After the Giants posted an 80-82 record in Bob Melvin’s first season as manager, the club improved by just a single game in 2025. The 81-win campaign means that the Giants have still had just one winning season in the last nine years, and since their 107-win outburst in 2021, San Francisco has an almost exactly middling 321-327 record.
More was expected heading into 2025 and even during the season, especially after the club was firmly in NL West contention by mid-June. With just a .500 record as the final result, however, Melvin admitted to reporters (including the San Francisco Chronicle’s Shayna Rubin) that he hadn’t been told that he’ll be returning as manager in 2026.
“It is what it is. We’ll see what the next day brings,” Melvin said, noting that he believe he’ll be meeting with “somebody” in the front office on Monday.
The lack of clarity about Melvin’s status is perhaps a red flag, and as Rubin writes, “the shift in Melvin’s tone is stark compared to earlier this year.” Back on July 1, in fact, the Giants seemed to be getting an early jump on any lame-duck speculation by exercising their 2026 club option on Melvin’s contract. The team was actually in a bit of a slump on July 1, but rebounded to take a 51-42 record into action on July 9. An ugly 13-0 loss to the Phillies that day was a bad omen, as it started a 3-13 stretch for the Giants through the end of July.
More streaky play followed, as the Giants followed up a 2-11 stretch in August by suddenly going 13-3 in their following 16 games. This briefly brought San Francisco back into the wild card hunt before another 2-9 stretch sunk the team in September. Both the lineup and the pitching staff seemed to take turns being inconsistent, though the offense in particular was a letdown given the premium talent (i.e. Rafael Devers, Willy Adames) acquired within the last year.
How much of this is Melvin’s fault, naturally, is a matter of debate. Questions can certainly be asked about the roster Melvin was given by president of baseball operations Buster Posey, who has now completed his first year in charge of the Giants front office. But, Posey obviously isn’t going anywhere so early in his tenure, and despite his commitment to Melvin in July, the PBO could be looking to make his own hire in the dugout. Melvin was hired by former baseball ops head Farhan Zaidi, who had a longstanding past history dating back to their days with the Athletics when Melvin was the manager and Zaidi was an assistant GM.
Melvin turns 64 at the end of October, and he has now managed for parts of 22 Major League seasons over tenures with the Mariners, Diamondbacks, A’s, Padres, and Giants. Melvin has a 1678-1588 record and three Manager of the Year awards over his outstanding career as a skipper, and chances are he would draw immediate attention on the job market if the Giants did choose to fire him in the coming days.
Every time I see him in that Giants dugout he looks like an angry Danny Tanner from Full House
I think his time has passed…
Isn’t that what they said about Bochy when the giants let him walk then a few years later in his late 60’s he won yet another WS with the rangers. Even other skippers like Francona who are older are having success. Don’t write Melvin off yet
The question is rarely whether “X” manager is toast, but whether “X” manager can be successful, within a relatively short period of time, with the toolbox that he’s been given to work with.
Melvin could well succeed in another city with another group of players, but the golden rule of sports is “Change the leadership, not the roster.”
By all accounts, he’s a good guy, and a knowledgeable manager, but the quickest reset for the Giants is to try out new leaders at the helm. You don’t fire a manager because you think he sucks, you fire him simply because he hasn’t been winning.
I think their issues start at the top with Posey
Way too early to make that call
I hope the Angels don’t hire him. He might find a job in this market, but I’ve always thought him overrated.
In what way? Giants shouldn’t have fired Farhan. That was their big mistake.
Please tell me you’re joking. Enduring all those years of treading water and churning the 40 man roster for castoffs was brutal. Good riddance to Farhan.
Have fun with Devers
If he could lead the Colorado Rockies to an 81-81 season, he’d be given a ticker-tape parade down Blake Street.
I’m in!
Good luck Bob. Nervous times !
Didm’t Bob Melvin get the job with the A’s because he was buddies with the Fisher? I’m not trying to slander anybody here, but I seem to remember Melvin as A’s Manager being controversial when he was with the A’s because supposedly he only got the job by being close friends with Fisher.
He was a very good manager there.
To be fair, he also had a manager of the year when he was hired, and won two more in Oakland. He was good then, the game has just passed him by..
Or he’s on poorly constructed teams.
I think everyone who follows the NL West is able to see that the Giants are a mediocre team. They have great pitching but lack impact bats and it has been like that for years now.
bochy back to sf
buster hires bochy back
Love the shift in power dynamics if that does happen.
Have to imagine Bochy wants to manage a team that could actually win something….
Bochy took over a Rangers team that had only won 68 games the year prior and led them to a WS in his first season.
I thought about that but bochy will probably retire for good this time he’s accomplished everything
Consistently has been an issue for a while now. Melvin is more of the same old same old.
Good manager. Good with pitchers. Angels, hire this man. I certainly am unimpressed with the resume of Pujols and/or Torii Hunter. I prefer former catchers or pitchers to manage over outfielders and infielders.
What did pujols and hunter ever do to you?
Not pitch or catch. Not impressed.
The big what if left out of the article is Bruce Bochy.
He’s not under contract any longer with the Rangers. Posey loves Bochy and vice versa. If Posey wants Bochy and the feeling is mutual then BoMel is gone.
