The SF Giants are suddenly staring at a real opening on the coaching market, and the timing is hard to ignore.
A day after it was revealed that Hunter Mense had been hired away by the Kansas City Royals, the Giants learned that Los Angeles Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates is also leaving his post. That kind of overlap naturally raises eyebrows.
Coincidence? Maybe.
But it also looks like a chance for San Francisco to make a move.
Bates has a backstory that makes him an interesting fit on its own. He played briefly in the majors, logging 12 plate appearances for the Boston Red Sox in 2009 and collecting four hits, which leaves him with a career .364 batting average. Most of his playing days were spent grinding through the minors before he finished his career in the Dodgers organization and then moved into coaching there.
His climb through the LA system was steady. Bates worked in the minors, earned a promotion to the big league staff as an assistant hitting coach in 2019, and then moved up again to co-hitting coach in 2023. His departure came as a surprise, especially since it was reported that the Dodgers offered him a multi-year contract to stay.
For the Giants, the appeal is obvious enough. Bates has Northern California ties that make the fit feel natural.
He was born in New York, but he grew up in Santa Cruz, went to high school in San Jose, and played some of his college ball at San Jose State. He knows the Bay Area.
That doesn’t automatically mean he’d transform San Francisco’s offense. Hiring a coach from a team like the Dodgers, who have been the most successful club of this decade, always comes with the question of how much of that success belongs to the staff and how much comes from the talent on the roster.
Still, the Giants could use a new voice. The offense needs to get more selective, and the club’s walk numbers make that clear.
Buster Posey has already spoken about the need to cut down on walks on the pitching side, after San Francisco gave up the sixth-most walks as a team in 2026, while also stressing that the Giants need to draw more walks at the plate. They finished dead-last in MLB in that category, while the Dodgers ranked third-most.
If Bates can help push more patience and better pitch selection, he’d be worth a look. And if he comes from the Dodgers? That would just be a little extra satisfaction for the Giants.
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