The Giants have turned the final week of the season into an audition stage, and the ripple effect could reach well beyond Bo Davidson and Marcelo Mayer.
Jung Hoo Lee landing on the IL and Bryce Eldridge being placed there too because of his head injury cleared the way for Davidson and Mayer to join the big league roster. Philip Abner was designated for assignment after several brutal outings. And with that, every player from the 2026 Opening Day lineup is now either on the IL or with another team.
That’s a strange milestone on its own. But the real intrigue is what comes next.
Mayer arrives as the bigger-name call-up, a player who was once among the top prospects in baseball before things went sideways with the Boston Red Sox. Now healthy and back on the West Coast, he’ll get a look from the Giants in the last week of the year.
Davidson brings a different kind of buzz, but it’s buzz all the same. He’s been scorching Triple-A Sacramento lately, and even after recently fouling a ball off his ankle, the Giants want to see him in the majors too. On the season in the minors, he’s hit .290/.361/.527 with 29 home runs and 94 runs batted in.
The sample size is tiny, but it matters because of where San Francisco sits heading into the offseason. If Mayer and Davidson look the part over this final stretch, they could nudge the Giants toward bigger decisions on Jung Hoo Lee and Casey Schmitt.
Both players have become popular figures in San Francisco, especially Lee, who has a much louder fan following than Schmitt. But popularity only goes so far when the production has been uneven.
Lee was the hottest hitter on the team a few months ago, then his numbers fell hard in the second half. He’s down to .211/.283/.284, and his defense in right field hasn’t been as strong as expected.
Schmitt, meanwhile, showed real pop this season. He finished with 21 home runs in fewer than 100 games before tearing his meniscus. Even so, the low walk rate stands out as a concern, and it leaves real questions about how repeatable the production is.
That’s where Mayer and Davidson come in. If one or both of them hit well enough in this short look, the Giants may feel better about moving Lee or Schmitt in offseason trade talks, especially if pitching is coming back the other way.
And this front office has already shown it’s willing to let a small look shape a bigger decision. The Giants dealt two-time Gold Glover Patrick Bailey after seeing a little over a month of Daniel Susac, and they traded former All-Star Heliot Ramos after getting a taste of Victor Bericoto.
So yes, maybe this is just a brief test drive and nothing more. But it’s also hard to ignore the possibilities.
The Giants could decide to lean younger in the outfield and conclude that Lee doesn’t fit that direction. They could decide Mayer can handle second base and provide the kind of on-base ability Schmitt hasn’t matched.
And if they really want to shake things up, they could even think bigger. The Giants need pitching, and a package built around Lee and Schmitt would at least fit the kind of creative offseason swing they may need. One idea floated: Lee and Schmitt to the Seattle Mariners for Logan Gilbert and Emerson Hancock.
Crazy? Maybe. But after the season San Francisco has had, the Giants may need to be bold - even if that means moving a fan favorite or two and trusting younger players to take their place.
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Giants Leave LA With A Dodgers Problem They Need To Answer
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Tommy Edman added a home run as the Dodgers stretched their winning streak to four, while San Francisco was left to sort out a familiar divisional problem after another frustrating night. For a club trying to keep pace in a crowded race, the issue is not just the result of this series but the way it exposed the gap they still have to close. [Read more 🡒]