by DrLefty
This has been another awful week in a never-ending series of them in this cursed 2026 season. Oh, I know you might say that the Giants at least are playing a bit better, and I’ll get to that. But this week featured the following disasters:
- Two Giants starters, two nights in a row, left the game early with the trainer, holding their pitching elbow. One of them, Carson Whisenhunt, will miss the entire 2027 season after he has Tommy John surgery.
- The Giants’ everyday shortstop, Willy Adames, injured his (non-throwing) elbow on an awkward slide and will miss the rest of the season. He joins Matt Chapman, Casey Schmitt, and Daniel Susac on the list of everyday players* who are done for this season. *I refuse to include Harrison Bader as an everyday player even if he was in the Opening Day lineup. Dude played 30(!!!) games and is now suspended without pay after exacerbating a foot injury by drunkenly crashing his electric scooter into a fire engine. I wish I were making this up.
- The bullpen gave back two more wins in the ninth inning, one in Boston on Saturday night and the other on Wednesday afternoon at home in epic, historic fashion (blowing a six-run ninth-inning lead for the first time in franchise history).
- Yet another Giants executive (GM Zack Minasian) went on the KNBR morning show and made more tone-deaf, gaslighting comments about this year’s bullpen.
So–yeah. It was a bad week. With just about a month to go in this miserable season from hell, is there anything worth paying attention to?
Well, I can think of two things, one of which is sort of tongue-in-cheek but sort of not.
Avoiding 100 Losses
As we all know, only one Giants team has ever lost 100 games, the 1985 team. That was more than 40 years ago, and while I do remember it, it’s fallen into a hazy blur that is brightened by the fun 1986 season that followed (“Ya Gotta Like These Kids”), quickly followed by a NL West title in 1987 and a NL pennant in 1989. The misery didn’t carry over for long. The second-worst record was owned by the 2017 Giants, who lost 98 games, had the worst record in baseball, and still managed to not get the #1 pick because they lost a tiebreaker with the equally bad Detroit Tigers.
The 2026 Giants have won 55 games. If they go 8-19 in their remaining 27, they will finish at 63-99, right between those two other woeful versions of the Giants. That would be a .400 winning percentage, and their current W-L record of 55-80 is .407. So it’s possible. However, we should take a look at their schedule, which includes:
- a doubleheader today against the Diamondbacks (who are fighting for a wild card spot and against whom the Giants are 2-9 this year)
- a single game in Atlanta vs the very good Braves
- three games against the Padres (fighting for a wild card)
- six games against the Dodgers (fighting to stay out of the wild card round in the playoffs).
Their other opponents, the Pirates (3 games), Mets (3 games), Cardinals (6 games), and Twins (3 games) are all pretty bad teams this year. There might be eight wins out there for the Giants. However, bear in mind that the Giants already lost the season series to the Colorado Rockies, had their epic ninth-inning meltdown agains the last-place Cincinnati Reds, and couldn’t even sweep the Angels, the worst team in baseball, at home after winning the first two games.
I have confidence in the 2026 Giants’ superpower ability to lose to any team at any time, regardless of the score or the other team’s record. (On the other hand, they have already won the season series against the Braves–they are 4-1 with the makeup game remaining–and the Brewers, who have the best record in baseball, and they lead the season series against the Dodgers 4-3. So maybe they can surprise us and get some of those eight wins somewhere we don’t expect them to.
I know some of you actually would prefer that the Giants go ahead and lose 100 games or even blow past that number, just to make the point about how awful the team is and how much needs to change before another baseball season happens (whenever that turns out to be). I am team “don’t lose 100” because–ewwww. Nobody anywhere is confused that this is a bad team that has had an awful season. Losing 100 games–or not–is not going to change anyone’s mind about that.
Watching Young Players
Let’s just admit that the 100-loss death watch is a little gruesome. But there are a few players whose progress could be important to the 2027 season, and even, dare I say it, the next good Giants team (I promise there will be one!). Last week I wrote about prospects in AAA who are about to be Rule 5 eligible whom maybe the Giants will/should call up (specifically Bo Davidson and Joe Whitman, with an honorable mention to Scott Bandura, who is not a top-30 prospect). Despite the latest onslaught of injuries, none of them have been called up (yet), so instead let’s focus on the players currently on the roster whose progress it might be fun to observe over the remaining 28 games.
