Posey Discusses Giants’ Deadline, No Plans To Trade Logan Webb
Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey met with the media on Tuesday afternoon. He predictably expressed disappointment with San Francisco’s place 15 games under .500 while alluding to an expected deadline sale.
“I think we’ll leave all options on the table,” Posey said (links via John Shea of The San Francisco Standard and Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle). “The way things are trending now, I’d say that we’ve got to remain open to seeing what best ways we can try to improve the club.”
Despite that, Posey seemingly wasn’t interested in hearing other teams out on his ace. Asked whether they’d consider trading Logan Webb, Posey simply replied “no.” Webb is signed through 2028 and has been arguably MLB’s best pitcher in June, rebounding from a shaky start to the season that included a three-week injured list stint for knee bursitis.
Posey’s comments align with a recent column from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, who reported that Webb would likely be off the table even as the front office prepared to sell. Impending free agents Luis Arraez, Robbie Ray and Tyler Mahle will all be available. They’ll need to pay down a portion of Ray’s $25MM salary and might have a hard time finding a taker for Mahle. Arraez, however, could be the best rental position player who changes hands this summer.
San Francisco is open to shedding the long-term commitments to Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, and Willy Adames. Those are all above market value contracts, though, and they’d need to eat a significant portion of the Devers and Adames deals. Chapman, who is making $25MM this season and signed for $100MM from 2027-30, could get more attention from other clubs. Adames and Chapman also have full no-trade clauses in their respective deals.
[Related: The Giants Should Listen On Jung Hoo Lee]
Chapman, a Southern California native who has spent most of his career in the Bay Area, told Evan Webeck of The California Post last week that he hadn’t given the no-trade clause any thought. Chapman said he hadn’t heard anything from Posey about the possibility of a trade. Posey confirmed as much, telling reporters he hasn’t broached the subject with either veteran infielder.
Devers doesn’t have any no-trade protection, but he’s owed $211MM over seven years after this one. His .238/.302/.433 batting line would be his worst since his first full big league season in 2018. The three-time All-Star found himself at the center of controversy on Sunday when he attempted to wave off pinch-runner Jonah Cox in the ninth inning. Devers eventually ended up leaving the game and dodged a pat on the back from bench coach Jayce Tingler when he reached the dugout.
Posey said he hadn’t addressed the incident with Devers but would “probably sit down with him.” The first baseman addressed the media this afternoon and framed it as a misunderstanding with manager Tony Vitello (link via Maria Guardado of MLB.com).
“Two days before that, I had told him that I had a hamstring issue,” Devers said in Spanish. “I thought that was why he was taking me out of the game. That’s why I was trying to signal to him that I was fine. … I apologized, which was the right thing for me to do.” Devers added that he felt the media made the situation a bigger deal than it deserved, which he attributed to his tendency to avoid interviews. “Every time something happens with me, you guys (reporters) make a big deal out of it. I don’t care what you guys think of me because you guys are the ones who always focus on the negatives,” he concluded.
Vitello said there’s no issue and the situation was settled when the two spoke on the team’s postgame flight home from Miami. “I feel like Tony has the clubhouse,” Posey said of the first-year skipper. “I think he has the respect of the players in the clubhouse. Everything’s going to be heightened when our record is what it is, but there’s no concern on my part that he doesn’t have the respect of the clubhouse.”
Giants Reportedly Open To Offers On Devers, Adames
It’s exactly one year to the day since the Giants stunningly acquired Rafael Devers from the Red Sox. It’s a testament to how poorly this season has gone that ESPN’s Buster Olney reports that they’re already open to trade conversations involving Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported this afternoon that San Francisco’s front office has begun to explore the possibility of a deadline sale. Rosenthal wrote that the Giants have no interest in moving ace Logan Webb but could explore making Chapman available. Impending free agents Luis Arraez and Robbie Ray are obvious trade candidates as well.
As MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald explored today, there should be no shortage of interest in Arraez. He’s one of the top impending free agents and playing on an affordable $12MM salary, around $3.5MM of which will be owed after the deadline. Ray’s $25MM salary (roughly $7.25MM owed after August 3) is more onerous and would likely require San Francisco to eat some money.
Neither of those compare to the challenge of moving any of Devers, Adames or Chapman. They’re not coincidentally the team’s three highest-paid players long term. Chapman is playing on a $25MM salary and owed $100MM between 2027-30. Adames has a modest $10MM salary this year but will make $28MM annually for five seasons after this one ($140MM total). Devers is making $27.5MM this season and signed for another $211MM over seven years beyond this one. That includes $7.5MM in annual deferrals but represents a huge commitment, larger than any other in team history.
