Analyzing the 2025 Season

Sep 29, 2025 | 2025 Season, 2025 Season in Review, Latest Post, San Francisco Giants News

by
Greek Giant

The Numbers don’t lie. You are what your record says it is. Both cliches, both true, especially in the case of the 2025 San Francisco Giants. There is no hiding behind the fact that the Giants, with an above average payroll, far above average, were a middling team in 2025 and in absolute terms, mostly a failure. Finishing at 81-81 is the very definition of mediocrity and in some ways, it’s worse than losing 95 games because you do not get that high draft pick order and are stuck in the purgatory of thinking one or two moves will get you over the top.

Well, I am here to tell you today, Giants fans, your beloved baseball club is far from one or two moves away from being a contender. They are like, ten moves and thee years away, at best. I will explain my position gradually let’s explore today’s postmortem of the 2025 campaign with a cold hard look at the Giants statistics and rankings across the National League and Major League Baseball. But before I begin with the ugly truths, let’s celebrate yesterday’s 4-0 win by mentioning some wonderful things that happened in the season finale against Colorado at Willie Mays Field. That win gave the hometown heroes a sweep of the three-game series and that 81-81 record I mentioned earlier.

Notes on Yesterday’s Season-Ending Win Over the Rockies

In yesterday afternoons 4-0 Giants win, Logan Webb pitched 5 1/3 innings to earn his 15th win of the year. It was the second time he won 15 games in a season. It was also the first time Webb would lead the National League in both innings pitched and strikeouts, becoming the first Giant to do it since 1994. Congratulations to the Giants Ace. He had a fine season, one to be proud of.

In the game Willy Adames hit his 30th home run of the year on the first pitch of the bottom of the first inning. That made him the first Giant to hit 30 homers in one season since the great Barry Bonds did it in 2007. Bob Melvin moved Adames to the top of the order to give him a better chance to get more at bats. It turns out Adames need only one pitch because, Baseball is funny that way. That pitch, a 95 MPH belly-high fastball on the outer half of the plate by Rockies starter McCade Brown was hit hard and deep over the center field fence. In actuality, it was not a terrible pitch. It’s just that Adames can rake and he was looking high heat all the way. Congratulations to Willy, our 2025 Willie Mac Award Winner!

Rafael Devers hit his 35th homer and drove in his 109th RBI in the bottom of the fourth inning. It was a tape measure shot into right center and it was impressive.

The dude can hit. Because he hit about half of those dingers as a Red Sock, he does not get the same mention that Adames does with the complete season as a Giant but Devers had a fine season, make no mistake, despite his strikeouts. I wrote in one of the blog comments that the high number of strikeouts and low number of hits, a ratio unsustainable for the Giants, is the biggest issue with the team this season and I will get to that point in a minute below but Devers is the exception because he does damage with hits all the same.  He also has 115 walks on the season, an astounding number. Oh! and Rafael Devers also played in 163 games this season! Congrats to Rafael!


Make no mistake, Buster Posey won this trade by a landslide.

In the top of the sixth inning with one out Hunter Goodman hit a moonshot off the wall in triples alley. Drew Gilbert, the right fielder made a spectacular play to receive the ball cleanly with a barehand, fire a strike to the cutoff man, Christian Kos, who made a perfect one-hope strike to Matt Chapman who tagged out Goodman without moving his glove and secured the out by a fraction of an inch. Goodman was incredulous. It was one of the best plays I have seen an outfielder make in my life. Let’s begin with the hit ball. It was destroyed and Gilbert was smart enough to realize, in mid-run, that he could not catch it. So, he slammed on the breaks, figured out where the ball would strike the wall and grabbed it cleanly as soon as it came down to Earth. Then he turned and made a perfect throw. It was a superb example of baseball smarts, speed, arm strength and overall skill. It was another gold glove play and it was another piece of defensive evidence why Gilbert should be given a shot to be an everyday player. I would play him in center field and, if he establishes himself, find a spot for Lee as a fourth outfielder.

The Giants had seven hits in the game and Jung Hoo Lee had three of them, including a two-run RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Giants some breathing room. It was a classic Lee game, a hit the other way, a key hit to knock in a run and clean play in the outfield. When Lee is on he can be a valuable part of the Giants line up in the bottom of the order.

The Giants 2025 Season By the Numbers

The Giants started the season surprising the baseball world with a very hot beginning with more wins than most thought possible, playing at around a .650 clip until May came around. The Giants, in truth, had only two winning months all season (April and the 13-12 mark of September) and the reason for that decline was two-fold: the inconsistency offensively (far too many strikeouts, not enough hits, too many slumps by too many hitters) and the dramatic dropoff in numbers by the pitching staff that was due to two factors: the trades that sent away Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks, Camilo Doval and Tyler Rogers; and injuries (Landon Roupp) combined with the loss of effectiveness by Hayden Birdsong, perhaps the biggest disappoint of any one player this season.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at a few of the Giants team statistics this season to get an objective picture of where they stand in relation to the rest of the  National League and its fifteen teams in all and in the Major Leagues with 30 teams.