Drew Gilbert
Compared to some of the other players on the current active roster, Gilbert seems like a grizzled veteran, but he wasn’t on the Opening Day roster. Gilbert, in 289 at-bats this year, is hitting .242 with a .718 OPS and 8 homers. Those numbers are OK, nothing snazzy, but if you look at his numbers in August (68 ABs), he’s hitting .265 with an .848 OPS and 4 homers. Gilbert is looking confident at the plate, coming up with big hits, and he doesn’t strike out all that much. He plays all three OF positions, he hustles, and he always brings good energy. A month ago I was ready to give up on him, but now I agree with everyone else that Gilbert could be a perfectly solid platoon CF. (You don’t want to look at his numbers against lefties, though.)
Blade Tidwell
Speaking of former Tennessee Volunteers, Tidwell is acquitting himself (somewhat?) well in his second go-round with the Giants this year. He made eight appearances in April, all out of the bullpen, and then was sent to AAA to stretch out as a starter. He returned to the Giants right after the trade deadline (when they traded two starters) and has made four starts, three of which were very good. It remains a question whether Tidwell is more valuable to the Giants as a starter or perhaps as a high-octane closer, but for now, considering that the Giants are down five starters in just over a month since Trevor McDonald was injured on July 20 (so McDonald, Whisenhunt, Houser, and ex-Giants Robbie Ray and Tyler Mahle), it looks like Tidwell is a starter. Right now the 2027 rotation would consist of Logan Webb, Landen Roupp, Houser, and Tidwell. That’s not especially an exciting list, but you have to have someone eat starter innings, and right now there’s not a lot of depth left. So–let’s watch Blade make starts for another month.
EDITED TO ADD: I wrote most of this column yesterday to free up my morning to watch USC’s first game, which kicks at 9 a.m. Hawaii time. I did see that Tidwell had a rough outing last night. I don’t think it changes anything I said. He needs to keep making starts.
It’s worth noting that both Gilbert and Tidwell, besides being Tony Vitello’s proteges, were part of the trade for Tyler Rogers in July 2025, along with Jose Butto, who’s missed most of this season with an injury but is expected to be part of the bullpen mix in 2027. We all love Tyler Rogers, and not attempting to re-sign him after last season was a choice, but I think we can agree at this point that it’s turning out to be an excellent return for two months of a (very good) set-up reliever.
Jonah Cox
Speaking of another trade acquisition (Cox was obtained from the A’s by Farhan Zaidi before the 2024 season for pitcher Ross Stripling), Cox has been a fun story this year. Before 2026, Cox was a flashy speed-and-defense guy who didn’t hit that much. Cox was a .250-.260-ish hitter in the minors, but when he began at AA Richmond this year, he was a different guy, hitting .400 in 44 games with 27 stolen bases. When outfielders Harrison Bader and Heliot Ramos both went down with injuries at the end of May, Cox was jumped from AA straight to the majors, where he played, somewhat sparingly, until he himself was injured in early July. Once he was ready to return, he first played 11 games in Sacramento (hitting .468) before being called up again on August 14. For the year with the Giants (59 plate appearances), Cox is hitting .268 with an .811 OPS, 3 homers, and 5 stolen bases. He also has a very ugly strikeout rate (nearly 50%), but that might be attributed to both jumping from AA and then playing infrequently during his first stint with the Giants. His strikeout numbers in the minors are fine. Cox is an excellent outfielder defender and has even played a little 2B this year. He has game-changing speed: Between the minors and the majors, he has 175 stolen bases and has been caught 32 times.
Cox’s splits against righties are not as extreme as Gilbert’s against lefties–indeed, in a small sample size, he has a .916 OPS against right-handed pitchers–so it may be premature to pigeonhole Cox as the “B side” (for those of us of a certain age) of a CF platoon with Gilbert. Here’s what I’d like to see: I want both Gilbert and Cox to play just about everyday, regardless of the opposing pitcher. What if Gilbert does better with more reps against lefties? As for Cox, he just needs more reps, period.