That all makes it unsurprising that the Giants would be open to offers on those players. Adames and Chapman are already in their 30s. Devers turns 30 in October. All three contracts are above market, so the Giants would need to pay them down and/or take back salary offsets to make trades realistic.
Chapman is having the best season of the three. He started slowly from a power perspective but has caught fire with six home runs this month. He’s up to a .261/.348/.414 line on the season and is still a quality defensive third baseman, albeit below his Platinum Glove level peak. A $25MM salary isn’t a bargain but isn’t egregious for this year’s production. The issue is the matching commitments for his ages 34-37 campaigns, an age at which there hasn’t been a four-year free agent commitment for a position player since 2020.
Adames is 30 years old and hitting .229/.274/.418 through 299 plate appearances. He also has some of the worst defensive grades of any shortstop in MLB. Only Zach Neto has committed more errors than Adames’ 12. His first season in San Francisco essentially met expectations — he became the franchise’s first 30-homer hitter since Barry Bonds 21 years earlier — but it’s difficult to imagine them getting any trade interest given this year’s performance and the contract.
Devers has a subpar .235/.293/.413 batting line over 307 plate appearances. He’s striking out at a career-worst 30.3% rate while walking just 7.5% of the time. Devers still hits the ball hard but has seen his once elite hard contact rate and exit velocities dip to merely very good. He picked things up in May after a rough start, but he’s again mired in a .154/.267/.327 slump since the beginning of June. Devers was hampered by a disc injury in his back last summer and some minor hamstring discomfort this spring.
The Giants have limited long-term roster flexibility with Devers and Bryce Eldridge locked into the first base and designated hitter spots. The 21-year-old Eldridge has been a rare bright spot, making more contact than expected and immediately stepping up as one of the team’s top hitters.
Their lack of positional flexibility has already forced them to use Casey Schmitt, one of their better defensive infielders, out of position in left field. Schmitt is a good enough athlete that it’s not unreasonable for him to be a capable outfielder in time, but his early defensive grades on the grass have been rough. He could eventually move back to second base, assuming Arraez is traded at the deadline. Schmitt came up in offseason trade rumors himself, but that wouldn’t help them get younger or take any long-term money off the books.
Devers, Adames, Chapman and Webb are four of the team’s five players signed for more than $20MM next season. Webb is back to pitching at a top-of-the-rotation level and could net a huge prospect return if the front office reversed course and put him on the market.
Right fielder Jung Hoo Lee is their other particularly highly-priced player, signed for $63MM through 2029. Lee can opt out after the ’27 season and is having an excellent year, hitting .331/.364/.445 on the heels of a recent 18-game hitting streak. The Giants should probably hear teams out on Lee given the likelihood of him opting out in less than two years, though there’s no indication that’s currently on the table.
The outfield has been an issue even with Lee performing, so they might not to want to deal that big a hit to their 2027 roster, but they don’t seem particularly well positioned for an immediate rebound. Only the Rockies and Royals have a worse record than San Francisco’s 29-43 mark.
The Giants’ Long-Term Contracts Are Becoming A Big Problem
The Giants are in a real tough spot right now. They are 16-24 on the season, one of the worst records in baseball. An individual season being disappointing is something that happens to most teams but the current struggles are casting shadows over the long-term outlook since a lot of the disappointment is coming from the long-term core.
Aside from a stunning 107-win season in 2021, the Giants have been a .500 club or worse for a decade now. They have tried to get more aggressive recently, adding a number of large contracts to their books. Their three longest remaining commitments are to Rafael Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman. All three are performing poorly, which could limit the club’s flexibility going forward. One major underwater contract is usually bad news for a team but three is obviously a much greater concern.
Devers is easily having the worst season of his career so far. He has a .232/.276/.364 batting line and 79 wRC+, indicating he’s been 21% worse than the league average hitter. That’s miles south of his career line, which is .274/.347/.502 and translates to a 125 wRC+. His 30.1% strikeout rate is more than three ticks worse than his previous career high. His 6.1% walk rate would be his lowest in a full season. The struggles can’t really be blamed on poor luck. Devers has a .310 batting average on balls in play. That’s a bit south of his .315 career rate but barely, and still above the .289 league average.
The Giants probably have to be hoping Devers is hurt. If not, the trends are gloomy. Though he was still a productive hitter as recently as last year, there have been some worrying things under the hood for a while. His bat speed was in the 68th percentile of qualified hitters in 2023 but that dropped to 61st in 2024 and 42nd last year. He’s down to 38th so far in 2026.
