3 candidates to replace Hunter Mense as SF Giants hitting coach after surprise move

While Buster Posey’s comments after the 2026 season seems to suggest there wouldn’t be major changes to the SF Giants coaching staff, there was a bit of a surprise move announced today per Mark Feinsand that Hunter Mense, San Francisco's hitting coach in 2026, will no longer be with the Giants and has been hired as an assistant hitting coach for the Kansas City Royals.

While no coaching change, or roster move for that matter, should come as a real shock after a 65-97 season, the offense wasn’t the biggest issue for San Francisco in 2026. Pitching was the much more glaring deficiency and the Giants made some minor tweaks to the coaching staff on that front but perhaps they felt they could do better on the hitting coach side as well.

Mense was seen as a guy who could infuse the same sort of contact-first approach that the Toronto Blue Jays had in 2025 on their way to a World Series appearance. Mense was the assistant hitting coach on that staff but San Francisco’s offensive struggles in April were glaring and their inability to draw walks was a huge reason for why they struggled early on.

Now the Giants will have to replace Mense so let’s look at some potential candidates who could take his place next season.

3 potential candidates to take over as SF Giants hitting coach 

Tommy Everidge

The success stories for the Giants organization in 2026 largely occurred in the minor leagues. That’s why it may not be a bad idea to promote someone from the minor league ranks and Tommy Everidge, the hitting coach in Richmond for the Double-A Flying Squirrels, could make sense.

Everidge is a Santa Rosa native who played briefly in the big leagues with the Oakland A’s. After his playing career, he served as a hitting coach with Oakland’s minor league affiliates and then was promoted to be their big league hitting coach for 2022 and 2023.

After that he spent some time with the Washington Nationals organization before he was hired by San Francisco earlier this year.

As our own Jeff Young pointed out on social media, Giants outfielder Jonah  Cox praised Everidge in a recent episode of the Giants Talk podcast so if he’s popular in the minors maybe it’s time to give him a shot with the big league club.

Guillermo Martinez

It’s usually not a bad idea to look to a World Series-winning team like the Milwaukee Brewers and try to poach someone from their staff and Guillermo Martinez might not be a bad guy to target. He’s currently an assistant hitting coach for the Brewers and was a coach with the Toronto Blue Jays from 2019 to 2024.

The Brewers have a very contact-oriented approach which is what Posey wants but Milwaukee drew the second-highest number of walks in MLB in 2026 so maybe Martinez could instill some patience in the lineup.

Travis Ishikawa

If San Francisco wanted to go the nostalgic route, it could hire playoff hero Travis Ishikawa as hitting coach. He served as the hitting coach for the San Jose Giants for a few years and is now working with San Francisco's prospects in the Arizona Complex League.

They may want him to continue his work there but if the Giants are looking for a familiar face and name with experience then Ishikawa would be a solid choice.

We will see which direction the Giants decide to go but it’s clear there’s plenty of room for improvement after the 2026 season so changes like this, while a bit surprising, are probably needed. 

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