What a Year It’s Been

Aug 1, 2026 | Latest Post, Out of Left Field

DrLefty’s birthday card from the Giants!

by DrLefty

The above image is from an email I received from “your San Francisco Giants.” It included a code for 50% off a second ticket for any remaining 2026 game. Not bad. I’ve never gotten a birthday gift from the Giants before!

Happy birthday also to the great Nate’s Fan Mom…and to Madison Bumgarner. He was born in the same year (1989) as the older Lefty Jr, not to mention Taylor Swift, so he’s 37 today. I’ll leave it to NFM to share how old she is if she cares to!

Sixteen years ago today, I was at Oracle Park with my family marking my 50th birthday, which was also MadBum’s 21st, and I joked about sending a margarita to the dugout since he could drink legally now. The Giants won that day, they also won on my birthday in 2021 (again, we were in the park), and last year, we were at Citi Field in New York, and they beat the Mets!  We’ll be at Petco tonight, so I’ll try to bring the birthday mojo again.

 

The Year from Hell (for the Giants, not me!)

I’ve actually had a great year. It was my first year of retirement (highly recommend), and it included moving to a cool new (old) home and some great trips.

The Giants…not so much. I don’t want to go all the way back to last August 1. This 2026 season has been bad enough, and I’m not even talking about their terrible won-loss record. In no particular order, we’ve had:

  • Logan Webb mixing it up on Twitter with KNBR staff and then with fans
  • Matt Chapman going viral for telling Casey Schmitt to “catch the f***ing ball” (speaking of those two guys, did you notice that my birthday greeting from the Giants prominently featured two players on the injured list? #NothingLikeIt)
  • Three outfielders going viral for a postgame “celebration,” or whatever that was. One of them was Harrison Bader (on a rare occasion that he actually played), and–we’ll get back to him.
  • Four pitchers making a debacle out of Pride Night and causing the DOJ to investigate the Giants for “religious discrimination”
  • President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey giving a disastrous press conference in the aftermath of the Pride Night incident and then ducking his KNBR appearance
  • Rafael Devers making a public spectacle on national TV when he objected to being removed for a pinch runner
  • The newly hired third base coach, Hector Borg, not making it through May 
  • Various players (including Willy Adames on several occasions, like this one and this one) having brain-fart moments on the field
  • Apple TV announcers last night reporting that Adames won’t “commit” to defensive work with legendary infield coach Ron Washington
  • Manager Tony Vitello looking clueless and overwhelmed on a number of occasions and being bullied by umpires
  • Aaaaaaand, the latest one: Bader being suspended without pay by the Giants for drunkenly crashing his scooter into a FIRE ENGINE and further injuring his already injured left foot. As John Shea of the SF Standard pointed out, Posey and the front office had to deal with this in the same week that they’re trying to be laser-focused on a very important trade deadline (more on that in a minute).

I asked my AI friend to make an image of Bader’s crash, and as you can see, it…got a few things wrong.

Bader after his scooter accident, version 1. Source: Google Gemini

 

I informed my buddy that Bader does not wear #22 (blasphemy!), that the crash was at night, that he ran into the back of the engine, and that he was injured. This was the revised version, and I decided good enough.

Bader after his scooter accident, version 2. Source: Google Gemini

 

I’m guessing we’ll hear more about this, most notably how the MLB Players Association will respond to the suspension and whether the Giants will seek to void the remainder of Bader’s contract. I assume that Giants Nation is unified in never needing to see Bader back in Orange and Black. Even before this ridiculous incident, he’d only played in 30 of 110 games this year, was batting .170, and had an OPS+ of 54. But oh, we’ll always remember his pelvic thrusts!

Anyway, as to this terrible year, I’m sure I’ve missed some, and I was mainly focused on gaffes and missteps rather than “our bullpen sucks” or “we usually lose when we score three runs or fewer.”

 

The Trade Deadline

Really not much more to say about this at the moment. The trade deadline is at 3 p.m. Pacific time on Monday, August 3. (Thanks to MLB for not cluttering up my birthday this year.) We know the deal. The Giants are sellers. I went through the whole scenario back in June, and not much has changed. Well, Casey Schmitt’s season-ending knee injury changes a couple of things, I guess–he himself won’t be traded, and it’s less obvious who will cover 2B the rest of the year if/when Luis Arraez is traded.

Will the Giants simply trade their expiring contracts (Arraez, Robbie Ray, Tyler Mahle) for prospects? Will they actually get takers on any of the three “albatross” contracts (Adames, Chapman, Devers)? Will they sell off Heliot Ramos before his arbitration years? What about Jung Hoo Lee? Will they dump some bullpen arms? Really hard to say. The trade deadline has been slow so far, and these things tend to have a domino effect. For example, IF Tarik Skubal is traded, teams that lose out on him might be interested in Ray (it’s worth remembering that Skubal taught Ray his change-up grip before the 2025 season).

I actually hope that the Giants make a lot of moves. I share the widespread skepticism that they can unload the “Big Three,” but it seems like just about anyone else should be on the table (not you, Big Bryce). I understand the wish that they’d extend Arraez and Ray, but that just doesn’t make sense for them right now. If there’s mutual interest, they could sign one or both of them back after the season.

If I were in charge of this process, I’d keep it simple. The Giants need pitching, pitching, and more pitching. They need starters and relievers. They need younger low-minors arms and they need upper-minors/major-league-ready arms. Not so much for this lost season, but for 2027 and the next few years after that. Stockpile those arms. An underrated trade a couple of years ago was when the Giants sent Alex Cobb to the Guardians and got back Jacob Bresnahan, a 21-year-old lefty starter who’s in high A and having a fine pro career so far–he’s currently the Giants’ top pitching prospect, though that will change when MLB.com updates the prospect lists after the draft/trade deadline (Jackson Flora will certainly rank higher). Anyway, that’s an example of a trade that doesn’t get much attention at the time, but a year or two later, it’s like “Huh. That worked out well.”

 

One Bright Spot this Week 

Top prospects Josuar Gonzalez and Luis Hernandez arrived in San Jose a week, and things in particular have gone well for Josuar, who looks slick at SS, steals bases, and hit this monster homer off Yusei Kikuchi, a two-time All-Star who’s rehabbing. Hernandez is off to a slower start at the plate, though he’s also gone deep and has looked sharp at 3B and at SS. They are 18 and 17, respectively.

 

Tonight’s Game

Giants at Padres, 5:40 p.m. at Petco Park

Tyler Mahle (3-9, 4.96 ERA) vs Walker Buehler (6-5, 5.13 ERA)

You don’t often see Mahle matched up against someone with a worse ERA, but there we are. We’ll see if Mahle actually makes his start. The clock is ticking, and things could change in the next 7-8 hours…

Anyway, hope the Giants continue their winning ways when it’s (a) my birthday and (b) I’m in the park. Lefty out.