At the same time, he’s been getting attacked more and taking advantage less. 45% of the pitches Devers saw in 2023 were in the strike zone. That ticked up to 47.2% in 2024, 48.6% last year and 50.6% this year. He’s also been seeing more fastballs and less offspeed stuff. In 2023, he was getting 59.8% fastballs and 16.3% offspeed. That ratio has shifted to be 64.9% fastballs and 12.6% offspeed this year. He made contact on 76.2% of pitches in the zone in 2023, but that dropped to 71.9%, 71.4% and 69.4% in subsequent seasons.
Devers’ exit velocity and hard-hit rate stayed strong for most of that stretch but have nosedived this year. He is averaging 90.3 miles per hour off the bat this year, more than three points below last year’s 93.5 mph. His 46.2% hard hit rate is well below last year’s 56.1% clip. Last year, he still damaged four-seam fastballs. Statcast gave him a run value of 13 as he hit .249 with a .512 slug. This year, he’s at a -2 run value with a .192 batting average and .462 slug.
In short, teams don’t seem too scared of Devers and he’s not making them pay for that. Perhaps there is some ailment that explains this. Devers has dealt with back, shoulder and hamstring issues in his career. A disk injury in his lower back was hampering him last year, though he didn’t go on the injured list for it.
If that’s not what’s going on here and Devers is just suddenly hitting a decline phase at age 29, that’s extremely worrisome for the Giants. He’s not a burner on the basepaths and doesn’t provide defensive value. He was never a good third baseman and doesn’t seem likely to play there again (at least not with any kind of regularity). He’s still getting accustomed to first base and hasn’t received good grades there so far. He needs to hit to be useful to the Giants.
Adames is having an even worse season at the plate. He has a .209/.242/.342 line and 64 wRC+. His 3.6% walk rate is awful and about half of his previous career low, which was 7.9% in 2022. He has always had a somewhat high strikeout rate but this year’s 29.7% clip would easily be his worst in a full season. His hard hit rate, exit velocity and barrel rate are all down relative to last year.
The issue for Adames is perhaps one of aggression. He’s actually getting pitched in the zone less while making more contact on the whole. However, he is only swinging at the first pitch 26.1% of the time, compared to a 30.9% career rate. He is also only swinging at 65.1% of pitches in the zone, compared to a 70.2% career clip.
However you chop it up, it’s not good, but Adames at least covers a premium position at shortstop. Outs Above Average thinks he’s a bit worse defensively this year but Defensive Runs Saved has him trending up. Though Adames and Devers are both struggling to hit, Adames should be less of a concern due to his ability to cover shortstop, at least for now.
Chapman’s offense isn’t quite as dire as the other two but it’s still not good. His 9% walk rate and 22.9% strikeout rate are both near league average, but he has just one home run, a .235/.313/.322 line and an 86 wRC+. His 31.5% hard-hit rate is way down from last year’s 47.6% clip. Chapman’s glovework is still getting strong reviews, however, so he hasn’t been totally useless.
The club’s results aren’t entirely due to these three, as the pitching has also been lackluster. However, in a sense, that is connected to these three big contracts. The Giants have seemingly been loath to spend on pitching lately, presumably because so much of their payroll is already tied up. In the past two offseasons, their two-year, $22MM deal with Adrian Houser has been their largest pitching investment.
Making any kind of pivot is going to be very difficult, if not impossible. Chapman and Adames both have full no-trade protection. Even putting that aside, it’s not as though they have a ton of value. Adames will make $28MM annually from 2027 to 2031, leaving $140MM still to be paid out after the current season. Given his current performance, no club will be eager to take that on. Chapman is making $25MM annually through 2030, leaving $100MM on the deal after this season. He’s still picking it at third but he just turned 33, so teams know decline is coming eventually.
Devers does not have no-trade protection in his deal, which is why the Giants were able to get him from the Red Sox. But the deal runs through 2033 and isn’t cheap. Nominally, he’s getting paid about $30MM a year for the remainder, though $7.5MM is deferred annually and to be paid out through 2043. Even if some team were willing to acquire him, the optics for the Giants would be rough. Since his stock is down, they would receive something less than what they just gave up to get Devers last year, when they sent out Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs III, Jose Bello and Jordan Hicks. At this point, they would likely have to eat a substantial portion of the deal just to get anything of note.
