It’s no longer about the playoffs. It’s no longer about getting to .500, buying at the deadline, and making a run at October baseball. It’s no longer about, “Hey, all we need is a good couple of weeks, and we’re right back in it.”

Or at least it shouldn’t be. As Brian Sabean used to say, “That ship has sailed.”

The Giants have proved over and over through 56 games that they’re ill equipped to make any kind of extended run. Their longest winning streak is three games. They’re the only team in the majors that hasn’t swept a series. They’ve been swept five times. They’re 12 games below .500 for the first time since June 29, 2019.

I can’t count how many times over the decades I’ve heard the same thing from Giants front-office types: “We need to get younger and more athletic.” The Giants remain neither. They’ve consistently failed to acquire or develop anyone who can steal bases. After Wednesday’s game, they had 14 steals, including two by Patrick Bailey, who’s no longer a Giant.

Eight big-leaguers have as many or more.

The fact that the Giants stole two bags Wednesday was cause for a parade. It’s a rarity. The Giants aren’t taking advantage of the rule changes — limited pickoffs, bigger bases — that encourage more base stealing. Willy Adames stole 21 bags two years ago and now has one. Matt Chapman had 15 steals two years ago and now has none. Whatever happened to Jung Hoo Lee, the base-stealer? He averaged double-digit steals in the KBO and hasn’t attempted a theft this year.

The team’s steals leaders are the two best players: Luis Arráez with five and Casey Schmitt with four. It’s par for the course. Only one Giant, Thairo Estrada, has reached 20 steals in a season since the championship era.

Combine the lack of aggressive baserunning with an inability to draw a walk, and the Giants are in a hole every game. Their 14 steals are fewest in the majors by six, and their 119 walks are fewest by a whopping 42. No wonder they’re last in baseball at scoring runs (3.6 per game).

The Giants need to fully re-examine their entire approach to fundamentals — the front office, the coaching staff, the players — especially after getting swept twice in a week and a half by the Diamondbacks (“Embarrassing,” Adames said), who are what the Giants want to be: younger and more athletic. Arizona turned each game into a clinic on how to play the right way. 

Update: The Giants lost Friday night’s series opener in Denver 8-6 but did some things right before Caleb Kilian coughed up five runs in the ninth, capped by Ezequiel Tovar’s walkoff homer. The situational hitting was good. They collected three two-out RBIs, hit three sacrifice flies, and added a sac bunt. They even drew three walks, which is a start. However, they made two throwing errors and showed again that failing to land a closer in the offseason was costly.

We’re to the point where Bryce Eldridge must play every day against both right- and  left-handers. The 21-year-old rookie won’t develop into a star if he’s in the lineup only against righties. He got a rare start against a southpaw, Eduardo Rodríguez, on Tuesday, and crushed a double at 105.9 mph exit velocity in his first at-bat. In his second at-bat, he hit a ball just as hard, but it traveled 407 feet into Corbin Carroll’s glove.

“I feel comfortable against lefties,” Eldridge said.

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Some proof: In 50 Triple-A plate appearances against lefties this year, he had a higher slugging percentage (.545) than in his 87 plate appearances against righties (.500), and his OPS was nearly as good (.945 vs. 971). 

A bigger sample size came in 2025: He had a better batting average in 97 plate appearances against lefties (.270) than in 336 plate appearances against righties (.258), and the OPSess were similar: .824 against lefties and .848 against righties.

The Giants wanted to ease Eldridge into the mix this season with a soft landing spot, but that’s no longer necessary. Fortunately, it seems management is coming around.

“Eventually, he’s going to become a player where he’s in the lineup every day no matter what’s going on, unless he needs a day down,” manager Tony Vitello said. “And I think there’s a natural sequence in place of edging toward that.”

Update: Eldridge was in the lineup against righty Michael Lorenzen and went 1-for-1 with two walks and a sac fly. He hit an opposite-field double in his first at-bat and scored the first run, and his sac fly put the Giants ahead 4-1.

