By admin 
SAN FRANCISCO – In retrospect, the moment served as the groundwork for one of the most bizarre seasons in franchise history.
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It happened before Matt Chapman cussed at Casey Schmitt and before Erik Miller cussed out the Cincinnati Reds.
Before Willy Adames forgot how many outs there were and before Hector Borg was removed as third-base coach.
Before the weeks-long Pride Night debacle, and before Buster Posey only answered “baseball questions.”
Before the team was gutted at the trade deadline and before Harrison Bader crashed his scooter in the early hours of the morning. Before the Giants tied the record for the most players used in a season, and before they lost 5-1 to the Dodgers in 10 innings in the final game of Mike Krukow’s broadcasting career. They conclude their season with a 65-97 record, the third-most losses in a season since the team moved to San Francisco.
On February 16th, more than a week into spring training, Tony Vitello asked reporters when they thought he’d become the Giants’ newest manager. The question was unprompted. The answer was rambly. The vibes turned weird – and stayed weird all season long.
“There’s a lot of details, there’s a lot of drama, there’s a lot of individual stuff you could pull out – games you could look at – but the bottom line is we didn’t play good enough baseball,” Vitello said on Sunday morning.
There were always going to be bumps in the road in Vitello’s first season. Jumping straight from college to the majors with no prior professional experience, Vitello was entering uncharted territory. Still, Vitello’s inexperience alone cannot justify all the moments where logic and rationale took a backseat to the bizarre. That included the final game of the season.
In the top of the third, home plate umpire Ryan Blakney emphatically ejected Vitello when first-base umpire Marvin Hudson ruled that Mookie Betts checked his swing. Vitello then got into a face-to-face screaming match with Hudson before succumbing to his MLB-leading seventh ejection.
This was a season where Vitello tried shouldering the blame after the Giants were shut out twice to start the season, much to the confusion of this team’s veterans. Or recall when Vitello declined to use Trevor McDonald, the team’s 27th man, for either leg of their doubleheader against the Phillies in late April. Just last week, Vitello threw lefty Philip Abner into the fire less than 24 hours after the reliever surrendered four home runs in one inning.
“A lot of takeaways are little, but they pile up over 162 games,” Vitello said. “Many of the conversations I’ve had over the last week is just there needs to be improvement in all areas. I’m not exempt from that; I don’t think anybody’s exempt from that. I think improvement is needed. There’s a lot of information. Information is power. You’ve got to take it and you’ve got to make it useful.”
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This is to say nothing of the injuries, which absolutely ravaged this team along with the selloff at the trade deadline. The Giants were already a middling baseball team before injuries and trades decimated this roster, but by this final homestand, they were reduced to a skeleton crew.
San Francisco ends the season with 17 players on the 60-day injured list, all of whom will need to be either added back to the 40-man roster or cast away. The Giants tied the 2025 Atlanta Braves for the most players used in a single season (71) but never recalled catcher Zach Morgan during this final weekend, denying him an opportunity to make his debut after he spent eight games on the active roster earlier this year.
Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, Casey Schmitt and Daniel Susac are among those who underwent season-ending surgery. Last week, Bryce Eldridge’s year ended when he banged his head at the team’s hotel in Los Angeles, while Jung Hoo Lee sustained a contusion from somehow fouling a ball right off his groin. Once Blade Tidwell goes under the knife, he will join Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald and Carson Whisenhunt among the young starters who have undergone UCL procedures.
Bader’s self-induced scooter accident belongs in a different category entirely.
Posey hired Vitello to help buck the trend of agonizing mediocrity. From 2022-2025, the Giants went 321-327. They won 79 games in 2023, 80 games in 2024 and 81 games in 2022 and 2025. Given how this year went, mediocrity seems much preferable to the basement.
As poorly as it has gone this season, it’s not solely on Vitello. President of baseball operations Buster Posey and general manager Zack Minasian barely invested in the bullpen, leaving Vitello without a clear and established hierarchy going into the season.
Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser were also signed to shore up the rotation, but neither lived up to their contracts. Mahle had a 5.13 ERA over 18 starts before being traded to the Braves at the deadline, while Houser didn’t find his stride until being demoted to the bullpen.
It wouldn’t be fair to say this season was a complete dud. Eldridge had a special season and looks like he could be a foundational piece of this lineup for years to come. Devers hit 37 homers and 98 RBIs, while Schmitt had a career year and prospered as a utilityman.
On the flip side, Logan Webb navigated a “weird year” that ended with him posting his worst numbers since becoming an established starter. Adames and Chapman’s production faltered as they grinded through injuries, while Lee had an overall mediocre season despite catching fire in the summer.
Now, the Giants’ brass enters the offseason with work to be done. San Francisco’s position player group doesn’t seem poised to change much, but the pitching side requires much reinforcement. The injuries to Birdsong, McDonald, Tidwell and Whisenhunt sapped this team of its starting pitching depth, while the bullpen needs multiple proven leverage relievers – specifically, a closer.
After the loss, the Giants poured out of the dugout wearing black T-shirts with “Atta Babe, Kruk!” on the front and threw baseballs into the crowd. For many of that bunch, Sunday afternoon will be their final game as Giants with the incoming roster purge. Five straight seasons have gone by without a winning season, a first in franchise history. The upcoming winter will play a large part in determining whether that streak ends or extends.
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This story was originally published September 27, 2026 at 3:19 PM.