Heading into this season, the San Francisco Giants weren’t exactly expected to be world-beaters, but they were expected to be competitive. At the beginning of June, their 2026 record is one that neither the players nor the fans should be proud of. The Giants are currently 24-38, sit 16 games back of first place in the NL West, and are only half a game ahead of the lowly Colorado Rockies in the cellar.
As a proud, historic franchise, this is an unacceptable start to the year. To be a predominantly veteran team over a third of the way through the schedule, and still look completely incapable of playing consistently sound baseball, is an embarrassment. Sure, the easy copout is that they have a rookie manager in Tony Vitello, and he needs time to adjust to the pro game. The former manager at the University of Tennessee became the first ever to make the jump from college to MLB without any prior professional experience.
While that is obviously a difficult transition to make, and Vitello still needs to build credibility in the clubhouse, to put the lion’s share of the blame on his shoulders is unfair and irresponsible. The guys on the field are the ones playing the game. This isn’t the NBA or NFL, where coaches are crafting plays or schemes to put players in a position to be at their best. In the age of analytics, managers really don’t have as much influence as they used to on team success. They are there to execute the vision of the front office, keep morale high, and ensure everyone is pulling in the same direction.
Giants fans and sports talk show hosts can point the finger at Vitello all they want, and maybe they’ll even be proved right eventually. That does not change the fact that the organization’s approach to roster construction is fundamentally flawed and has set them up for failure.
How Did The San Francisco Giants Get Here?
One of the struggles with San Francisco has been the front office’s inability to land marquee free agents. Each offseason, they were always rumored to be in the mix for household names like Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, or Shohei Ohtani, only to miss out on all of them ultimately. While it is frustrating to keep coming up short, this isn’t an indictment of the Giants’ efforts. Players of that caliber are highly sought after, and the fact that they have consistently pursued such pieces is an example of the franchise’s desire to win.
The real issue is that once the top free agents have signed elsewhere, the backup plan has been to throw a bunch of money at second and third-tier players and hope for the best. It’s as if the Giants’ braintrust preemptively decided that they were going to spend, no matter who it was on. While handing out long-term, nine-figure deals like candy gets the casual fan excited, this is not the formula for the Giants to build a winning team.
The most recent big-money free agent signings have been Matt Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee, and Willy Adames. These are all solid to even above-average players at times, but not great. Chapman is on a six-year $151 million contract, Lee a six-year $113 million contract, and Adames a seven-year $182 million contract. That adds up to $446 million committed to just three players who clearly do not impact winning, and none of whom are even top ten at their respective positions.
All of the Giants’ shortcomings are not solely the fault of these three men, but they have not contributed at the level they are being compensated to. A team with Chapman, Lee, Adames, and last season’s blockbuster trade acquisition, Rafael Devers, should not have to look itself in the mirror in June and see that Casey Schmitt is its best hitter. No disrespect to Schmitt, as he has clearly worked on his game and turned himself into an everyday player. He is just a constant reminder to the Giants’ front office and fans that the guy making pennies on the dollar compared to others is outperforming them day in and day out.
The reason the organization feels the need to overpay in free agency and take big swings, as they did with the Devers trade, can be traced to an inability to effectively develop prospects. Look at the current roster. Where is the homegrown talent? The aforementioned Schmitt, Logan Webb, Heliot Ramos, and the highly touted 21-year-old Bryce Eldridge are the only drafted players that come to mind. That’s just four players and a major problem.
There is some hope, as San Francisco does have four players on MLB.com’s Top 100 prospect list. Eldridge is listed at 17, followed by Josuar Gonzalez at 30, Luis Hernandez at 57, and Jhonny Level at 60. This is a solid pool of upcoming talent; however, outside of Eldridge, the other three are 19 and younger and only in High-A or Rookie Ball.
The teenage reinforcements are years away, so there’s no reason to rush them to the bigs before they are ready. In years past, the Giants have completely squandered the progression of former top prospects such as Joey Bart, Marco Luciano, and Luis Matos. This can’t be the organizational norm going forward if they wish to return to prominence any time soon.
The simple truth in baseball is that when teams have a history of being successful, play in a big city, and have a beautiful ballpark, they tend to get complacent. The suits in ownership and the front office know that they can still sell out most games, whether they have a first-place team or a last-place team. SF has the 11th-highest payroll in baseball this season, so clearly they are trying to be competitive, but it is not working, and a change in ideology is needed.
The reality is that the Giants have only finished over .500 twice in the last ten seasons. The magical World Series runs of 2010, 2012, and 2014 are but distant memories at this point. Fair or not, this is a what have you done for me lately business. President of Baseball Operations and Giants legend Buster Posey does not come across as the type of person who accepts mediocrity or losing. The burden falls on his shoulders to revive the franchise, and if successful, that turnaround may be even more impressive than any of his three championship rings.
