy baseball winter, spring is in the air again.
The Los Angeles Dodgers spent $1.2 billion this offseason, landing the top two free agents in Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The New York Yankees, after missing the playoffs last year, swung a deal for slugger Juan Soto. Fresh off winning an American League-best 101 games, the upstart Baltimore Orioles dealt for an ace in Corbin Burnes.
With pitchers and catchers reporting, we’ll soon see how those moves — and many others — translate to the diamond. We’ve asked ESPN MLB experts to tee up spring training with the stars and storylines they’re most excited about ahead of the 2024 season.
What is the one thing you are most excited about as spring training begins?
Buster Olney: The summerlong pressure that will build on a handful of teams facing must-win seasons. If the Dodgers don’t win the World Series, their season will be regarded as a failure. The Atlanta Braves are right in the middle of their championship window, just before Max Fried and Charlie Morton depart as free agents. The Philadelphia Phillies should’ve won the World Series last fall, and that failure will drive them. The Yankees’ organization needs to take a big step forward in the postseason. This figures to be the last season of Alex
Bregman with the Houston Astros. The Texas Rangers have to hang on until Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer return in midseason — and we’ll wonder then about what deGrom and Scherzer will bear this late in their respective careers, as Texas tries to go back-to-back. Every year, there are teams that hope to win the World Series, but this season, there are a lot of teams that need to win the title.
