The San Francisco Giants just wrapped up a season so abysmal it was their third worst in franchise history by wins and losses, and yet, team president of baseball operations Buster Posey stood at the season-ending press conference declaring they can contend next year. Talk about a tough sell, especially when that 40-minute media session on Tuesday offered precious little in the way of real answers or actual promises for how they’d turn things around. Fans looking for some hope or explanation for a truly disastrous 2026 were left mostly empty-handed.
The “Radically Different Voice” Blew Up
Remember when the Giants brass, led by Posey, trotted out Tony Vitello 11 months ago? He was the surprising, novel, maybe even weird hire to replace veteran Bob Melvin after an 81-81 season. Vitello was a successful college coach with zero professional baseball experience. The whole vibe was that a “radically different voice” in the clubhouse was all they needed to spark success, because there certainly weren’t any major offseason moves to back it up. Well, that plan crashed and burned hard. Posey and the front office handed Vitello a deeply flawed roster, a broken bullpen, and a coaching staff that was inadequate despite adding wise heads like Ron Washington and Ron Wotus. Looking back, the disastrous results probably should have been expected, right? They never spent a single day at or above .500, never ripped off four wins in a row, and managed only one series sweep all season, way back in September. Injuries hammered them, with four young starting pitcher candidates needing Tommy John surgeries and bright spot Casey Schmitt lost for the year. Rafael Devers even had another painfully slow start before finally turning in a statistically good season. Everything that could go wrong, pretty much did.
A Bullpen So Bad, Even Buster Knew It
One of the most head-scratching parts of this whole mess has to be the bullpen. For someone who guided outstanding bullpens to three championships as a catcher, Posey admitted, not for the first time, that he totally overestimated the talent in their relief corps. He gave his inexperienced manager a bad bullpen with no set roles, and the results were truly pathetic: an MLB-worst 16-29 record in one-run games. That’s just brutal and tells you everything you need to know about how many close games slipped away. Despite all this, Posey says he thinks Willy Adames will be the shortstop and that Schmitt is still behind Matt Chapman at third base. Oh, and the coaching staff? Largely intact. It makes you wonder how exactly that contention he’s talking about is going to materialize.
Giants fans have been clinging to the mantra “in Buster we trust” for the past two seasons, putting their faith in the legendary player even as he navigated his new executive role. He certainly improved the farm system, but that unwavering belief took a massive beating this season, and it’s hard to see what Posey said this week doing anything to stop the bleeding. What are they looking forward to? More of the same, apparently.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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