Your 2026 Giants: Bryce Eldridge Breakout Season

I've been providing an analysis of Bryce Eldridge's progress this season.  This is the final post covering his season, which has been a marvelous breakout season.  The seasonal highlights include (from Baseball Refrence and Fangraphs):

• 2.1 bWAR/1.8fWAR
• .269/.364/.461/.825
• 50 runs and 57 RBI
• 23 doubles and 17 HR
• 59 walks vs 119 strikeouts in 448 PA/386 AB in 107 games
• 131 wRC+

Per Grant Brisbee of The Athletic, when a 21 YO player walks at least 50 times and hits at least 15 homers, many of them became very good baseball players.  Of course, each player is individual, but players who have accomplished a lot at such a young age tends to get even better with MLB experience.  

Think Will the Thrill, who only hit 11 homers in his first season (old man at age 22), and 35 homers in his second.  He wasn’t on the list, but these were:  Mays, Mantle, Williams, Kaline, Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr, Mike Trout, Frank Robinson, Mel Ott, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Bryce Harper, Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna Jr, Giancarlo Stanton.  It’s not a full list, but a very impressive list, though there were still many who were not as good, who were not as well known.  Will Bryce be among the greats or the also rans?  Will be interesting to watch, lots of memories either way.

Your 2026 Giants: Do You Believe in Posey?

Many fans are upset with the Giants and Posey, and want him fired, along with Minasian and Vitello.  The following is what I wrote as comments on The Athletic, after the End of Season press conference.  

I will address the End of Season press conference in another post. I normally try to find a full transcript, but having a down period in life, don’t have the time (or will) to listen and write down each and every word.  I will see what work around satisfies me.

Your 2026 Giants: An Identity That Posey Sees As Ideal

A while back (took me a while to finish this), the Mercury’s Dieter Kurtenbach wrote this opinion piece, “The SF Giants stumbled into an identity. Will they embrace it?”  He likes the new Giants who have stepped up after Adames was ILed for the rest of the season, going 12-11 since then (at the time of his article; of course, they ended the season getting swept, multiple times…).

Because this little run of competence represents a team that isn’t rolling over and playing dead. They’re finally, mercifully playing an irritating brand of baseball (complimentary), which sure beats their prior brand: comatose.

As usual, I have thoughts. 

Your 2026 Giants: Trading Bailey Was a Smart Move That was Immediately Successful

The San Francisco Standard has an email service which shares news and thoughts about the local teams, like the Giants. Kerry Crowley wrote about the Bailey trade to Cleveland in a recent email (September 4th), part of which I excerpt here for your reference:

… 

Was trading Bailey a smart move?

It’s too soon to say whether the Giants or Guardians won the deal, in part because Bailey’s primary replacement, Daniel Susac, appeared in just 53 games before a fractured left kneecap ended his season.

Susac isn’t as highly regarded as Bailey defensively, yet this season he recorded six defensive runs saved (DRS) compared with Bailey’s seven. Bailey has a narrow edge in pop time (1.85 seconds to 1.89 seconds), but Susac graded out as a slightly better framer (92nd percentile to 83rd percentile). 

Giants pitchers recorded a 3.63 ERA throwing to Bailey this season, nearly two-tenths of a point better than the 3.82 mark they recorded with Susac catching. 

Bailey’s two Gold Glove Awards and longer track record suggest he’ll remain the better defensive player, but he’s arbitration-eligible and will command a higher salary moving forward. 

Susac’s .664 OPS is well below league average, but a strong September at the plate will give Bailey — who has a .604 OPS — a chance to catch up. The switch-hitting veteran has a .699 OPS with Cleveland, a .789 mark since the All-Star break, and had a .814 OPS in September 2025, whereas Susac regressed following a red-hot start to his career.

After a right elbow injury forced Susac to the injured list in April, he returned May 15 and hit just .198 with a .574 OPS in 42 games. 

The good news for the Giants is that Susac isn’t the only player responsible for filling Bailey’s void. The bad news is that neither of the other top catchers — Drew Cavanaugh and Jesús Rodríguez — is a strong defender. Cavanaugh’s pop time and blocking skills grade out above average, but his framing ranks in the 31st percentile among catchers, and Giants pitchers have recorded a 4.70 ERA with Cavanaugh behind the plate. Rodríguez, meanwhile, has poor defensive metrics and is likely better suited to a role as a utility infielder.

