SF Giants News: Who's coaching first? Vitello complicates Bader's scooter saga

The MLB trade deadline is almost here. Expect a lot of action between now and 4 PM PST on August 3 but there are also some important/interesting non-trade deadline developments going on with the Giants right now. Let’s dive right in.

SF Giants news nuggets on eve of trade deadline

Who is coaching first?

There are more important things going on with the SF Giants right now than who is coaching first base, but you may have noticed that the team’s typical first base coach Shane Robinson hasn’t been out there the last few games and instead it’s been longtime Giants coach Taira Uematsu.

This is not a permanent change. According to Susan Slusser Robinson has just been away from the team due to a family matter so he will probably be back with the team at some point this season. Still, it’s cool to see Uematsu out on the field as a coach. He’s been with the organization for so long, first starting out as a bullpen catcher before eventually being promoted to the coaching staff.

He is the first native Japanese MLB coach in history and the fact that he’s remained with the organization for all these years is just really cool to see. 

We will have to see if there are any coaching changes made after this season. While manager Tony Vitello will probably stay put unless he resigns, some other changes may be in order. Baserunning has been an issue at times for this team and while that doesn’t fall solely on Robinson the team needs to reassess how it coaches running the bases going forward.

Vitello complicates Bader situation 

The Harrison Bader scooter saga just keeps on getting more bizarre. The latest reporting suggests that Bader was out in the wee hours of the morning after visiting several bars and then crashed his scooter into a fire engine. And who said 2026 wasn’t bizarre enough for the Giants?

Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic recently noted that manager Tony Vitello’s comments on the incident to the media could harm San Francisco if they seek to void Bader’s contract due to reckless behavior because Vitello implied that Bader was a long shot to return this season even before the scooter incident.

Baggarly reported that a Giants PR person then clarified that Vitello did not say for sure that Bader is done for the season even though that’s what everyone expects. Perhaps the Giants fear that Bader and his team could argue that he was already shut down for the year so his little 2 AM joyride wasn't all that big of a deal if he felt there was no expectation to return in 2026.

Maybe we are in for a spicy legal drama this offseason in which the Giants try to void Bader’s contract and he denies wrongdoing.

I’m thinking something like A Few Good Men in which Buster Posey yells at Bader, “Harrison Bader, did you drunkenly crash that scooter into the fire engine when you should have been rehabbing your foot?” And then Bader screams, “You’re [bleeping] right I did!”

It might be a slow offseason with a lockout looming so that deranged courtroom drama may be all we have to look forward to. 

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