SF Giants leadership in question again after pitcher's postgame comments

The San Francisco Giants' June from hell continued on Monday. After two PR crises this month that called the team's leadership into question – and failing to handle either of them well – comments made by starter Tyler Mahle after a 5-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks have only brightened the spotlight on the leadership of Tony Vitello and Buster Posey.

Mahle, who was removed in the fifth inning after walking Ketel Marte to load the bases with one out, told reporters after the game that he was on a pitch count of 85 that he had been unaware of. His fourth ball to Marte was his 85th pitch, and reliever Sam Hentges promptly allowed all three inherited runners to score on a Geraldo Perdomo double that gave the Diamondbacks a lead they would not relinquish.

Yikes. Mahle was almost apologetic, saying he "should have realized," but... somebody probably should have told him. Who? I honestly don't know. I have never thought about who, on a Major League Baseball team, has the job of telling the starting pitcher he's on a pitch count, because on a normal Major League Baseball team it would just happen, and you would never have to hear about it. But these are the 2026 San Francisco Giants, and they are not a normal team. They are worse, at just about everything, and the thing they might be the worst at is communication.

Okay, it should be the manager. It definitely should be the manager who tells him, because the manager is in charge of making the pitching changes. It could be the pitching coach or the bullpen coach or the starting catcher, but it should be the manager. The manager definitely knows about the pitch count, so the easiest thing would be for him to just tell the starter. The ordeal reflects poorly on the whole coaching staff and front office, but the blame for this clearly belongs to Tony Vitello.

Hey, maybe he kept it a secret on purpose! Yeah, that's the ticket, it was a secret pitch count! Maybe, Vitello thought, Tyler has a lot on his plate. The last thing he needs to worry about is some silly little pitch count. I'll just tell him about it later, when he gets into trouble in the fifth.

Probably not. The second-most-generous read here would be that Vitello asked another coach to tell Mahle about his pitch count, and that coach dropped the ball. But that feels unlikely too. So maybe the skipper really did think, as Mahle implied, that it was so obvious he would be on a limit it didn't need to be said. That's slightly more plausible, but still not great. And if we rule out the above options, we're left with the most likely "explanation" being that Vitello just plumb forgot about it.

Vitello commented on the matter ahead of Tuesday night's game, saying: "You could do that," meaning tell Mahle the pitch count he's one, "but better to, in my opinion, not have guys peeking up at the Jumbotron or the scoreboard and be locked in.” At least it's an explanation but it is not a very satisfying one.

Mahle controversy is part of a pattern of issues for the Giants

First, after the team's Pride Night controversy, Vitello gave wishy-washy responses to questions about pregame communication with the team's players, while MLB blamed Giants leadership directly for failing to adequately communicate the options available to them. Then, while in the midst of dragging out that debacle, Buster Posey admitted he had not spoken to Rafael Devers after his childlike display in Miami, and Vitello downplayed the need to address the star's outburst (though Devers did apologize to his manager eventually).

As Andrew Baggarly wrote recently for The Athletic, this team has "lost institutional control," and it starts at the top. Mahle's postgame comments are mild enough that, for a different team with a different manager in a different year, they would likely be forgotten within 24 hours. But for a team whose off-field leadership issues have somehow stolen the spotlight from its disastrous on-field performance, this is another controversy that will place management under a microscope.

That leaves us with the questions of what will be done about all of this, and the answer is... probably not much, at least not yet. Buster Posey is almost certainly not going anywhere, and Vitello is unlikely to leave even after this season. The best thing fans can hope for is that these two will learn from the mistakes they have made this year. Both are among the youngest in MLB in their respective roles, so granting them a bit of leeway is not the worst thing. And their performances have not been all bad – Posey has shown a willingness to make big moves to make the team better, and Vitello's quotes are often entertaining in a good way.

While flirting with the worst record in baseball is enough for some fans to call for a full rebuild or house-cleaning, that just does not make sense given the makeup of this team's roster. Vitello and Posey deserve another chance to contend next year, hopefully with a better bullpen. But the repeated leadership issues that surfaced this month have shown that it is more than just the roster that needs to change. This team's leadership needs to get better, and if that doesn't happen by 2027, these two will undoubtedly be on the hot seat.

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