It’s a rough spot for president of baseball operations Buster Posey, whose fingerprints are on all three deals, even though just one of them was technically signed under his watch. The Giants originally signed Chapman to a three-year deal with opt-outs heading into the 2024 season. At that time, Posey was on the club’s ownership board and Farhan Zaidi was still president of baseball operations. In September of 2024, the Giants signed Chapman to a six-year, $151MM extension. Reporting at the time indicating that Posey was instrumental in negotiating that deal with Chapman. Posey replaced Zaidi not long after. Adames was signed a few months later. The Giants traded for Devers a few months after that.
There aren’t easy answers. Presumably, the Giants don’t want to start a big rebuild when they have already been scuffling for most of the past decade. Even if they wanted to, they are fairly committed to the present. In addition to the three really big deals, they are paying Jung Hoo Lee a good amount of money through 2029 and Logan Webb through 2028. Houser and Harrison Bader are going to make hefty salaries through next year. They spent a bunch of money to hire Tony Vitello as their manager this year. In addition to his $3.5MM salary, they paid the University of Tennessee $3MM to buy out his contract and are still paying $4MM to Bob Melvin this year after picking up his contract option and then firing him.
Internal help may not be likely. The farm isn’t considered a disaster but is generally ranked in the middle of the 30 teams in the league. Most of their top prospects are in the lower levels. Addressing the weak spots of the roster via free agency is perhaps not plausible either, based on the way the club has seemingly pumped the brakes since adding Chapman, Adames and Devers to the books.
It seems Posey may be stuck trying to work around these three. He made one such move this weekend, flipping Patrick Bailey to the Guardians for a pitching prospect and a draft pick. Bailey is the best defensive catcher in the game but his offense has been poor and worsened this year. His limp bat may have been more tolerable if the rest of the lineup was producing but that was not the case.
That return won’t help the club in the near term. Rather, they have to hope that players like Jesús Rodríguez and Daniel Susac form adequate replacements for Bailey, with less value on defense but hopefully far more on offense.
If the club can’t climb back in the race in the coming months, more future-focused moves will be forthcoming this summer. Rental players like Robbie Ray, Luis Arraez and Tyler Mahle will be available but without huge value. Mahle has a 5.18 ERA. Ray is pitching well but his $25MM salary is hefty. Arraez is also having a good season but is making $12MM. A bigger sell-off will be difficult. Houser and Bader are both having poor seasons. The longer deals will be ever harder to move.
When Posey first got his current job, he spoke of wanting to get the Giants back into the memory-making business. The implication seemed to be a pivot towards big-name players. He has since hitched his wagon to Chapman, Adames and Devers. Now that all three horses are stuck in the mud, he may not be able to do much more than hope they dig themselves out.
Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images
NL West Notes: Devers, Bader, Song
The Giants are banged up this spring. The club released a handful of injury updates regarding a few notable names on Saturday. The highest-profile player on the list was Rafael Devers, who is dealing with a left hamstring injury. The slugger will be sidelined for the next two to four days, as relayed by multiple reporters, including Maria Guardado of MLB.com.
Devers has suited up for three Spring Training games so far. He last played on Thursday against the Rockies. Every Devers appearance this spring has been at first base. The position was a point of contention with his former team, but he’ll head into his first full season with San Francisco as the top option at the cold corner.
Harrison Bader will not hit for the next two days as he recovers from a right thumb contusion. The outfielder was pulled from Friday’s game after one at-bat due to the injury. Assuming a return to full health, Bader will lock down center field for the Giants.
Drew Gilbert is working through a left shoulder impingement. The issue will keep him from throwing for the next five to seven days. Gilbert’s absence could impact the race for the fourth outfielder spot. Luis Matos has spent decent stints with the Giants in each of the past three seasons, but he’s being pressed for a bench spot by Gilbert, Will Brennan, and non-roster invitee Jared Oliva, to name a few.
In the bullpen, Erik Miller and Joel Peguero are both progressing well. Miller is dealing with lower back tightness. He’s throwing from flat ground for now, with the expectation he’ll get back on the mound in a few days. Peguero is battling hamstring tightness. He completed a live bullpen and is expected to get back into Spring Training games next week.
Elsewhere around the division, the Padres are looking to expand Sung-Mun Song‘s versatility. The infielder played first base, second base, and third base during his nine-year KBO career. San Diego is expected to begin working him out at shortstop and in left field, per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. Despite never playing either position as a professional, the Padres are confident Song will pick them up quickly. “We’ve just got to get him on the practice field doing those things,” Stammen said. “And then we can put him in a game.”
