Lack of offseason activity in key roster area led to SF Giants walk-off loss to Cubs

The SF Giants did not do nearly enough to upgrade the bullpen, and that decision continues to haunt them in 2026. The 3-2 walk-off loss on Saturday against the Chicago Cubs was another painful reminder of that, as Tony Vitello ran out of bullpen options late in the game.

Landen Roupp gave the Giants 5.2 quality innings on Saturday. The Giants hoped that he would be able to give them at least six frames, but he ran into some trouble in the bottom of the sixth inning.

This led to Vitello pulling him in favor of Erik Miller. In a vacuum, that was not a bad move in a tight game, and it is hard to imagine the Giants manager maneuvering the bullpen differently on Saturday and getting better results.

This move also meant that the bullpen needed to cover more than three innings. As currently constructed, the Giants bullpen does not have enough leverage options to cover more than three leverage innings.

This led to trouble, as Vitello asked Keaton Winn to get five outs to close out the game. Winn has been the Giants' best reliever this season, but a reliever's effectiveness usually wanes when he is asked to get more than three outs.

Winn gave up a game-tying home run to Pete Crow-Armstrong, and the bullpen eventually lost the game in extra innings. If the Giants had better options available, then it would have been a questionable move to leave Winn in there for more than one inning.

SF Giants did not plan to fail, but failed to plan with bullpen

The alternatives included JT Brubaker, Dylan Smith, Sam Hentges, Tristan Beck, and Carson Seymour. Seymour was likely unavailable after throwing three innings on Friday. It is hard to make the case that any of these options were better than Winn.

The Giants did not lose that game on Saturday. They lost that game in the offseason, when the biggest additions they made to the bullpen were Hentges and Jason Foley, both of whom were coming off major shoulder surgery.

They did not plan to fail, but failed to plan. Buster Posey recently went on KNBR and posited that if the Giants signed Edwin Díaz and he landed on the injured list, the question would shift to why would they invest so much in a reliever.

However, that felt like a weak response. The Giants did not need to sign Díaz or even a high-priced closer. They needed to add more length to the bullpen. Not necessarily a closer. Although, that would have helped.

They just needed more reliable options. Right now, they may have three at best. Vitello tried to stretch his three best relievers to close out the game, but a good bullpen needs much more than that. It gives a manager little bandwidth to manage the bullpen late in games.

Ironically, the Chicago Cubs are a good example of a team that made a lot of healthy additions to the bullpen while not spending all that much. Hoby Milner, Jacob Webb, and Caleb Thielbar were all low-cost additions. They did not overhaul that unit or radically raise the ceiling, but brought in a few options that all offer something a little different.

The Giants did not overhaul the bullpen or raise the ceiling. Instead, they stuck with the status quo, hoping for better results.

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