Turner Hill
Hill is also a fun story but in a different way. He is 27, was an undrafted free agent whom the Giants signed back in 2023, and he forced his way into the picture with an excellent season split between AA/AAA (.352, .956 OPS). He made his MLB debut on August 14, and so far (32 plate appearances) is hitting .286 with an .800 OPS. He has only struck out five times. He looks like a very competent outfielder, too.
So…let’s see more of him, too. If you’re keeping score, I’ve already argued for three outfielders to play everyday, and there’s still one incumbent OF left, Jung Hoo Lee. I think there’s no real need to push Lee very hard over the next month; he’s played a lot and we know he can run out of gas. Since Hill and Gilbert, like Lee, bat lefty, there should be playing time for all three of them as well as Cox.
Carson Seymour
Seymour, you might recall, was one of four players the Giants received from the Mets in an August 2022 trade for Darin Ruf. Seymour’s overall numbers in brief stints with the Giants are not great, but since being recalled in August, he’s pitched in nine games, 14 innings, given up three runs–never more than one in any appearance–and has a 1.93 ERA and 1.07 WHIP. I’d like to see more of him out of the bullpen over this final month.
Trent Harris
Harris, a 27-year-old right-handed relief pitcher, was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Giants in 2023. He made his MLB debut with the Giants on August 8, and it didn’t go well–he gave up 3 runs in one-third of an inning, so his ERA will be bad for the rest of the year. Since then, he’s made seven more appearances (10 innings total), and has given up just two more runs. He also has 15Ks in 10 innings, and in a bullpen where it seems like no one can strike anyone out, that’s worth paying attention to. More of him, too, please.
I Don’t Care
There are a bunch of other young dudes on the roster because of injuries and trades: Christian Koss, Nate Furman, Shay Whitcomb, Osleivis Basabe, and Grant McCray. They’re going to continue to play sometimes because the Giants are just out of players, especially in the infield. But I’m not especially intrigued by any of them and don’t see them as future pieces that need a longer look in September.
And in the “I Don’t Know” category, there’s Braxton Roxby, who was added to the roster several days ago and made his major league debut last night (clean inning with one strikeout). Roxby was acquired from the Reds in January 2025 for the Other Rogers Twin. He’s a right-handed reliever who has never made a start as a pro. In AAA this year, he had a 4.11 ERA (not bad for the PCL) and a WHIP of 1.18. He also has 368 strikeouts in 288 minor league innings, and again, that kind of stat will catch my eye.
Also…
It’s fair to conclude this section of players to watch over the final meaningless month of this season with an observation that the Giants actually haven’t played all that badly this week, which is kind of amazing when you look at the lineups and it’s “Rafi Devers and the River Cats.” They’ve scored early and in bunches, the starting pitchers have mostly been OK, and in the wins, the bullpen as a unit was pretty good…until then they weren’t in those other two games. EDITED TO ADD: Last night was not great, but they did score six runs.
Also “worth watching” is the aforementioned Rafael Devers, who has been on a tear: four homers over the past week, hitting .320. Devers is now up to 29 homers, and he’ll probably cross the 30-homer line before August is over, so how many might he get to? 35? More? And, of course, continuing to watch the progress of 21-year-old Bryce Eldridge as he concludes his rookie season. There’s been a lot to like about young Bryce this year, and it would be good to see him finish well. EDITED TO ADD: Bryce had a homer and a double last night.
Today’s/Tonight’s Games
Diamondbacks at Giants, Oracle Park
Game 1: 1:05 p.m.
Game 2: 7:05 p.m.
Starting pitchers:
Game 1: Merrill Kelly vs. Matt Wilkinson
Game 2: Mitch Bratt vs. TBD (bullpen game?)
This is a day-night separate admission doubleheader. The second game will include the Jeff Kent Hall of Fame celebration (his #21 will be retired), and both games have giveaways–a Jung Hoo Lee bobblehead for Game 1, and replica HOF rings for Game 2. Should be a fun day out at the park, even with the…you know, the games(!).
I noticed an interesting coincidence on my Facebook Memories this morning. Seventeen years ago today, on August 29, 2009, we attended a Wall of Fame ceremony at AT&T Park for…Jeff Kent. No idea if they picked the same date on purpose or even realized it, but it’s kind of cool.
Also, welcome back college football (Week 0)! Hope you all have a great weekend. Lefty out.
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