San Diego doesn’t have an obvious spot in the lineup for Song, so getting him comfortable at several spots will help him contribute in multiple areas. The 29-year-old is coming off two stellar seasons in KBO, including a 25/25 campaign with a 151 wRC+ this past year.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Werner, Kennedy Discuss Red Sox Offseason, Bregman, Devers
Red Sox president/CEO Sam Kennedy spoke with reporters (including the Boston Globe’s Tim Healey and MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith) today at the team’s Spring Training camp, while Sox chairman Tom Werner also took part in an interview with the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham. The two executives covered many of the same topics, with much of the focus naturally centered around Boston’s offseason.
One of the matters discussed was Alex Bregman‘s decision to leave Fenway Park and sign with the Cubs for a five-year, $175MM contract. Reports indicated that the Sox offered Bregman a five-year, $165MM contract that (like Chicago’s offer) included a lot of deferred money, though Boston’s deferral plan covered multiple decades. The bigger issue seemed to be Bregman’s insistence on a full no-trade clause, which the Cubs were willing to give but Boston wasn’t, apparently due to an organizational policy.
Werner and Kennedy each pushed back on these reports, with Werner flatly saying that the Red Sox “don’t” have any policy against no-trade protection. Kennedy was more circumspect in saying that “we try not to talk about organizational policies and the finer points of negotiations because it just doesn’t serve you well if you do that,” but also said that “if Alex Bregman wanted to be here, ultimately he’d be here.” Kennedy also essentially ducked the question of whether or not the Red Sox would’ve offered Bregman a no-trade clause if asked, saying “it’s theoretical. It’s hard to know.”
More than the no-trade clause or “the fact that he was offered a bit more money in Chicago,” Werner felt Bregman was “happy to be in Arizona [for Spring Training] where his family is. I have enormous respect for Alex, but it wasn’t meant to be and we moved on.” Likewise, Kennedy praised Bregman’s contributions over his one season in Boston, and said “he chose a different path, and we wish him well.”
These statements probably won’t do much to soothe Red Sox fans still upset that Bregman is playing elsewhere, after the third baseman’s leadership and on-field production (at least prior to a right quad strain) was so widely acknowledged as a key factor in Boston’s return to the postseason. Signing Bregman last winter to take over at third base also sparked the chain reaction of events that led to Rafael Devers being traded to the Giants last June, following a lot of hard feelings from Devers over first being pushed off the hot corner into a DH role, and then being asked to learn first base once Triston Casas went down with what ended up being a season-ending knee injury.
Kennedy expressed regrets over how the Devers situation played out, saying better communication was needed between both sides, and that “Would we have done things differently leading into it? Absolutely.” Werner’s statement (his public comments since Devers was dealt) may again spark more controversy, as while Werner said that Devers is “a wonderful person,” the chairman found it “extremely discouraging” that Devers wasn’t willing to take over at first base.
“It was a discouraging episode. Just pick up a glove,” Werner said.
While the Devers trade and Bregman’s departure may be talking points in Boston for years to come, the Red Sox are more concerned with how the team will fare in 2026. Trades (for the likes of Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, Johan Oviedo, and Caleb Durbin) have been a big part of the team’s roster remodel, and the Sox made a big free agent strike by signing Ranger Suarez to a five-year, $130MM contract.
Kennedy described the winter as “a successful offseason…long, arduous, lots of scenario planning, but excited that we improved the club in many ways.” Werner was similarly positive, pointing to the team’s improvements on defense and a pitching staff that “I think…is elite.” In regards to further upgrades at the trade deadline, Werner said the team is still open to more spending, saying “we actually have the powder to execute some more moves during the season.”
After completing the 2025 season with a roughly $208.9MM payroll and a $246.5MM luxury tax number, the Red Sox are projected (via RosterResource) for $195.5MM in payroll and a $263.7MM tax figure. The latter puts the Sox just a hair under the second luxury tax penalty threshold of $264MM, so it would seem like Boston will probably finish in the second tier of tax penalization for the first time since the 2019 season, assuming the team indeed contends and bolsters the roster throughout the year.
Matt Chapman Successfully Appeals Suspension
September 12: Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Chapman’s appeal was successful and he will no longer have to serve a suspension, though the fine stands.
September 3: MLB has issued a one-game suspension to Giants third baseman Matt Chapman for “pushing” Kyle Freeland during last night’s game. Chapman and Freeland were each handed undisclosed fines, as were Willy Adames and Rafael Devers. Chapman appealed the suspension and is in the lineup tonight at third base against Germán Márquez.
The discipline stems from last night’s bench-clearing incident at Coors Field. Devers hit a sky high home run off Freeland in the top of the first inning. The Colorado pitcher took exception to Devers taking his time admiring the shot. They got into a shouting match by the time Devers reached first base and the benches emptied.
