Already Gone

Sep 19, 2026 | Latest Post, Out of Left Field | 0 comments

by DrLefty

I think most of you know that I retired from a long career as a university professor last year.  What you may not know is that I not only had a countdown app for the final year on my phone but also a theme song. In October 2024, we saw the Eagles play at Sphere, the amazing new venue in Las Vegas. They played all their hits, including “Already Gone,” which was always one of my favorites. The third verse especially spoke to me given my imminent life transition:

Well I know it wasn’t you who held me down

Heaven knows, it wasn’t you who set me free

So oftentimes it happens that we live our lives in chains

And we never even know we have the key

But me, I’m already gone…

In fact, I pulled out my phone and took video of Deacon Frey (son of the late Glenn) singing the third verse so that I could post it along with my retirement announcement on Facebook. Now, I’m well aware that “Already Gone” isn’t about retirement, just like “Cool Change” by the Little River Band isn’t about moving to a mid-century modern home with a grove of redwood trees in the backyard. But MrLefty, a gifted songwriter, would tell us that a well-written song can mean different things to different people.

Given what an epic disaster the 2026 San Francisco Giants season has been, there are probably numerous songs that could capture our emotions as fans. “Highway to Hell” comes to mind. But at this point in the season, with eight games remaining, it feels “already gone.” The Giants were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention several weeks ago, though in truth, that happened before Memorial Day. The Dodgers, who are the Giants’ opponents for five of the eight remaining games, had already clinched another NL West title (now 13 of the last 14) before the Giants rolled into Dodger Stadium last night. Most of what’s interesting is “already gone.”

The most startling aspect of all of this is how many players are “already gone.” When Rafael Devers abruptly disappeared last weekend to have core muscle surgery, he became the 16th Giant to join the 60-day Injured List. 16!!! And now the longest tenured Giant, the ace, the workhorse–even Logan Webb was mercifully shut down before his two remaining starts with a “blister” issue. They are now down to exactly three players on the active roster (Jung Hoo Lee, Christian Koss, Landen Roupp) who were also on the Opening Day roster. The three outfielders who embraced on the field after Tuesday night’s win over the Cardinals–Turner Hill, Jonah Cox, and Scott Bandura—were the Opening Day outfield…for the RICHMOND FLYING SQUIRRELS. And so it goes.

On Apple TV last night, they showed a graphic comparing the lineup from the last time the Giants were in Dodger Stadium (May 13) to last night’s lineup, and the only overlap was Lee (Koss, by that point in May, had been optioned to AAA). Three of the players in that May lineup (Luis Arraez and Heliot Ramos, plus starting pitcher Robbie Ray) were traded on August 3. The rest are out with season-ending injuries, though technically, Willy Adames, who’s only on the 10-day IL, could return. Even Bryce Eldridge was a late scratch last night because of a head laceration, which reportedly happened because (a) he’s tall and (b) the ceiling or doorway in the team hotel was too low. Thankfully, it sounds like a minor setback for Big Bad Bryce, and he’s expected back tonight.

The Giants did, however, finally get both their 63rd and 64th wins this week, avoiding either 100 or 99 losses this year. If they get one more, they’ll avoid tying the 2017 team for the second-worst record in franchise history. Can they get one more? Maybe. When you look at the Dodgers’ lineup, even without Shohei Ohtani, plus their starting pitchers, it’s hard to imagine the Giants getting any of those five games, but you never know. You’d think they could win at least one at home against the Minnesota Twins. We’ll see.

 

Also “Already Gone”–the Minor League Affiliates

The biggest bright spot in 2026 has been the overall success of the Giants’ farm system. Their affiliate teams had the best combined won-loss percentage and run differential, and it wasn’t particularly close. Baseball America just gave out season-ending grades, and the Giants got an A+. That’s all great. However, three affiliates were all unsuccessful in their playoff runs. Both Richmond and the Eugene Emeralds were bounced out without even winning a game. San Jose did better, winning their first-round series easily and taking the best-of-three California League championship series to three games, but they also fell short. However, there were some cool dramatic moments along the way:

  • Top pitching prospect Jackson Flora pitched two perfect innings for Richmond on Thursday night with four strikeouts. This was especially impressive given that it was Flora’s AA debut and in an elimination game. Nerves? Nope.
  • Kaeden Kent played for both Eugene and Richmond in their respective playoff series, going 4 for 5 in one of Eugene’s games and hitting a three-run homer in Richmond’s final game.
  • San Jose pitched a combined no-hitter in their one win in the Cal League championship series. The starter was MyGuyâ„¢ Argenis Cayama, and the relievers were two 2026 draftees, Ian Korn and Eric Nachtsheim, the latter of whom looked especially nasty while finishing off the no-hitter.

 

 

The first San Jose Giants no-hitter at Excite Ballpark, and third in franchise history! pic.twitter.com/2NoWC8T8L6

 

As noted in Andrew Baggarly’s article from last night, the Richmond rotation could start out next year with Flora, Jacob Bresnahan, Henry Lalane, and Ramon Marquez. All four of those guys are among the Giants’ top-11 prospects. So probably not ready to help the 2027 team(?), but not that far away, either.

 

Willie Mac Award!

The annual Willie Mac Award ceremony will be next Friday night (Sept. 25), and while some of the most obvious candidates earlier this season are “already gone” (Arraez, who was traded, and Casey Schmitt, who sustained a season-ending knee injury in July), there is still some intrigue around who might win it this year. Will it be the enigmatic Devers? The struggling-but-faithful Webb? The precocious Eldridge? It’s even been raised that the award should be given to retiring broadcaster Mike Krukow, and while I don’t know any Giants fan who would have a problem with that, I also don’t know if the team would do it, likely preferring to save the Krukow moment for the postgame celebration planned for September 27 (after the final game of the season).

Totalfan62 has been our “WMA Guyâ„¢” for the past few years, providing a writeup about the history of the award and collecting votes. He will be “on assignment” next week, so I’m linking one of his recent WMA pieces.  If you’d like to cast a vote for this year’s award, you can use this link to do so. Voting will close on Friday, September 25, at noon Pacific time. 

 

Happy 10th Birthday to TWG!

I said something about this in a comment the other day, but this week marked the tenth anniversary of when Greek Giant generously launched Together We’re Giants! The very first post appeared on September 15, 2016, and it was just a few days after Andrew Baggarly and the San Jose Mercury News had pulled the plug on “Giants Extra,” which the Merc had published under different titles since 2008. We’ve now outlasted those journalists by a couple of years!

We all owe a big thanks and round of applause to Greek Giant, who used his own resources to start and maintain this site for ten (!!!) years now–ten years that have included his marriage and relocation to Venice, caring for his parents, losing his mom, and moving his dad to Italy. He’s our hero, for sure!

And a round of applause to all of you TWGers, whose engagement and quirks and thoughtful comments make this a place worth coming back to you. I appreciate you all so much!

Here’s the first post!

And here’s an article I published in 2020 about TWG and being “DrLefty.”

 

Tonight’s Game

Giants at Dodgers, 6:10 p.m. at Dodger Stadium

Yunior Marte (0-0, 2.45 ERA) vs. Tarik Skubal (10-7, 2.70 ERA)

You can see the ERAs for yourself. Our guy is better!

We’ll let the Eagles take us out, of course. Lefty out.