{"id":258790,"date":"2025-09-27T13:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T13:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/258790\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T13:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T13:09:09","slug":"missing-playoffs-has-giants-thinking-about-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/258790\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing playoffs has Giants thinking about the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want the latest Bay Area sports news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<\/a> to receive regular email newsletters, including \u201cThe Dime.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants are winding down another playoff-less season, which means changes are coming.<\/p>\n

For a team that had postseason aspirations but played subpar baseball for too much of the summer, the status quo isn\u2019t acceptable for the front office, the clubhouse or the fans.<\/p>\n

The Giants\u2019 offense needs help after it went into hibernation through many anemic stretches even with newcomer Rafael Devers. The rotation needs two more starters to accompany Logan Webb, Robbie Ray and Landen Roupp. And the bullpen needs an overhaul after losing key components to trades and injuries.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an awful lot to ask of president of baseball operations Buster Posey and his staff, who also need to evaluate the front office and coaching staff in an effort to make a better run in 2026.<\/p>\n

Manager Bob Melvin is signed through next season after Posey exercised the club option in his contract on July 1. Team leaders have expressed their support for Melvin while Posey and general manager Zack Minasian have kept their thoughts on Melvin\u2019s future to themselves, apparently waiting until season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

Following the Giants\u2019 6-3 win over the Rockies Friday night, the Giants (79-81) have two games remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cI trust Buster,\u201d Willy Adames said after winning the Willie Mac Award as the Giants\u2019 most inspirational player and also homering in his first at-bat. \u201cI know he\u2019s going to do whatever he can do this offseason to try to put the team in the best position that he can for next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys that are here, I\u2019ll go to war with them. I know they\u2019re going to do whatever it takes to come back next year as ready as they\u2019ve ever been and try to go out there and win the division next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several positions already are spoken for: Adames at shortstop, Matt Chapman at third base, Devers at first base and Webb and Ray in the rotation. What the brain trust does to round out the roster is the big question.<\/p>\n

Is Heliot Ramos the best fit in left field? Jung Hoo Lee in center? Who\u2019s in right? Where does Drew Gilbert fit in? Jerar Encarnacion? Is it Casey Schmitt or Christian Koss at second base? Will top prospect Bryce Eldridge make an impact? Ditto for Jesus Rodriguez, who might be a nice catching complement to Patrick Bailey.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019ll be added to the pitching staff?<\/p>\n

Soon it\u2019ll be time to exhale, reflect on a so-so season, and do what\u2019s necessary to make a legitimate playoff run next year. Adames echoed Webb\u2019s recent thoughts about liking the nucleus of the roster but also said there\u2019s a key ingredient that was missing in the second half and needs to be in place all next season: energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m already thinking about it,\u201d Adames said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that we need to address. I feel like the core guys that are here, we need to maybe have some dinners throughout the offseason and figure out a way that we can keep the clubhouse together with the same energy throughout the year. We need to figure out something to keep that energy that we had in the first half this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants were 12 games above .500 at one point in the first half and 52-45 at the All-Star break. Since then, they\u2019re 27-36.<\/p>\n

With so many young players getting their first taste of the majors or playing close to a full season for the first time, Adames said the stress might have carried over to performance. He said it sometimes got to him, too, when he put too much pressure on himself to perform.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make a lot of adjustments,\u201d Adames said. \u201cWhen the second half hits, we\u2019ve got to continue the same mentality that we had in the first half. I feel like we lost it after the All-Star Game. It\u2019s something that would need to be better next year. Obviously, we have a lot of talent in this room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adames has 29 homers and needs to hit one more over the weekend to experience the first 30-homer season by a Giant since Barry Bonds.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s been mentioning it. Obviously, it\u2019s a big deal,\u201d Adames said. \u201cFor me, I just want to win, man. For me, I don\u2019t really care about hitting 30. Obviously, I want to do it. It\u2019s not something that I\u2019m, like, \u2018Oh, if I don\u2019t do it \u2026\u2019 If I don\u2019t do it this year, I\u2019ll do it next year. Rafi\u2019s going to do it for sure and Chappy if they stay healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heliot Ramos also homered Friday, a three-run shot for his 21st. Trevor McDonald struck out 10 batters in seven innings in his second big-league start after holding the Dodgers to one run in six innings last weekend, giving him nice momentum heading to spring training. And reliever Joel Peguero threw a scoreless inning to lower his ERA to 2.53 over 16 outings.<\/p>\n

Eldridge, playing first base, used every bit of his 6-foot-7 frame to stretch for a throw by Chapman from foul territory off the third-base line, an indication that height matters for first basemen.<\/p>\n

It was a festive night by the bay with the 28th sellout of the season and Adames\u2019 memorable moments. After winning the Willie Mac Award, the shortstop gave a speech to the crowd and caught ceremonial first pitches delivered by his parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the biggest award you can get as a Giant, and for me to be right next to Willie McCovey, it\u2019s an honor, truly special for me,\u201d said Adames, who called the ensuing homer \u201csomething that was meant to happen, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want the latest Bay Area sports news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to receive regular email…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":258791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[591,17492,1884,1266,1275,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-258790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-buster-posey","10":"tag-major-league-baseball","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-san-francisco-giants","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115276426312164958","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}