Inside the SF Giants’ offensive slide — and why the numbers are so alarming

The SF Giants haven't carried a "home run team" reputation in a while. In fact, since Barry Bonds left in 2007, the team has ranked in the bottom half of the total home runs leaderboard 15 times, including dead last in 2017, 2012, and 2008. One of the three times they finished in the upper half was in 2021, when they broke the previous franchise single-season record with 241 long balls. That record had lasted since 2001 and Barry Bonds' historic 73-homer campaign, an MLB record to this day.

However, the 2026 iteration of the Giants is reaching new lows. They just got shut out for the seventh time this season, losing 3-0 against the Tampa Bay Rays. Not only is it the most by any MLB team this season, but it is also the most in franchise history through 32 games since 1976. Yikes.

The culmination of that blatant lack of offense came in their series against the Philadelphia Phillies, when they failed to hit a home run in three games at Citizens Bank Park. They became the first team this season — and the first since the San Diego Padres in June/July 2025 — to do so.

With the offense looking as wounded as ever, let's go through some bleak offensive numbers that might just redefine what an awful offense means in Giants history if things don't improve quickly.

The home-run punch has gone missing

The good news about power-related stats is that they can change in a hurry. A couple of hot weeks swinging the bat, and they look totally different. Well, a month into the season, those hot weeks have yet to materialize.

On paper, the Giants have one of the most potent lineups in baseball. Before the season started, they had four players who were projected to hit over 20 homers. According to FanGraphs, Rafael Devers was projected to hit around 31 home runs, Matt Chapman around 27, Willy Adames around 26, and Heliot Ramos around 22.

Thirty-two games in, those numbers look alarmingly low. Devers, who reached 20 in every healthy season of his career, is stuck at two and is on pace for just 10, which would tie his career low from 2017, when he played just 57 games.

Adames, who broke the Giants' 21-year drought without a 30-home run hitter by reaching the mark in the last game of the season, has hit just three and is on pace for 16. Ramos has also homered just three times in 31 games.

And Matt Chapman hasn't cleared the fence since March 31 in San Diego, his only homer of the year. He's on pace to hit five home runs — yes, you read that right, five.

Those guys will very likely clear those marks, but it’s still troubling to see hitters of that caliber sitting on those kinds of numbers over a month into the season.

As you probably figured, the Giants rank last in baseball in total home runs with 19. Hard not to be when your power bats have combined for fewer than 10 of them. Yes, the Giants have seldom been home run machines. But finishing under 100 home runs is still a rarity, even for them. Since 1982, they've done it just once, in 2008, when they lost 90 games and Bengie Molina and Aaron Rowand were the main run producers. If they don't figure things out, they'll finish around 96 — and with no excuse this time.

The number 19 has been a cursed one for the Giants this season. Not only does it represent the fewest home runs in MLB, but it also reflects the number of games in which they have failed to hit one — the most in baseball. They're 3-16 in those games.

Another useful stat to emphasize how scarce the deep balls have been for the Giants is the home run per at-bat ratio. As you would expect, the Giants rank last, with one home run roughly every 56 at-bats. The New York Yankees, who lead MLB in home runs with 50, have homered every 21 at-bats. In other words, the Yankees are going deep at nearly three times the Giants' rate.

The lack of power comes with no on-base cushion

Remember when I mentioned that home run stats could take a U-turn rather quickly? Well, I can’t say the same about walk and strikeout rates. Those stats usually stabilize faster and do not completely change overnight.

The Giants' walk issues are now well-known. They rank last in baseball with just 66 free passes, 17 fewer than the 29th-ranked Diamondbacks. They're on pace to draw just 334 walks, which would be their lowest mark in franchise history since 1919, when they played just 140 games.

The perfect embodiment of that sudden struggle to draw walks is Devers. The front office acquired Devers for his power, yes, but also for his ability to reach base by instilling fear in opposing pitchers. He did just that last year, finishing with a career-high 15.4% walk rate, which ranked in the 98th percentile. This year, that number has plummeted to just 5.4% — the steepest drop-off in the majors this season at minus-10.0 percentage points.

So the Giants don't hit the ball out of the park AND basically don't give themselves a shot to compensate by drawing a ton of walks. But it doesn’t end there— the nightmare gets darker.

For their top contributors not to homer or walk is one thing; for them not to reach base at all is another. While Chapman (.271) and Ramos (.282) have hit the ball reasonably well and therefore reached base at a passable rate — .343 and .311, respectively. It's been a whole different story for Adames (.197) and Devers (.207) though.

The two guys who are supposed to be the reliable providers in that lineup both rank in the bottom seven in the National League in on-base percentage. Adames' .242 mark is the fourth-lowest, while Devers' .250 is the seventh-lowest.

The Giants already have a blueprint to follow

Whether the power comes around or not, the Giants will need to figure out a way to score runs. If, for whatever reason, the power does not fully kick in, they should take a page out of the Brewers' book. Milwaukee has just three more home runs than the Giants but has put up 62 more runs, despite collecting 12 fewer hits, two fewer doubles, and two fewer triples.

Their secret? They force a ton of walks and make teams pay when they get runners in scoring position. The Brewers have the highest on-base percentage (.405) and batting average (.302), along with the second-highest OPS (.886), with runners in scoring position.

Given how scarce the free passes have been so far for San Francisco, getting sharper with runners in scoring position could be the first step toward building a credible offense. The Giants currently rank 13th in batting average (.254), last in on-base percentage (.301), and 23rd in OPS (.687) in those situations.

In an ideal world, the Giants' power hitters simply start hitting the ball hard. But if that doesn't happen or, more realistically, doesn't happen for a few more weeks, they have to find a way to put up runs and win games. In his postgame presser following the Giants' latest 3-0 loss, Tony Vitello appeared to be out of answers.

"If I did (have an answer), I would say it. We certainly have tried some things, haven't tried everything, so all ideas are welcome, no matter where they come from".

They need to find some answers soon otherwise 2026 is going to be a very, very long year.

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