By Ava Rodriguez
In March of 2026, the San Francisco Giants felt excited and well prepared for their season. Between their acquisitions of prized free agents, all star second baseman Luis Arraez coming from the San Diego Padres, and beloved college baseball coach Tony Vitello as their head manager, they were speculated to put up a fight for a National League postseason spot. As the 2026 season ends, the San Francisco Giants are the second to last team in the National League, with a record of 56 wins and 86 losses as of August 30th, 2026.
Going into the 2026 season, President of baseball operations, and former 3-time World Series champion with the Giants, Buster Posey, did not secure a reliable and properly skilled closing pitcher for the team. Because of this, the Giants have struggled with their closing pitchers underperforming. For example, Ryan Walker blew the lead in three games that the Giants were winning in the span of two weeks, causing them to be in constant search of a good closer within only their own pitching staff. In order for this team to be successful, there needs to be a defined closer who’s able to get the job done.
Another issue this team has constantly run into throughout this season is inconsistent offensive production. A common scenario seen plenty of times is that one batter gets a really good hit with no outs, and the three batters that come up after him strikeout, pop up, or groundout simultaneously. For example, on June 26th of this year against the Atlanta Braves, a Giants player managed to get on base 8 times, and each time was left stranded due to the team’s lack of ability to hit when it is necessary. By incorporating more plate discipline, and realizing that not every hit needs to be a home run, it just needs to advance the runners on base, the Giants could improve their offensive production.
Shifting from the negatives of this season, one positive has been 21 year old Bryce Eldridge. Eldridge made his MLB debut at the end of the 2025 season, but didn’t truly shine until this year, batting .261 with 85 hits, 15 of those being home runs, and 42 runs batted in. The Giants selected Eldridge in July of 2023, and spent two years training him in the minor leagues while making it very well known to the public that they would be building the future team around him. As Eldridge has been one of the lights shining in this awful season, it is clear that the Giants need to focus on developing even more of their young minor league players to build for a better future.
Another positive aspect of this season is that throughout the hardships faced, they rarely struggled in maintaining team chemistry. This group constantly uplifts each other and focuses on the highlights of their teammates rather than dwelling on errors and problems. As seen before from the 2010, 2012, and 2014 Giant’s World Series Championships, team chemistry plays a huge role. By continuing to bring this positive energy to the team, the Giants are on the right path to a more successful 2027.
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