Matt Chapman responds to death threats on social media from SF Giants fans

SF Giants third baseman Matt Chapman has had a rough 2026 season and he recently opened up on the hate and vitriol he has received from people online. Chapman said that he has even received death threats from fans.

“You should see my DMs. It’s people saying, 'I hope your family dies'. People threaten us all the time, I just block it and whatever, I don’t make a big deal about it, but it’s just not cool. I would never do that to anybody,” Chapman said about the hate he has received.

Really, “fan” is not even the right word to use when describing people who threaten professional athletes and their families. Those people are maniacs and even if they are making empty threats, to have that little emotional control over yourself that you’re going to say awful things to people on the internet is just insane and shouldn’t be tolerated.

Chapman also spoke about how hurtful it’s been to see Giants fans quickly turn on him due to his struggles:

“I think the thing that probably bummed me out the most is when people are calling for me to get pushed out of San Francisco…It doesn’t feel good when you feel like people are so quick to turn their back on you.”

It’s understandable that Chapman would feel this way. He has been a solid player the last two seasons and the Giants signed him to an extension at the end of the 2024 season because they felt he was a solid piece they could build around.

Calls to trade Chapman away are not out of bounds, but threats are

Fans, and I mean actual fans who simply care about the team and aren’t making awful threats or being purely hateful, wanting Chapman to be traded or benched aren’t coming at him for personal reasons, it really just has to do with the fact that both Chapman and the team are struggling badly.

It may have been different if Chapman had helped the team win a World Series or make a deep playoff run, but the Giants haven’t made the playoffs since 2021. They’ve only made the playoffs twice since 2014. Fans are restless for a winner so it’s not out of bounds to call for the team to explore trades for not only Chapman, but Willy Adames and Rafael Devers as well since one cannot feel all that great about the team’s future hopes with those three at the core of the roster.

Chapman is hitting .232/.310/.323 with one home run and 19 runs batted in. His drop off in power is really troubling. Some have theorized it has to do with the tough pitchers he’s faced but really Chapman should have at least five homers at this point in the season.

His defense has still been solid and he grades out as one of the better defenders at third base in MLB, but a lot of fans did not like the harsh words he had for Casey Schmitt earlier in the year when he infamously failed to catch the ball, even though Chapman didn’t exactly make a perfect throw.

It’s wrong that people are attacking Chapman in grotesque ways online and he has every right to be upset about that. But unless he starts to turn things around at the plate then the Giants need to have a hard conversation about whether he really is a long-term fit with the team especially with Casey Schmitt having a great season.

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