Vitello said moving Tyler Mahle to the bullpen is “a part of conversations not just with upper management, coaches, and staff but also with players.” No need to converse further. Rookie Trevor McDonald needs to be in the rotation, and a starter needs to come out. Vitello strongly hinted it won’t be Adrian Houser, nor is a six-man rotation in the equation.

There’s only one option, and it’s Mahle. Logan Webb will be reinstated from the injured list and start Friday’s game at Coors Field, and Houser and Robbie Ray will pitch the weekend games. That puts Landen Roupp on course to start Monday in Milwaukee. Tuesday better be McDonald.

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Mahle is 1-7 with a 6.04 ERA, the highest in the majors among qualified starters, and the brain trust isn’t keen on how the right-hander hasn’t aggressively attacked the strike zone. He needs a timeout. If he stays on the roster, he could try to rebound as a reliever.

“A change of scenery could help a guy move in a different direction,” Vitello said.

McDonald has a 4.34 ERA in five starts, but one horrible inning against the White Sox (he plunked the first two batters, more zaniness ensued, and he got charged with seven runs) severely cost him. Remove that, and the ERA is 2.70.

Update: Mahle was placed on the 15-day injured list with a hamstring strain. McDonald stays in the rotation.

In retrospect, it was probably unfair for the Giants to make Hector Borg their third-base coach. Yes, he gained some experience in the minors and winter ball, but the majors is a faster style of play, and he could have used more grooming.

One option for the Giants would have been breaking in Borg as the first-base coach, the old-school approach for introducing new coaches, where the responsibilities aren’t as heavy and the pressure isn’t as heightened.

Borg, 41, is a faithful and likable organizational man who has been in the system for two decades as a player and coach but has made several costly mistakes sending runners and holding runners. The latest came Wednesday when he waved Adames home on Arráez’s single. Everyone in the park could have predicted doom, and Adames was as easy out.

It wasn’t the right situation to get ultra aggressive. The Giants would have had two runners aboard with one out and their best hitter coming up in Schmitt. Instead, there were two outs, and then Arráez got picked off second base. The bat was taken out of Schmitt’s hands.

While Borg was off four days for a family funeral, the reliable Ron Wotus, 65, filled in as the third-base coach. Maybe that’s the path the Giants take the rest of the season, with Borg getting reps at first base.

Update: Borg was reassigned to a new role with the player development staff. Wotus is the new third-base coach, at least for the interim.

Three straight games, Giants hitters crushed pitches to right-center at Oracle Park. Not enough to clear the wall, but all (based on the distance and overlap metrics) would have been home runs in the other 29 parks — Rafael Devers twice and Eldridge once. Only in San Francisco, where the wall is 415 feet from the plate, do those long drives stay in the yard.

After Eldridge’s 407-footer was caught, he said he got a note from his agent congratulating him for getting “Oracle’d.” I asked Vitello, despite his brief time here, if he has become a proponent of moving in the wall, especially now that the Giants have two mashers who swing left-handed.

Vitello did the right thing. He pivoted and said, “Obviously, we’ve got other problems to worry about.” For example, he mentioned throwing more strikes and swinging at more strikes, and also, “Everybody needs to come to work and be relaxed and have fun.”

Everybody needs to adjust to the dimensions and elements too. Willie Mays hit 660 home runs and made his home at two of the goofiest yards in baseball history, the Polo Grounds and Candlestick Park. He didn’t complain; he adjusted. He couldn’t hit homers to center field at the Polo Grounds because it was 482 feet straight away, so he learned to attack the lines and alleys. At windy Candlestick, he found it hard to hit long fly balls over the left-field wall, so he hit balls into the jet stream in right-center.

The beauty of this ballpark is its uniqueness, so don’t mess with it. Deal with it. Like the teams from 2010, 2012, and 2014.