Chapman was one of the first players out of the San Francisco dugout and appeared to shove Freeland when he got to the mound. Adames, who was on deck for the Devers homer, was also in the mix. He and Freeland each swiped at one another and exchanged words, though the situation remained relatively innocuous. The benches and bullpens emptied, but it never really escalated into a brawl. Chapman, Adames and Freeland were all thrown out of the game. Devers was not ejected and completed his home run trot a few minutes later while Antonio Senzatela was warming up to replace Freeland.
The suspension isn’t of huge significance, though the Giants have won nine of their last 10 games to pull back into the periphery of the Wild Card race. Unless the ban is reversed on appeal, San Francisco will need to play a man short for whatever game Chapman sits out. Christian Koss would likely draw in at second base, moving Casey Schmitt to the hot corner.
Giants Unlikely To Call Up Bryce Eldridge This Year
Giants fans have spent much of the season wondering whether slugging top prospect Bryce Eldridge might make his MLB debut at some point this summer. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote earlier in the week that it’s “more likely” the 20-year-old will finish out the season in Triple-A and hope for his first call to the majors in 2026. President of baseball operations Buster Posey removed further doubt the following day when telling John Shea of the San Francisco Standard that his team would “most likely not” promote Eldridge for his big league debut before season’s end.
That may be disappointing for San Francisco fans who’ve been hoping that an Eldridge promotion would give them extra incentive to stay tuned in to a season that has largely slipped away. There are justifiable reasons to hold off, however. The Giants have been breaking June acquisition Rafael Devers in at first base, and Eldridge has been slumping recently in Sacramento.
Eldridge, a 2023 first-rounder, is widely regarded as one of the sport’s top 25 or so prospects. He hit .280/.350/.512 with seven homers in 140 Double-A plate appearances but has cooled after a hot start in Triple-A. He’s still slashing a respectable .241/.311/.513 with 15 homers in 219 plate appearances since moving to the top minor league level, but Eldridge is hitting .203/.280/.419 over the past three weeks. He’s also struck out in 32% of his Triple-A plate appearances.
Beyond Devers’ transition to first base and Eldridge’s recent struggles, there are other elements to consider. The Giants aren’t contending for a postseason spot at this point — barring a miracle Wild Card run — and Eldridge wouldn’t be eligible to be poached by another club in the Rule 5 Draft until 2027. He’ll be added well before then — early next year, in all likelihood — but delaying his promotion until 2026 effectively gives the Giants an extra 40-man roster spot they can utilize in the offseason. He can then be selected to the roster next year when the Giants have the 60-day IL available to open roster space, whether that be in spring training or early in the year. (There’s no 60-day injured list in the offseason.)
The Devers acquisition and his subsequent move to first base clearly placed a roadblock to Eldridge eventually becoming the everyday first baseman at Oracle Park. However, Eldridge told Slusser that vice president of player development Randy Winn called him quickly after the trade to reassure him that he’s still a big part of the team’s long-term plans.
“Natural human instinct is going to be, ‘Well, that’s my position,’ but they’re paying that guy a lot of money,” Eldridge said. “But Randy reassured me that they like me and they like the progress I’ve made, they see me in their plans, playing first or DH, wherever it may be. It doesn’t necessarily matter to me too much where I’m at, I just want to be a part of helping that team win.”
Giants Notes: Devers, Birdsong, Rotation, Outfield
Rafael Devers made the first start of his career at first base for the Giants this week and, coincidentally or not, belted his first two home runs in nearly a month the following day. The recently acquired Giants infielder has now tallied three straight multi-hit games an looks to be emerging from a lengthy slump. He said after his first base debut that he briefly felt a bit nervous at his new position but quickly settled in (link via Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle).
With Devers now ticketed for more regular work at first base, Wilmer Flores seems likely to pick up more DH at-bats. He’d been struggling at the plate while playing the infield corners (primarily first base) over the past month. For a player who struggled through knee troubles all last season before that knee ended his 2024 campaign, getting off his feet a bit more in the DH spot could prove beneficial. Devers is also playing through a back issue, but the two can perhaps now share time between the two spots in the short term. Devers added after last night’s game that he thinks he’s a better hitter when playing in the field, noting that it “keeps my head out of just thinking about the next at-bat.”
While Devers will surely be their biggest acquisition of the summer, there’s still room for the 54-49 Giants to upgrade the roster. They’ve been looking into second base options (Isiah Kiner-Falefa reportedly among them), and some recent struggles near the back of the rotation — coupled with lefty Kyle Harrison‘s inclusion in the Devers return — have created some questions on the starting staff as well.
