The 2026 SF Giants have done enough to dodge the ugliest line in franchise history.
With their 63rd win arriving Tuesday night, the Giants locked themselves out of the nightmare scenario that had hovered over much of the season. Their ceiling for losses is now 99, which means they can’t finish worse than 63-99. That’s a miserable record, no doubt, but it also means they will not sink below the 62-100 mark set by the 1985 club.
Given how battered this roster has been, that’s not nothing. Jung Hoo Lee is the only player still standing from the Opening Day lineup, and the rest of the group has been patched together with placeholders - players who are likely headed to the minors or elsewhere next year. For long stretches, it looked entirely possible this team could claim the franchise’s bottom rung all to itself.
Instead, the Giants have at least steadied themselves lately. They should wind up somewhere around 67 or 68 wins, which still leaves them well short of respectable, but not in the historically disastrous range that once seemed possible. Even now, the 2026 club is staring up at some rough company: the 2017 Giants went 64-98, the 1984 team finished 66-96, and the 1996 squad ended at 68-94.
That 2017 team is the next one this group will need to pass if it keeps losing enough to stay in the conversation. And from the jump, this year’s Giants carried a faint echo of that season. The difference is that the 2017 roster still had plenty of familiar faces from the championship era, while this version has spent most of the year trying to survive the injuries that stripped the lineup down to the bone.
It hasn’t been all bad, though. Rafael Devers put together a great season.
Bryce Eldridge showed he’s legit. Casey Schmitt was in the middle of a breakout before injury cut it short.
That’s enough to keep a little optimism alive, even if the larger picture is still grim. A season like this can leave a mark, and the 2017 Giants were followed by more rough years in 2018 and 2019. That’s the concern now: whether this is the kind of stretch Buster Posey has to undo, rather than the kind of baseball Giants fans remember from the championship run.
Still, the 2026 team has at least escaped one label. It will not go down as the worst in franchise history. It won’t be remembered fondly, but it also won’t carry that darkest stain.
In Other News...
Giants Escaped One Shortstop Problem But May Have Another
Carlos Correa will not return for the rest of the season after complications from ankle surgery, closing the book on a brief stretch that gave the Giants some stability at shortstop. He hit .279/.369/.418 with three home runs and 16 RBIs in 32 games, enough to matter in a year when San Francisco has been trying to piece together production at a premium position.
The bigger question is what comes next, because Willy Adames was supposed to solve that spot for the long haul when the Giants gave him a seven-year, $182 million deal before 2025. Instead, he struggled to a .230/.289/.424 line with 21 home runs and 51 RBIs in 121 games before being shut down for the season, leaving the Giants with another shortstop situation to sort through after thinking they had finally locked it down. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Fans Are Sending A Message Oracle Park Cant Ignore
Oracle Park has not gone quiet, but the numbers have started to send a clearer message. After drawing just over 36,100 fans per game in 2025, the Giants have slipped to just over 35,400 in 2026, and the trend line has only become more noticeable as the season has worn on. Early in the year, the ballpark was still filling with more than 37,000 per game, but by August that figure had dipped to just under 32,000 before a small September rebound.
For a club that has long leaned on its home atmosphere, the slowdown in turnout matters. The Giants have begun offering credits to season-ticket holders in an effort to keep those seats occupied, a sign that the front office is paying close attention to the optics and the business side of the fan experience. Whether the late-season uptick proves to be a brief pause or the start of something sturdier is the question hanging over Oracle Park now. [Read more 🡒]
San Jose Giants Stay Alive Behind A Historic Turnaround On The Mound
The San Jose Giants kept their season going with a rare playoff flourish on the mound, piecing together a no-hitter against the Lake Elsinore Storm in Game 2 of the California League playoffs. Argenis Cayama handled the first five innings before Ian Korn and Eric Nachtsheim finished it off, and the Giants backed that work with a 9-1 win that even survived a run scored on a steal of home.
What made it more impressive was how San Jose built the cushion, using two-out rallies in the fourth and fifth innings to seize control. The result pushes the series to a decisive Game 3, with the Giants suddenly carrying real momentum after a night that featured both a historic pitching performance and enough timely offense to make it matter. [Read more 🡒]