The Giants made it official on July 17: Eric Haase is off the 40-man roster, designated for assignment as San Francisco activates catcher Daniel Susac from the injured list. It's a corresponding-move type of transaction, the kind that usually flies under the radar, except Haase's path to this DFA has been anything but routine.
Giants Designate Eric Haase For Assignment t.co/BOusR9pbZH
Haase's 2026 season alone is a story. He signed a minor league deal with San Francisco back in January worth up to $1.6 million if he made the club, got released before Opening Day in March, then turned around and re-signed with the Giants on another minor league contract just a week later. When Susac went down with an injury in mid-April, Haase got the call-up and stuck around for three months on the big-league roster.
The results were rough. Across 29 games and 84 plate appearances, the 33-year-old hit just .162/.235/.365 with 4 home runs — enough thump to occasionally flash the power that made him a semi-regular in Detroit a few years back, but not enough contact to hold down a job once healthier options were available.
That's really what this comes down to: a numbers game behind the plate. With Susac reinstated, the Giants are now carrying 3 catchers with limited major-league mileage — Susac, Drew Cavanaugh and Jesus Rodriguez — and Haase, the guy with the most MLB experience of the bunch, is the one who got squeezed out.
Being designated for assignment doesn't end Haase's season outright. San Francisco now has a week to trade him, work out a release, or, if nobody bites and he clears waivers, outright him to Triple-A. Given the trade deadline stretch teams are entering, expect a club light on catching depth to at least kick the tires before this plays out.
For the Giants, it's a quiet but notable roster tweak heading into a Mariners series — the kind of move that won't make headlines outside the beat, but closes the book on one of the stranger catcher journeys of the season: released, re-signed, called up, and now DFA'd, all before August.