Дата публикации: 17-07-2026 08:29:57

SEATTLE — Tony Vitello will often finish a long answer with some variation of “I don’t know if that answered your question.” But when asked last Sunday to sum up the Giants’ first half, he did so pretty efficiently.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Vitello said.
It would not have been hard to imagine the Giants having a losing record in Vitello’s first year. They came into the season with real questions about their bullpen and the back end of their rotation, and everyone knew there would be a learning curve for a man who had never coached professionals before. The Giants have been the definition of mediocre since winning 107 games in 2021, and sometimes a few bounces go the wrong way and you’re looking at something worse than that. 
But this? This would have been hard to picture. 
The Giants have been pretty healthy, received good production from the addition of top prospect Bryce Eldridge, more than anyone expected from Luis Arraez, a leap from Jung Hoo Lee and a full-on breakout from Casey Schmitt. And yet, they were 41-55 heading into the break, on pace for 93 losses. 
They have spent more time trying to hold off the Colorado Rockies at the bottom of the NL West than chasing down a Wild Card spot. There hasn’t been a single week this season during which they’ve consistently looked headed for October baseball, or even a return to .500.
Vitello called it “a learning experience, for sure,” and admitted it has “been frustrating.” But mostly, he’s baffled at just how bad this has been. 
“You look at the personnel, it doesn’t make sense,” he said. “You look at the way we’ve played some days, it doesn’t make sense. But it’s baseball and we haven’t found that winning formula at the end of the day.”
Vitello spent the entire half waiting for it all to click, if even for just five or six days at a time. That little hot streak never arrived, but there’s still a job to do every night and lots to accomplish. Here are five things the Giants should look to do over their final 66 games … 
Nail the Trade Deadline
The second half opens up against a Seattle Mariners team that is one game under .500 — and currently in a Wild Card spot. That’s life in the American League, where only three of 15 teams are more than four games out of a playoff spot. In the National League, only four teams look truly out of it right now.
There aren’t a lot of sellers at the moment, but for the first time in a while, there’s no ambiguity for the Giants. This isn’t 2019, when they were disappointing before an Alex Dickerson-inspired run led them to keep Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith and take a shot in Bruce Bochy’s final year. This isn’t 2025, when Buster Posey held out hope that he could trade for pitching and then was forced to pivot during an 0-6 homestand at the end of July. 
The Giants are still looking for their first sweep. They’re also still looking for their first four-game winning streak. They are who they are, and they could be the most active team ahead of the Aug. 3 deadline. 
Robbie Ray and Luis Arraez are about as tailor-made for a deadline as it gets. The veterans will both be free agents at the end of the year, and with Ray pitching well in recent weeks and Arraez having perhaps his best season, Posey and general manager Zack Minasian should do well. The real question is how much further they can go. 
With a couple more performances like his final one of the first half, Tyler Mahle should draw solid interest. Fellow offseason addition Adrian Houser could go, too, as well as multiple members of the bullpen. There’s always a need for pitching depth in the second half. 
The headlines will focus on Matt Chapman, Willy Adames and Rafael Devers, but they’re owed $451 million combined after this year and Chapman and Adames have no-trade clauses. Long-term, the Giants need to part with at least one, but the offseason is more realistic when it comes to that kind of deal.
Led by Michael Holmes, the front office was able to add pitching during the draft, and the plan is to take the same approach to the deadline. The Giants need to add upper-level pitching prospects who can be part of the solution in 2027, and they have a golden opportunity over the next two-plus weeks. 
Get a Head Start on 2027
Posey is in this position in the first place because the 2025-26 offseason didn’t strengthen the rotation and left the roster with one of the league’s worst bullpens. He won’t make that mistake again, but he was actually right about one thing. You can get burned pretty easily if you try to build a staff through free agency. 
Tatsuya Imai was a popular target for fans, but he has a 6.06 ERA as a rookie in Houston. There were some big reliever wins for teams in free agency (hello, Tyler Rogers), but also plenty of misses. Edwin Diaz, Robert Suarez and Ryan Helsley are all currently on the IL and Devin Williams has had a rough year. 
The Giants will need to spend on pitching this winter, but they also need to get ahead of it and figure out exactly how many holes they have to fill. Logan Webb and Landen Roupp look like the only pitchers locked into the 2027 rotation, and it’s hard to say that about many in the bullpen.