If Bochy wants to retire then BoMel is back in 2026.
More was expected? By who? They were picked fourth in the division by every single media outlet
Me. Other Giant fans. Owners, Buster, the players…..
So, everyone with a strong bias?
Then don’t fire the guy who built up your farm system. Posey is incompetent.
Bochy.
What difference does the manager make when your President of Baseball Operations is unqualified for his job? This team is going nowhere regardless of who manages.
Well the same Padre fans tried to warn us Giants fans about Bruce Bochy too and that turned out just fine. So no complaints from this end
Poor, lazy, and made up take – there has never been a negative Padres fan undercurrent against Bruce Bochy. At any time..
He’s one of those who never met an enemy. Always has a twinkle in the eye. The one caveat – for how much longer will his old catcher’s body slog through a full season of travel?
Bob Melvin sucks. He sucked for years in Oakland, he sucked in San Diego, he sucked in San Francisco. More than likely he’s going to suck again where ever he ends up.
Time to move on from “Sleepy BoMel”
Look what Vogt (Guardians), Francona (Reds) & Hinch (Tigers) have done – postseason
Vogt could’ve been Giants manager had it not been for Zaidi
Melvin is a very good manager, and they were overachieving at certain points. Good process, gets the most out of players. Posey is very flawed at his job, clearly.
Melvin is a good manager but is not going to lead a team to a WS win. Bochy is a FA and I expect if he is willing to return, he will be manager quickly.
Seems like it’s time to move on. George Lombard is a good candidate
I think some soul searching needs to be done about why the Giants flagged so spectacularly in the middle of the season. After they lost 10 of 12 to the Padres, or whatever it was, the season was pretty much toast.
While there were plenty of holes on this team, they could be in a position to contend next year with the right moves in the offseason.
I really don’t know how much of this year’s underperformance can be blamed on Bob Melvin, but that’s how it goes in this business. I think that filling in some of the teams holes might be more effective than hiring a new manager, but I wouldn’t be crushed if the Giants decided to make a fresh start with a new manager.
This season wasn’t a Melvin problem; it was a lack of depth problem.
Chapman getting hurt was the first domino and then when Erik Miller went down, it killed their left handed pitching. Smith’s late season injury also took a toll.
Follow that up with trades that sent away Rogers and Doval, the Rodriguez injury, Walker regression, and you’re left with a middling bullpen that couldn’t hold a lead.
Manager is their least concern
It depends on how you evaluate Melvin. If he’s being evaluated for his managing up until the trade deadline, fair enough. I’m sure it’s challenging navigating two roster shakeups in quick succession with Wade-Smith-Johnson-Huff-Knizner and then the Devers trade, but a manager of Melvin’s stature should be able to handle it.
However, if he’s being expected to make the playoffs after the deadline trades, that’s simply unfair. Posey was decisive at the deadline and he needs to live with the consequences. You can’t give Melvin Johnson, Matos, Gilbert and Encarnacion and expect that to spell Yaz. You can’t trade away Rogers and Doval and expect the bullpen to be just as strong without them. You can’t trade away your starting pitching depth and when you inevitably need reinforcements, you don’t get experienced guys, but expect a bunch of talented, yet untested kids to hold the line. Even calling up Eldridge, though exciting, isn’t a win-now move. Flores is a stronger option and a key contributor to the Giants’ early season success.
There was a shift at the deadline to look longer term and not just at the current year, which is fine, especially as you get to see younger players develop and possibly help the team in the future- but it is a decision with consequences. It’s reasonable to look at last year and assume we need 90 wins to make the playoffs, realize that we won’t make it and act accordingly. But when it turns out we only needed 84 wins, you don’t get to blame the manager for decisions the front office made. The decision to buy at the deadline because you are still around .500 and can still make the playoffs with another piece or two is also valid. The truth is, if Melvin had Yaz, Rogers, Doval and at least one more experienced starting pitcher in the second half, the Giants would have made the playoffs.
You are absolutely right on.
Posey is getting a d grade this season.same team as last years mediocre team except for Adames and verlander minus snell.need better outfield should of just signed Pete Alonso instead of trading for devers,needs more pitching than verlander and lefty in the bullpen.we all knew this before the season started.Posey knew this too wasted season.
He has a home in Manhattan right? I’d expect him to become the manager of the Mets, solely so they can scapegoat their current manager while doing nothing to hold the architect(s) of this disaster accountable.
That’s how this league works now…managers are expendable but executives are infallible and get years to fail and fail and fail.
He’s more certain now.
My issue with Melvin isn’t so much his management, though I never understood why Ramos remained in the leadoff spot, despite him tailing off so much in the 2nd half. My gripe is his choices for the hitting coaches. I think the erratic nature of the winning, then losing streaks, has to do with the way hitters seem to always be trying to hit the ball out of the park.
Melvin to the Orioles and (speaking of) Brandon Hyde to the Giants.
“How much of this is Melvin’s fault, naturally, is a matter of debate” is incorrectly written. It should either be “how much of this is Melvin’s fault is naturally a matter of debate” or “Naturally, how much of this is Melvin’s fault is a matter of debate.”
There also shouldn’t be a comma before “but” when it begins the sentence.