Giants 2025 Team Hitting Statistics

  • Runs Scored: 705, NL Rank: 10th,  MLB Rank: 14th
  • Team Batting Average: .235, NL Rank: 14th, MLB Rank: 25th
  • Slugging Percentage: .386, NL Rank: 13th, MLB Rank: 25th
  • On Base Percentage: .311, NL Rank:12th, MLB Rank: 20th
  • OPS: .697, NL Rank: 11, MLB Rank: 22nd,
  • Home Runs: 173, NL Rank: 9th, MLB Rank: 12th
  • Strikeouts: 1,380, NL Rank: 4th Most, MLB Rank: 12th Most

Giants 2025 Team Pitching Statistics

  • ERA 3.84, NL Rank: 6th, MLB Rank: 10th
  • Home Runs Allowed: 143, NL Rank: Fewest, MLB Rank: Fewest
  • Walks: 506, NL Rank: 6th Fewest, MLB Rank: 13th Fewest
  • Hits Allowed: 1354, NL Rank: 10th Fewest, MLB Rank: 10th
  • Saves: 41, NL Rank: 9th, MLB Rank: 15th
  • Blown Saves: 22, NL Rank: 8th, MLB Rank: 11th
  • WHIP: 1.30, NL Rank: 8th, MLB Rank: 18th

Giants 2025 Team Fielding Statistics

Source: MLB.com

  • Errors: 95, MLB Rank: 6th Most
  • Double Plays: 133, MLB Rank 4th
  • Fielding Percentage: .984, MLB Rank: 26th
  • Defensive Efficiency: .684, MLB Rank 27th

Source: Baseball Reference

Here are my biggest takeaways from the above numbers: The Giants strikeout  way too much compared to their ability to pound out hits and reach base via the walk. The Giants have had too many games with fewer than ten hits and more than ten strikeouts. They have also had far too many games where they struck out more than they recorded a base hit. The team has power. The team has some speed, but the team has major holes in the line up and too many players with exceptionally long dry spells/slumps. It is an urgent issue for the hitting side of the Giants, particularly in the outfield, where the Giants are far below League average defensively and offensively.

On the plus side, the Giants have power and for the first time in a dog’s age, had four players with 20 or more homers in Devers, Chapman, Adames and Ramos. That’s no small feat. The Giants also have better team speed than they have in recent years past, especially with Gilbert in the line up.

On the pitching side things are a bit more black and white: the Giants need arms. They need two or three more starting pitchers for their rotation and they need at least two or three bullpen pitchers. I expect a combination of free agent signings and promotions from the team’s ranks. There is a lot of room to make something happen here, especially with some young arms showing some signs of promise.

Defensively, the Giants were a big disappointment. Despite some possible gold glove winners in Bailey and Chapman, the outfield play was truly horrendous at times and the Giants had big issues at first base and second base with far too many errors on routine plays.

Final 2025 Season Grades

Team Pitching: C
Team Hitting: D
Team Defense: D+
Manager: C-
Overall: C

This was a strangely weird, I mean very odd season for our boys in orange and black. The early season promise lead to a summer of hellish play, particularly at home where they went on a 1-18 streak, which cost them a chance at the postseason. The final three weeks showcase some young players with great upside and I am excited about them. Going Forward Buster Posey will have to decide on the direction he wants to take the team: Towards a long (2-4) year plan or towards more short-term decisions like signing Tyler Rogers as a free agent. I do not envy Buster but were I on his staff of Baseball savants my advice would be this: Taking a hard look at the make up of this team means being honest with its shortcomings and knowing they cannot be fixed in one season. I would try to persuade Buster and an organizational change in player development philosophy and pillage all the best scouts and coaches I could from Tampa Bay and other successful organizations. I would not sign big free agents like Kyle Tucker and expect to win the World Series unless you sign a Tucker and somehow acquire a top-flight starting pitcher in the process.

The Adames signing was a home run. In his first year Adames hit 30 homers, played very good defensive for the most part, and was a clubhouse leader all the way to winning the Willie Mac Award. You simply cannot ask for much more than that. The Rafael Devers acquisition is a game-changer. Logan Webb is the steady, strong Logan Webb, There are young players who improved and who should improve some more in Heliot Ramos, Christian Koss, Patrick Bailey and Jung Hoo Lee. The big needs are on the pitching side, and one outfielder with power. It will remain to be seen what kind of future Bryce Eldridge will have but at first glance he appears too raw and not ready for a full season in MLB. The Giants have a desperate need for a backup catcher, a right fielder, and at least one left handed bat off the bench, to go with two starting pitchers and three relievers. In the meantime, let’s see if some of those needs can be filled from within the system. I don’t see the Giants contending next year with this roster and this Minor League system. It might take two or three years of excellent drafts. In the meantime, In Buster, We Trust.