Once the deadline dust settles, Carson Whisenhunt needs to start every five days. The Giants have to figure out exactly what they have in him and Trevor McDonald, who had an inconsistent first half. Blade Tidwell should get some starts and also some late-game opportunities; if he’s not in the rotation next year, he could be part of the fix in the bullpen. Lefties Joe Whitman and Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson should get a look, too. 
Randy Rodriguez will be back next Opening Day, and that will help the bullpen quite a bit. Beyond him, the Giants have some options to work with in Caleb Kilian (who has a 1.07 ERA when not pitching in save opportunities), Keaton Winn, Sam Hentges, Erik Miller and Dylan Smith, although some could be sent out in trades. Jason Foley will make his first appearance at some point on this trip and could be a future closer.
Bullpens are weird. You could put most of this same group out there next year, throw Rodriguez and an experienced closer into the mix, and find that it’s all of a sudden a strength. But a lot of the auditions for 2027 will be happening in the second half, not next spring.
Sort The Outfield
For all of the discussion about trading Arraez, Schmitt’s future position, Eldridge vs. Devers, Adames’ defense, etc., the real question for 2027 might be on the grass. The infield is mostly set. Schmitt will slide into Arraez’s spot and Eldridge and Devers will continue to split first base and DH.
The outfield is a bit of a puzzle, though.
Remember Harrison Bader? He barely played in the first half, but he is signed through next year, and long-term, the Giants do still need Jung Hoo Lee in a corner. Lee has right field locked down, but three different players got at least 40 at-bats in left. 
Heliot Ramos at times is the team’s most dangerous hitter, but he’s also about to enter his arbitration years and the front office could decide to trade him for pitching and use that money elsewhere this offseason. Victor Bericoto was one of the best stories of the first half and the staff needs to see how real this is. For as much power as he showed, Bericoto also drew just one walk in 59 plate appearances. 
Where does Drew Gilbert fit in? And what about Jonah Cox, who earned a promotion from Double-A and then barely played before injuring his oblique?
It might seem like this is a minor question, but the room is soon going to get crowded. Bo Davidson is headed for Triple-A and could get a cup of coffee in September, and Dakota Jordan and Parks Harber should also be options next year.
Vitello seemed to ride the hot hand in the first half, but a depth chart needs to materialize. The Giants have seven outfielders under team control next season and more on the way. Just from a pure 40-man roster management standpoint, they’ll need to figure out who stays and who goes.
Keep The (Minors) Momentum Going
Davidson, Jordan and Gavin Kilen highlighted a string of promotions over the past week, and more are on the way. As draft picks start to sign, the Giants will move others up the chain, and they also expect one or both of Josuar Gonzalez and Luis Hernandez to spend some time with Low-A San Jose later this summer. Top draft pick Jackson Flora could pitch a few innings, as well.
For as bad as it’s been at the big league level, the Giants have had a huge season from a development standpoint. Baseball America now ranks their farm system 10th overall, and they will get a bump from the draft and trade deadline. 
Just about all of their top prospects have had good seasons so far, and they’ve seen notable jumps from Bericoto, Cox and catcher Drew Cavanaugh. They’re also winning throughout the minors, which is important to Posey and Randy Winn. There was a belief that the focus in recent years was not on doing enough to win actual games, and that learning those skills in the minors would eventually help them in the big leagues. 
If the Giants can keep this going, they can at least offer hope. Better days are certainly ahead given the depth of talent in the farm system, and a strong second half from Gonzalez, Hernandez, Davidson and others would make everyone feel a bit better heading into the offseason.
No More Shenanigans 
Here’s one way to summarize the first half the Giants just had: Their third baseman very clearly told their first baseman to “catch the f—— ball,” and it might not even crack a top five list of their most controversial moments. It wasn’t even their most notable on-field disagreement of the first half. 
That honor belonged to Devers, and when Posey sat down with reporters before the next game, the Devers incident in Miami was somehow not even the biggest issue he had to address.
So here’s an easy but important goal for the second half: Just be a little bit more normal.
The phrase “bad look” applied far too often to the Giants over their first half, and they made it far too easy for outsiders to question the leadership at just about every level of the organization. That’s a criticism that bothers many in the clubhouse, but it’s also a fair topic of discussion.
The Giants have fallen apart in the second half of most recent seasons, but this year the damage was done early, and they might have garnered more headlines than any team in baseball. It was exhausting, and not just for members of the front office or Vitello, all of whom have a few more grays going. It was a lot for the fan base to swallow, too.
It would be great if the Giants won more games in the second half, but at the very least, they should aim for “normal.” After the last four months, everyone kind of needs that. 
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