It’s possible the best path forward for the Giants would have been keeping Bailey and platooning him with Susac. It’s also possible Bailey, a multiyear starter in San Francisco, would have been frustrated with that arrangement. 

So with the team struggling and Bailey underperforming, Posey took a risk by resetting the catching depth chart in return for a pair of valuable assets. Wilkinson might struggle as a starter, but it’s realistic to think he could succeed out of the bullpen.

Then there’s Bolemon, a 19-year-old lefty who is already one of the Giants’ top 10 prospects. If the 6-foot-4 South Carolinian becomes a force in the rotation, Posey may look back on the Bailey trade as one of his best moves.

A lot has to go right — Susac must improve, Wilkinson must contribute, and Bolemon must develop into a trusted starter — but one of the bolder trades of Posey’s tenure could eventually pay off.

Another Perspective of the Giants’ past 12 Seasons

{Note: I started this on July 24th, and though most of it was done, I forgot about it, and just finished it today. Of course, the trade deadline is now way in the past, so I added the addendum, as well as tweaked some, as I am wont to do}

I received an email on July 24th from the SF Standard, and the writer described their view of what the Giants have gone through from the end of Evans’ tenure as GM, to Zaidi and finally to Posey.  I will quote here since not everyone gets this:

This is a franchise that desperately needs to start over.

The Giants consider “rebuild” a dirty word, but their atrocious play demands they consider a process they’ve scoffed at. 

It’s time to abandon the typical offseason approach of signing veteran free agents to fill every roster hole. From Bobby Evans to Farhan Zaidi to Posey, it’s clear that regardless of which executive is calling the shots, those free-agent signings have created even more problems. 

The last time the Giants had such a clear chance to rebuild, they ignored the opportunity. After a 98-loss 2017 season, Evans traded for Evan Longoria and Andrew McCutchen, signed Austin Jackson, and insisted they could compete for an NL West crown while staying under MLB’s luxury tax threshold. 

An 89-loss season cost Evans his job and ushered in the Zaidi era.

If the Giants are serious about building a contender again, the team’s next few offseasons should look a lot like Zaidi’s first.

Entering 2019, the Giants signed switch-pitcher Pat Venditte, re-signed lefty Derek Holland, and added another southpaw, Drew Pomeranz, on a one-year contract. They also made a series of waiver claims, minor-league trades, and minor moves that were so difficult to keep track of that fans grew furious.

The most important part of Zaidi’s first offseason: He didn’t acquire anyone who blocked an emerging prospect from securing meaningful opportunities with the Giants’ major-league club.

The only issue? The Giants didn’t really have any emerging prospects. 

Trade acquisition Mike Yastrzemskidebuted in May and 2014 draftee Logan Webb arrived in August, but the farm system was so underwhelming that clearing the way for young talent didn’t lead to much of a long-term payoff. 

The opposite is true now. Signing more Tyler Mahles, Adrian Housers, and Harrison Baders will block the path for a pipeline that features more promising prospects. And it’s a group that should only grow stronger when the Giants start dealing away veterans before the Aug. 3 deadline. 

The Giants’ performance demands drastic action. The focus must shift from the present to the future and from identifying major leaguers who can help now to minor leaguers who can help eventually. The face of the franchise, Bryce Eldridge, isn’t going anywhere, but everyone else is tradable. 

If the Giants don’t rebuild now, they never will. 

Your 2026 Giants: The Future Horizon

Some fans and media are so bummed out about how bad the Giants season has been, that they are missing the big story of this season: the rise of the farm system.  One beat writer wrote that improving the farm system is the only positive development of the 2026 season.  Below is my comment, with added content.

Your 2026 Giants: Eldridge Update

I have been covering Bryce Eldridge’s breakout this season in a series of posts.  I last covered him in this post, and thought this was a good time to update since he was out for bereavement leave.  

To recap, many fans and media were, and still are, confused about how Eldridge was handled early on.  But as I detailed in my first post, he was immediately started, struck out too much, got took out, presumably to work on things, started again and struck out too much again, resulting in his next break to work on things.  

