The Giants are in audition mode, and the clock is ticking for the younger players trying to carve out a place on the 2027 team. With little left on the line besides pride, the next five weeks or so are giving those guys a real opening to prove they belong.
A couple of them have done exactly that.
Drew Gilbert has put together the kind of season that makes a roster decision easier. He came into the year with a simple question hanging over him: could he hit well enough to stay in the mix?
Gilbert has answered with a .236/.322/.363 line, along with six home runs and 29 runs batted in. The numbers aren’t eye-popping, but there’s a clear split in his production, and most of it has come against right-handed pitching.
That matters, because it shows he can at least function as a platoon bat next season. Add in the defense, and he’s made a strong case to be in the conversation for the fourth or fifth outfielder job unless he really cools off in the final month.
He’s also toned down the antics a bit, which only reinforces that he’s all business right now.
Dylan Smith has helped himself too. The Giants’ bullpen has been shaky for much of the year, but Smith has emerged as a bright spot.
He just logged a six-out save against the Cleveland Guardians, and his 2.73 ERA suggests he deserves a real role in next year’s plans. San Francisco will still need to add more bullpen help and be creative about building depth, but Smith has done enough to earn at least some kind of spot with the club going forward.
Not everyone has used the opportunity nearly as well.
Carson Whisenhunt had a major chance to grab hold of a rotation job for next season. With Robbie Ray and Tyler Mahle traded away, the path was there for him to show he could be the team’s No. 4 or No. 5 starter.
Instead, his 7.03 ERA has made that look like a tough sell. He still has a month to change the story, but if he doesn’t, the Giants will have to think seriously about shifting him to relief or finding another way to get value out of him.
Blade Tidwell isn’t in the same spot yet, but the direction matters. He opened with solid outings against the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, which gave him a chance to build momentum and maybe work his way into a bullpen role next season.
Then came a rough one: six earned runs allowed and five walks in his last start. One bad outing doesn’t erase the earlier work, but he needs the rest of the way to look a lot better if he wants to keep that opportunity alive.
Nothing is finished here. The players excelling now can stumble, and the ones struggling can still turn it around. But these final weeks are about impressions, and those matter.
In Other News...
Giants Have A First Base Problem They Cant Ignore Much Longer
The Giants first base situation has become one of those quiet problems that keeps surfacing because the defense around the bag is so hard to measure cleanly. One of the better public tools for the job is Baseball Savants first base receiving outs above average, and by that standard Alec Burleson has been the leagues best among qualifying first basemen. San Franciscos trio sits much farther down the list, with Bryce Eldridge 14th, Casey Schmitt 50th and Rafael Devers 72nd among 73 qualifiers.
Devers placement is the one that stands out most, not because he has suddenly become a finished product at the position, but because he is still relatively new to first base. For the Giants, that makes the numbers feel less like a curiosity and more like an issue worth tracking closely, especially with the demands of making infield defense work while trying to keep the lineup intact. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Are Paying For Three Offseason Bets That Went Wrong
The Giants entered the season believing a few targeted moves could steady the roster, but the early returns have made it clear how much they were asking those bets to do. A pitching staff that was not fully addressed over the winter has left the club exposed, and the outfield addition of Harrison Bader has not provided the kind of dependable presence San Francisco had in mind because injuries have kept interrupting his contribution.
There is also the matter of the dugout, where Tony Vitellos inexperienced coaching staff has been learning on the job in a season that has not offered much margin for error. Put together, those choices have left the Giants looking at an offseason that needs more than a light touch, with some hard decisions ahead if they want to avoid carrying the same problems into next year. [Read more 🡒]
Jung Hoo Lees Right Field Move Still Isnt Fixing This Giants Problem
Jung Hoo Lees shift to right field was supposed to ease one of the Giants nagging concerns, but the early returns have been uneven at best. Against the Red Sox, he misplayed a line drive that rolled into a triple, a moment that fed into a 6-4 loss and kept the focus on whether the move is actually solving anything.
The Giants made the switch hoping a different defensive home would help Lee settle in and provide cleaner value in the outfield, but the underlying numbers still show a negative trend. For a club trying to tighten up every part of its game, Lees adjustment has become one of those small but stubborn issues that keeps showing up in the margins. [Read more 🡒]