He was the perfect final piece for a successful run to the playoffs. A big bat in the heart of the lineup, the Giants’ most menacing threat since Barry Bonds, a major reason to bank on October baseball at Oracle Park.
Then Rafael Devers showed up.
In one of the most unanticipated series of events that any long-time faithful fan can remember, the Giants rode Devers all the way out of the race and straight to irrelevance.
Monday is the one-year anniversary of the Devers trade, the day Buster Posey shook the baseball world, and Wednesday is the one-year anniversary of his Giants debut. Since then, pretty much anything that could go wrong has gone wrong, Bryce Eldridge’s walk-off grand slam Wednesday notwithstanding.
Here are 10 points itemizing the Giants’ hope-to-heartache journey that began so promising but now leaves the organization in a struggling state and wondering how to recover.
The Giants were tied for first place two days before the trade, even with the Dodgers at 41-29 after Logan Webb won a Friday night game 6-2 at Dodger Stadium, outpitching Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Posey’s first year as president of baseball operations was going swimmingly, but the Giants dropped the next two games in L.A., including on the Sunday of the trade. Devers joined them in San Francisco for a series against Cleveland, and their losing streak hit four. Pretty soon, they had 12 losses in 16 games and found themselves a whopping nine games out of first place on July 1.
The Giants already were feeling desperate two weeks into the Devers era, and Posey decided to exercise manager Bob Melvin’s $4 million option for 2026, thinking it would unite the team. The announcement came July 1, and the timing was curious. As Posey admitted after the season, “I think we all felt that the season was going in the direction that we didn’t want it to go, and the hope was that picking up that option provided a morale boost within the clubhouse.” It didn’t work. July was the Giants’ worst month (9-15), and it was Devers’ worst month, too (two homers, .704 OPS).
Despite the downturn, the Giants’ scouts, analysts, and key decision-makers were intent on buying in the weeks approaching the July 31 trade deadline. After all, the Giants still were nine games above .500 as late as July 11, two days before the All-Star break. But amid a 2-12 free fall to end the month and six straight losses up to the deadline, everything changed — they were swept in a homestand of at least six games for the first time since … 1896 (Devers went 2-for-22). The Giants fell below .500 for the first time, and Posey hastily pivoted from buyer to seller. The white flag was raised on the season, a rare admission for this organization.
Among the three deadline trades, the Giants shipped two proven relievers to New York, Tyler Rogers (a pending free agent) to the Mets and Camilo Doval (wasn’t cutting it) to the Yankees. If that didn’t deplete the bullpen enough, the Giants’ best reliever, Randy Rodríguez, a 2025 All-Star, pitched his final game on Aug. 22 and underwent Tommy John surgery, shelving him until 2027. It was one of the roster’s biggest concerns in the offseason, but stunningly, the front office did little to address the bullpen and imagined Ryan Walker could handle the closer’s role, both colossal misjudgments. Consequently, the bullpen is a major reason for the Giants’ 2026 collapse.
The Devers era got off to a rotten start, and Melvin paid the price. The Giants went 81-81 on the season but 40-50 after Devers arrived, and Melvin was the fall guy. As we’ve learned so far in 2026, it wasn’t his fault. The Giants have been even worse this year under rookie manager Tony Vitello, and it has been a costly managerial transition: $4 million for Melvin, $3.5 million for Vitello’s first-year salary as part of his three-year deal, and $3 million to buy out his contract at Tennessee — $10.5 million overall minus the few nickels the A’s are paying Melvin as an adviser, a minor dent. It was a bold move by Posey to hire Vitello, but the new coaching staff has yet to turn Devers back into the player he was in Boston.
No elite additions were made to the 2026 roster as ownership refrained from spending big bucks and anticipated Devers would come back strong and become the superstar the Giants needed. It was more about mid-level signings to fill holes, but the only one that has gone well is Luis Arráez, who’ll likely compete for another batting crown while playing Gold Glove-level defense (thank you, Ron Washington) and posting a 2.0 WAR, according to baseballreference.com (opens in new tab). The rest of the free agents? Adrian Houser, Tyler Mahle, Harrison Bader, Sam Hentges, and Jason Foley (hasn’t appeared yet) have a combined WAR of -0.7. Devers’ WAR: 0.1.
Devers’ presence made it tougher for Eldridge to break into the majors since he also was a first baseman in training and designated hitter. Casey Schmitt was in an awkward position, too, the team’s biggest threat at the plate but without a position to call his own. What if Eldridge had made the Opening Day roster? Would the Giants be better off today? Impossible to answer, but the team was determined to give him some final pointers in Triple-A before calling him up. But even when he arrived, fans were furious he wasn’t in the lineup everyday. Only an injury to Heliot Ramos, which opened left field to Schmitt, allowed Eldridge consistent playing time.
Who are the Giants anyway? They’re a flawed team, for starters, nowhere close to where they anticipated being with Devers. First in the majors in hits but 26th in on-base percentage because they’re last in walks by a large margin. Also last in steals. Couple that with the sixth-worst rotation ERA, along with some sloppy defense and errant base running along the way, and it’s no wonder they’re almost always in a hole. What do the Giants need to do to win, hit a grand slam every day? Well, yes. In the historic 23-game stretch in which they hit seven grand slams, they were 7-0 in grand-slam games and 2-14 in non-grand-slam games. Not exactly a realistic formula for success.
The hitting woes of Devers, Willy Adames, and Matt Chapman have corresponded with the team’s place in the standings. Devers and Adames had dreadful Aprils (.537 and .593 OPSs, respectively), improved in May, and have been bad again in June. In contrast, Chapman’s May was horrendous (.533 OPS), but he’s tearing it up in June. Jung Hoo Lee also struggled at the outset but turned his season around and had an 18-game hit streak snapped over the weekend, though Lee rarely draws a walk, which is a team-wide issue. Patrick Bailey? Provided next to nothing offensively and was traded with his .396 OPS to Cleveland. Where would the Giants be without Schmitt and Arráez?
Devers has played 162 games as a Giant, hitting .235 (44 points lower than Boston) with a .762 OPS (97 points lower than Boston). The Giants are 69-93 on his watch. It’s more of the same in June: He’s 8-for-52 (.154) with 20 strikeouts in 13 games. He’s not hitting with runners in scoring position, and his strikeout and walk rates are career worsts. Meantime, Kyle Harrison, is dealing in Milwaukee. James Tibbs III is raking in the Dodgers’ farm system. Jordan Hicks is on the South Side of Chicago. And José Bello, a low-level minor-leaguer, is the only player the Giants traded to Boston who’s still with the Red Sox. Posey and the Giants still anticipate the trade will pan out and would swear they’d make the deal all over again, fully expecting Rafael Devers eventually will be Rafael Devers and that the Giants will capitalize. But so far, nothing has gone according to plan.
此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理，仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。