His next starts was when things changed.  He didn’t start hitting, but the key thing was that he was making good contact, even if he wasn’t hitting, and the Giants didn’t take him out, and soon after, he was hitting great, like a superstar, over 1.000 OPS.  We left off right around the end of that sizzling hot streak.

Your 2026 Giants: the Silver Lining

Dieter Kurtenbach, of the SJ Mercury, wrote a scathing diatribe about the Giants titled, “There’s no silver lining to the most pathetic SF Giants team in a decade.”  (subscription needed).  

Your 2026 Giants: Trade Thoughts

The Giants pulled one their biggest overhaul at the trade deadline by trading away the following players:

• Luis Arraez:  to the Phillies
• Caleb Kilian: to the Phillies
• Tyler Mahle:  to Atlanta
• Robbie Ray: to the Padres
• Heliot Ramos: to the Yankees
• Eric Miller: to Boston
• Carlos Gutierrez (MiLB):  to Boston

Your 2026 Giants: signed 19 of 21 picks

Per the Giants announcement, they have signed 19 of their 21 draft picks from the 2026 Draft.

Your 2026 Giants: Flora Signs!

Per Jim Callis of MLB.com, Flora has signed with the Giants for $7.9975M.  With a bonus slot of $8.9884, the Giants have bonus slot left over of $990,900.

Your 2026 Giants: Mock Draft Intel

With the 2026 Draft coming on July 11th, I thought it would be interesting to see what the major baseball content outlets are saying about the Giants draft.  Especially because they have both the 4th pick overall (which was lucky, they were supposed to have the 15th pick, a huge leap) and the 29th pick overall, plus the rest of the normal picks.  Their total bonus slots for the draft is $17.351M, fourth highest behind Pirates, Rays and White Sox. They have the 4th pick, 29th, 55th, 90th, and 118th in the first day, which covers rounds 1 to 4.  

Here are some of the sources I found that I used for this post:

• ESPN
• Baseball America:  early preview (via compilation by SBNation); Top 10
• Perfect Game
• MLB Pipeline
• Fangraphs
• The Athletic (Keith Law)
• MLB (Maria Guardado)
• MLB Pipeline Top Draft Prospects

Your 2026 Giants: Thoughts on Vitello

I see a lot of people who want to fire Vitello.  So I wrote a comment in reply, and now expanded it greatly here.  

Your 2026 Giants: Eldridge’s Progress at 25 Games

Since I’m collecting Bryce Eldridge’s batting game log data, I thought I would give a 25 game update.

Your 2026 Giants: A Giant Among The Giants

Bryce Eldridge just hit a walk off grand slam at age 21, the youngest to do so in MLB history (just beat out Roberto Clemente), so I thought I would write a follow up on how Eldridge is doing in what appears to be his breakout season. 

I have been keeping track of his batting line for this breakout period, where he has mostly started, unlike the early start and stop, which, to me, made sense because he was struggling, and needed to work on cutting his strikeouts (I covered this is a recent post). 

Your 2026 Giants: Eldridge Usage

There has been a lot of talk about mishandling Eldridge after his promotion. I didn’t share that opinion, but didn’t keep detailed track of his usage, so I decided to look into this, see whose impression is correct.

Your 2026 Giants: Rebuilding While Not Officially Rebuilding

A Giants beat writer thinks that the trade of Bailey signals a rebuild, but not a rebuild in a traditional sense.

Your 2026 Giants: Posey Boldly Trades Bailey

The Giants traded Patrick Bailey to Cleveland for a AA pitcher, Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson and their 29th overall pick in the upcoming draft.  Here is one of NBC’s accounts of the trade and this is MLB’s report.

Your 2026 Giants: Webb vs. Winning Teams

One complaint I’ve seen about Logan Webb over the years is that he’s unable to pitch well against good teams. Which is nonsense, much like what used to be directed at Matt Cain.  And his opening day clobbering at the hands of the Yankees brought that up again.  I thought I would look into it again.

Your 2026 Giants: Rookie Error for Vitello

Obviously, it is a huge deal hiring Tony Vitello as the manager of the San Francisco Giants, and his every move and words are scrutinized minutely.  I like the hiring, but he recently pulled what I would call his first mistake, a rookie mistake.