When Buster Posey was handed the Giants’ president of baseball operations job, the idea was simple enough: bring back the glow of the championship years. He had no front-office track record, sure, but he had lived through the dynasty from 2010 to 2014, understood what made it tick, and had just finished a strong comeback season in 2021, his final year as a player. The hope was that his baseball sense, plus the right people around him, would make the transition work.
Instead, as his second season running the operation winds down in disappointment, the Giants have drifted into a far less nostalgic chapter. What Posey has resurrected looks a lot more like the rough stretch from 2017 to 2019 than the glory run fans were promised.
That earlier period was ugly in a different way. The dynasty had already started to fade after the 2016 playoffs, and 2017 hit like a hard reset.
Veterans underperformed, the roster was clogged with heavy contracts on both the position-player and pitching sides, and the team had little flexibility to escape the mess. The Giants went 64-98 that year, and the 2026 club appears headed for a similar finish.
Rather than strip it down immediately, the Giants tried to patch things up by trading for Evan Longoria and Andrew McCutchen. The idea was to squeeze out one more run.
It didn’t happen. San Francisco finished 73-89 in 2018, and Longoria became yet another expensive veteran contract attached to a player past his peak.
Then came 2019, a strange bridge year with Farhan Zaidi beginning his run and Bruce Bochy in his final season as manager. Bochy could see the direction the organization was headed and stepped away as change loomed. The Giants finished 77-85.
Now the warning signs are back in a familiar form. The current team is on pace for one of the worst seasons in franchise history, and it is already carrying three burdensome contracts that will stick around for a while. Posey even brought back Bobby Evans, the same GM who was in charge during 2017 and 2018, a reminder of how closely this version of the Giants resembles that earlier era.
There is still a path out of it, but it does not look quick. The Giants are no longer pressing to contend right now, and they may not be a real factor again until the end of this decade, or possibly 2030, when some of their top prospects are expected to reach the majors if everything goes as planned.
That farm system may be Posey’s best shot at keeping the job and eventually turning things around. Whatever has gone wrong at the big-league level, the minor-league pipeline is stronger than it has been in a long time, and that at least gives the organization something to point toward.
For now, though, the Giants may have to live through more seasons that feel like the late 2010s before they can dream about getting back to the early 2010s. The next wave of homegrown talent may be the only thing standing between them and a longer stay in baseball’s bad old days.
In Other News...
Giants Just Got A Big Reason To Believe In The Future
The post-draft, post-deadline update from MLB Pipeline brought a welcome boost for the Giants, who checked in at No. 5 in the new farm system rankings. For a club that has spent recent years trying to balance big-league competitiveness with a deeper talent pipeline, that kind of climb is a reminder that the front office has added more than just short-term help.
A big part of that momentum came through the deadline move that sent Robbie Ray to the Padres and returned prospects Miguel Mendez and Joniel Hernandez to San Francisco. The Giants also kept adding pitching throughout the draft and deadline window, and Ramon Marquez breaking into MLB Pipelines top-100 list only adds to the sense that the organizations next wave is starting to come into focus, even if the full payoff is still ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Fans May Hate What The Dodgers Just Proved About Spending
The Giants have already made their own expensive commitments in recent years, but the payoff has been slow to arrive. Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Rafael Devers were supposed to give San Francisco a sturdier core, yet the returns have not matched the investment so far, and the clubs quieter approach on pitching this offseason has only sharpened the scrutiny around how it chooses to spend.
Across the division, the Dodgers just offered a familiar reminder that even the biggest splashes do not guarantee a clean payoff. Their high-profile additions of Kyle Tucker and Edwin Daz have not delivered the kind of season they envisioned, and for a Giants front office already weighing caution, it is hard not to see the warning sign. With a lockout looming in the background, the temptation to stay measured may only grow stronger. [Read more 🡒]
Willy Adames Is Becoming A Bigger Giants Problem Than Fans Expected
Willy Adames arrived in San Francisco with the kind of contract that instantly makes every at-bat feel heavier, and his first season offered enough encouraging moments to keep the Giants hopeful. Signed to a seven-year, $182 million deal before the 2025 season, he brought the reputation of a difference-maker, the sort of middle-of-the-order presence a club expects to anchor its lineup for years.
This season has been tougher to square with that investment. Adames has been below league average offensively, batting .224 with a 96 OPS+, and the production simply has not matched the expectations that come with his salary. Bleacher Reports Joel Reuter recently pointed to that gap between cost and impact, and for the Giants the concern is no longer just whether Adames can heat up, but whether this is becoming a more lasting issue than anyone anticipated. [Read more 🡒]