[Related: San Francisco Giants Trade Deadline Outlook]
San Francisco optioned right-hander Hayden Birdsong to Triple-A Sacramento earlier this week after a start in which he yielded five runs to the Braves (in large part because of four walks) without recording an out. That proved to be the tipping point, but Birdsong’s struggles extended well beyond that one nightmare outing. The 23-year-old was the talk of spring training thanks to a dominant performance and looked like a revelation out of the bullpen early in the season. San Francisco moved him into the rotation in late May, and the early returns were good: five starts, 25 innings, 3.24 ERA, 24.3% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate.
Things went downhill from there. Birdsong was tagged for 14 runs in 12 1/3 innings across his next three starts. He bounced back with a strong performance against the A’s but then bottomed out with this week’s collapse versus Atlanta. All told, he has a 10.38 ERA (22 runs, 20 earned) over his past five starts — a span of just 17 1/3 innings.
The Giants are still weighing their options to replace Birdsong, but the back of the rotation’s struggles don’t end there. Justin Verlander finally picked up his first win as a Giant yesterday but did so while scattering five walks over five scoreless innings. He’s started 17 games and pitched to a 4.70 ERA over the life of 84 1/3 innings. Since returning from a monthlong IL stint due to a pectoral strain on June 18, Verlander has a 5.29 ERA with a 19.2% strikeout rate.
Verlander is the clear fourth starter behind Logan Webb, Robbie Ray and breakout righty Landen Roupp at the moment. In-house alternatives like Trevor McDonald, Carson Ragsdale and Mason Black have posted underwhelming results in Triple-A. Righty Carson Seymour has been working in long relief but pitched pretty well as a starter in Triple-A. There’s certainly room to add a starter to solidify the back of the staff and provide some insurance against an injury to Webb or Ray — either of which would be a devastating loss.
Both Rubinand John Shea and Kerry Crowley of the San Francisco Standard called out a right-handed-hitting outfielder as a potential area for upgrade this week. It’s a sensible pursuit, given Mike Yastrzemski‘s longstanding struggles against left-handed pitching. The Giants have given 110 plate appearances to 23-year-old Luis Matos this year, but he’s posted just a .173/.218/.375 batting line in that time.
Righty-swinging outfielders expected to be available include Minnesota’s Harrison Bader, Luis Robert Jr. of the White Sox, the Orioles’ Ramon Laureano and perhaps Chas McCormick of the Astros or Adolis Garcia of the Rangers. Not all of those outfielders will change hands, of course. The White Sox would very likely need to pay down some of Robert’s salary, but they’re willing to do so and he’s caught fire at the plate recently, making him a more interesting option than he might’ve been even one month ago.
Rafael Devers Suffering From Disk Injury In Lower Back
After being traded from the Red Sox to the Giants in a shocking June blockbuster, Rafael Devers hasn’t quite looked like himself in recent weeks. At least some of that downturn in productivity can likely be attributed to injury, as Janie McCauley of the Associated Press writes that Devers is facing a disk injury in his lower back that has hampered him during his time in San Francisco. Manager Bob Melvin discussed Devers’s status with reporters (including McCauley) yesterday and suggested that the club is hopeful their new superstar will be able to avoid a stint on the injured list thanks to the impending time off associated with the All-Star break.
Aside from that impending opportunity to rest up for the second half, Devers began taking anti-inflammatory medication to help combat the symptoms and underwent an MRI exam on Thursday as he continues to play through the issue. Melvin suggested that the issue bothers Devers the most when he’s running the bases, though he acknowledged that the injury was “probably a little bit” of a problem for the slugger at the plate as well. The manager went on to suggest that his back injury is the reason Devers has remained entrenched as the club’s DH rather than moving to first base, where he has not only agreed to play for San Francisco but also begun working out before games in preparation for the move.
The news that Devers isn’t fully healthy sheds some additional light on his performance so far with his new team. It’s likely hard for Giants fans to not be a bit disappointed in their recently-acquired star’s performance so far given that he’s hit just .220/.350/.354 (104 wRC+) in his first 23 games as a Giant. That’s already a sample size of 100 plate appearances, but it’s easier to dismiss those numbers as an outlier and believe that better days are ahead given the possibility that he’ll be able to produce more like his usual self if he can rest up and get healthy. Additionally, Melvin’s comments suggest that Devers playing through injury is the reason they’ve been reluctant to deploy him at first base rather than any struggles adapting to the new position in drills or resistance from Devers himself to the move.
