SF Giants have shown subtle improvement in area where they have lagged for years

Over the past few seasons, the SF Giants have ranked near the bottom in stolen bases. While they are still in the bottom third of that category, there has been a subtle improvement.

For the past few seasons, the Giants' front office has aimed to get faster and more athletic, and for the past few seasons, they have not reached that goal. Stolen bases have slumped so badly that individuals have recorded more steals than the Giants did as a team in recent years,

In 2023, Ronald Acuña Jr. of the Atlanta Braves and Esteury Ruiz of the A's swiped 73 and 67 bases, respectively. As a team, the Giants finished in last place with 57 steals that year. Thairo Estrada had a commanding team lead with 23 stolen bases. There was a valiant battle for second place, as both Michael Conforto and Blake Sabol stole four bags apiece. Four!

That will not happen this time around. Nasim Nuñez of the Washington Nationals leads baseball with 49 steals, and the Giants have bested that mark by a comfortable margin.

They are also comfortably not in last place as well. That is a step in the right direction. The Giants have swiped 84 bases in 2026, which is 22nd in baseball. That is bad, but not nearly as bad as the Houston Astros, who will likely not reach 50 steals as a team this year.

Plus, the Giants have been successful in 77 percent of stolen base attempts, so they have a healthy success rate. There is also a case to be made that they could afford to be more aggressive.

SF Giants rookie outfielder has led the way with modest turnaround on the bases

Of course, Jonah Cox's emergence has played a huge role in this turnaround. He comfortably leads the team with 15 steals, and his 11 steals over the past 30 days are tied with Chander Simpson of the Tampa Bay Rays for the league lead in that category.

Jung Hoo Lee and Luis Arráez recorded 12 and 10 steals, respectively. Arráez did not get thrown out in any of his attempts. Casey Schmitt had nine steals in 10 chances, so he likely would have reached 15 steals if he had not missed the final two months of the year due to a knee injury. In fact, Schmitt has the speed to be a modest volume base stealer.

The Giants are not a base-stealing threat by any means, but there has been improvement. A small improvement is still an improvement!

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