Are the SF Giants treating the 2026 season as a gap year?

For the most part, it has been a gap decade for the SF Giants. However, the moves they have made this offseason do not align with a team that plans to compete for a playoff spot, which could suggest that they are treating the 2026 season as a gap year.

Are the SF Giants treating the 2026 season as a gap year?

There are a couple of interpretations here. The first one is that the front office believes in this group. This was an 81-win team in 2025, but maybe they believe this group fell below expectations and that a better coaching staff can help raise that win total.

That is possible. It is putting a lot of pressure on Tony Vitello and his coaching staff to be able to coach up these players. It is hard to ignore that this just did not feel like a well-coached team last season, so that is one way to go.

The other interpretation is that this just might be a gap year. The Giants did not love a lot of the free agents, so they added a pair of lower-cost moves in Adrian Houser and Tyler Mahle. Houser and Mahle are coming off of good seasons, but Houser does not have the track record of success, and Mahle does not have the track record for durability.

While these moves give the Giants more of a veteran presence in the rotation, this is a team that believes its identity is built around pitching and defense. According to Fangraphs, the Giants' rotation projects to be one of the worst units in baseball by fWAR. If that turns out to be true, then it is going to be a long season. These do not feel like win-now moves.

The rotation is only one part of the pitching staff, and a pretty big part of that. The bullpen is the other part. The bullpen turned into a liability by the end of last season due to attrition from trades and injuries.

Randy Rodríguez is expected to miss all of the 2026 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Ryan Walker and Joel Peguero will likely compete for the closer role in a bullpen that has far too many middle relievers and not enough leverage arms.

The Giants have made a couple of notable additions to the bullpen in Sam Hentges and Jason Foley. Gregory Santos was also brought back on a minor league deal. Hentges and Foley are returning from shoulder surgery, with the latter likely not returning to the mound until the middle of the season. Santos missed considerable time in 2025 after undergoing knee surgery, and he has only thrown more than 10 innings in a season just once. On paper, the bullpen looks suspiciously similar to the one that finished last season.

In terms of defense, the Giants have a solid infield alignment. Patrick Bailey and Matt Chapman have both earned multiple Gold Glove Awards in their respective careers. Willy Adames' defense rebounded after a slow start last year, and the Giants believe that Rafael Devers can turn into a good glove at first base.

The outfield is a different story. That unit put up -18 Outs Above Average (OAA), which was the worst mark in baseball. They are returning Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee in left field and center field, respectively. The Giants do not have a solution in right field. As currently constructed, Drew Gilbert, Jerar Encarnación , Luis Matos, and Grant McCray will compete for playing time in right field.

Gilbert proved to be a capable defender during his time with the Giants at the end of last season, but will his bat be good enough to allow his defense to play? That remains to be seen. Regardless, this might be the same outfield defense that struggled badly last year.

It has been an odd offseason for the Giants. They entered with quite a few priorities to address. To some extent, they have addressed the rotation, but not in a way that raises the ceiling of that unit. The bullpen and outfield remain unresolved.

Perhaps, they are not planning to resolve them at this point. Spring training is less than one month away, and for many teams, the offseason work is done by this point.

If that is the case for the Giants, it would be a bizarre contrast to the past 16 months. During that time, they invested over $500 million into Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Rafael Devers. The spending was never going to remain at that pace, but it has come to a halt.

Well, they have been spending in other ways. They purchased the historic Curran Theatre in San Francisco in December. That has many people, rightfully so, questioning where ownership's priorities currently sit. Are they more focused on putting together a competitive team in 2026, or building out their investment portfolio?

That purchase has been a distraction for a team that still has several roster holes to fill. Maybe they do not plan to fill those holes this offseason. Maybe the plan was never about the 2026 season. They have a core in place, all under long-term deals.

Maybe the plan was to get to the next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and see where things stand. This has been a rather uneventful offseason for the Giants. Over the past few years, fans could see the vision of the team, even if their Plan A and Plan B fell through. At the very least, they were trying or trying to try.

Are they trying this year? They might believe in the moves they have made, but the fanbase might suggest otherwise. They are seemingly entering the 2026 season with the same group and hoping for better results. Unfortunately, hope is not a good strategy.