While a physical explanation for Devers’s slump offers reason for optimism that he’ll bounce back when fully healthy, it’s fair to wonder whether or not the All-Star break will actually be enough time for him to shake the injury. Back issues are hardly uncommon for sluggers as they age. Mike Trout, Kris Bryant, and Miguel Cabrera are among a number of star players who have had their careers impacted by back problems at varying levels as they aged, and injuries of that sort can often be nagging and become a matter of pain tolerance. While Devers is still just 28 years old, he’s often battled through day-to-day injuries to other areas of his body in the past: shoulder, hamstring, knee, and groin issues have cropped up at various points the slugger’s time in the majors.
While that aforementioned trio are known for their struggles remaining healthy later in their careers, a large number of hitters deal with back problems at one point or another but go on to stay healthy in the future and avoid ongoing issues. It’s a situation worth monitoring for the Giants, who have Devers locked up for eight seasons after this one, but there’s little reason to automatically assume this will be a long-term problem for him throughout his time in San Francisco at this point. In the short-term, the Giants will continue relying on a combination of Dominic Smith and Wilmer Flores at first base while Devers heals up and gets ready to take over the position.
Giants Notes: Devers, Eldridge, Payroll
The baseball world was stunned by Sunday’s Rafael Devers trade and further details have continued to spill out in subsequent days. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Red Sox asked for prospect Bryce Eldridge in trade talks but the Giants quickly rebuffed that.
Eldridge is clearly a talented prospect, making it understandable that the Sox would ask about him, and that the Giants preferred to keep him. The 16th overall pick of the 2023 draft, he has since taken 845 plate appearances in the minors, hitting 39 home runs with an 11.5% walk rate. His 26.5% strikeout rate is a bit on the high side but he’s also been facing far older competition basically the whole time. He’s now in Triple-A even though he’s still only 20 years old.
He started this year at Double-A and mashed, putting up a line of .280/.350/.512 in 34 games. That got him quickly promoted to Triple-A, where his production has stalled a bit. He is hitting just .160/.232/.340 at the top minor league level so far with a 33.9% strikeout rate. But it’s a small sample of 13 games and, as mentioned, he is extremely young for the level.
By keeping Eldridge in the fold, the Giants may have a bit of a squeeze in the first base/designated hitter mix over the long run. It appears that Devers’ days of being a third baseman are effectively done. Matt Chapman is one of the top defensive third basemen in the league and is signed through 2030. Devers is now learning first base and could be a viable option at that spot in the coming weeks.
Whenever Eldridge earns his way up to the majors, he and Devers will have to share the first base and DH spots, though that may not be a short-term problem if Eldridge still needs some time to develop against Triple-A pitching. The Giants are presumably fine with the long-term fit, since they seemingly took a hard line against even considering Eldridge being included in the deal.
Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area also reports on the Sox asking for Eldridge and notes that players like Hayden Birdsong and Carson Whisenhunt also came up at times during the talks. It’s unclear if the Giants were opposed to dealing those guys or if the Sox just preferred Kyle Harrison and James Tibbs, who ultimately were included in the completed deal.
Beyond the players, money was a key component of this trade, with Devers having about $250MM still to be paid out over the eight and a half years remaining on his contract. Jordan Hicks is still owed about $30MM in the two and a half years remaining on his deal, which offsets that somewhat, but the Giants still took on roughly $220MM in the swap. Considering the largest contract the Giants have ever signed in the history of the franchise is the $182MM free agent deal for Willy Adames, absorbing the money in the Devers trade was no small matter.
With that kind of financial commitment changing hands, ownership would naturally have to be involved. Giants chairman Greg Johnson spoke to John Shea of The San Francisco Standard, noting that he and Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy spoke about the pact fairly early in the process, at the urging of Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey.
“I talked to [Kennedy] at the (owners’) meetings (in early June) in New York, and I talked to him this week. Just put the message in that we’re serious. It’s not just chatter. Nobody wants to do all this work and then say, ‘Oh, now we’ve got to sell it to our owners.’ We wanted to let the other owners know ‘these guys are serious. They want to get something done.’ That changes the urgency. Buster was very smart to recognize that point. That goes back to his sense. He’s got a good nose for how people think and operate. It’s one of his strengths.”
RosterResource currently estimates the Giants to have a competitive balance tax number of almost $223MM, roughly $18MM below the $241MM base threshold. That should leave the club plenty of wiggle room to continue adding to the roster ahead of the deadline, whether they plan to avoid the tax or not.
Photo courtesy of D. Ross Cameron, Imagn Images