Three biggest SF Giants contracts are still failing to live up to expectations

The SF Giants had looked better coming into Tuesday's contest in Philadelphia, but after another shutout loss it is becoming more and more clear that the Giants have a lot of money tied up in players who are underperforming.

A whole lot of things have changed since the Philadelphia Phillies and Giants last met earlier this month. But the most significant shake-up happened a few hours before the first pitch of the Giants' 7-0 loss, when Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski decided to part ways with manager Rob Thomson as a result of an ugly start to the season.

The Phillies entered Tuesday's series opener with a 9-19 record and had just snapped a 10-game losing streak, their longest since September 1999. And as often in sports, the manager bore the brunt of that rough stretch, even when said manager has brought the team to the postseason in each of his four seasons and boasts the best winning percentage (.568) by a Phillies manager since the 19th century.

"The vibe I've gotten since I've been here is it's chaos," Tony Vitello said in his pregame interview.

Usually when a team gets rid of its manager on game day, the expectation would be for the opponent to take advantage of the turmoil. On Tuesday night, the Giants looked like the ones most impacted by the news.

Jesús Luzardo, who entered the game with a 6.91 ERA, tossed seven dominant shutout innings — becoming the first Philly starter to make it through seven innings this season. The Phillies' bullpen took over and held it down over the final two innings. The Giants managed just two hits — their second-lowest total this season — and failed to put up a run for the sixth time this year. Their sixth scoreless outing last season came on May 31, in Game 58. This season, it happened just a month into the year, in Game 29.

Vitello chalks up some of that lack of production to the attention to details and the psychological side of the game, though he didn't see much of that Tuesday night.

"I'd say lack of communication, emotions dropping, and guys looking up at the scoreboard, and wondering if we can come back or not. That was an issue early on. They may say different but I didn't see that tonight and I haven't felt it in the while," Vitello revealed postgame.

The Giants have shown the strength of character to claw back into games this season. Their comeback win against the Marlins last week was their fourth of the year. The largest one happened in Washinghton, when the Giants overcame a four-run deficit to win it in extra innings. The common theme about all those come-from-behind victories is that the rally took place before the sixth inning. As a matter of fact, following Tuesday's 7-0 loss, the Giants are now 0-14 when trailing after the sixth.

Power was the catalyst in those rallies. It was a Heliot Ramos two-run home run that tied the game against the Nationals. Casey Schmitt's three-run shot broke the tie in their win against the Marlins. So when the lineup's biggest threats — and highest-paid players — aren't holding up their ends, it becomes much harder to piece together a real comeback bid, if any.

Three highest-paid SF Giants players continue to struggle offensively

Matt Chapman entered the game 7-for-23 with a couple of doubles in the six games he's played on his birthday. However, his 33rd will probably end up as one of his worst from a baseball standpoint, as he went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts last night. He's collected just three hits over his last 21 at-bats, with his home run count still stuck at one 29 games into the season. Around the same time last year, it was already up to five, which would lead the Giants right now.

Meanwhile, Rafael Devers' slow start is looming larger by the game. He's gone 1-for-17 over his last five games and his 37 strikeouts are the seventh-most in the National League. Both his 30.8% strikeout rate and 5.0% walk rate would be career worsts. Adding to the frustration, he now owns the third-lowest fWAR in baseball at -0.7, trailing only Nationals pitcher Zack Littell (-0.8) and Pirates designated hitter Marcell Ozuna (-0.8). The stat looks even worse when considering that Devers is making $11.5 million more this season than Ozuna and Littell combined.

Fresh off his first day off this season and out of the leadoff spot, Willy Adames still hasn't found his way out of his now usual early-season funk. He's gone hitless in his last 24 at-bats and is just 1-for-30 (.033) with 14 strikeouts over his last six games. In 2025, his OPS didn't reach and top the .700s before he finally caught fire in July. But despite the streaky start, Vitello is confident Adames will figure it out.

"I talked with a Hall of Fame hitter and even showed him a couple of video clips after our early hitting of Willy swinging and just talked through it. It's maybe as good as he's swung the bat", Vitello said on Adames' recent struggles. "I got full confidence he'll come back tomorrow and, you know, once a bloop hit falls, or you see one and you get it, it's kinda like before with him and some of our other guys, then it kind of feeds itself, and you know, gets the right way."

The way those three have performed over the last week or so makes that three-series winning streak even more impressive. The Giants averaged just over 4.3 runs per game during this nine-game stretch and still managed to pull out series wins against the Nationals, Dodgers, and Marlins — two top-four offenses and a capable one. Their pitching staff has been the driving force behind that success. They came into the game with a 2.84 ERA since April 16 while holding opponents to a .194 batting average. So once Tyler Mahle lost his command in the sixth, it was basically game over.

Mahle had just displayed his best stuff as a Giant against the Dodgers, holding them scoreless through seven innings and limiting them to just three hits. After cruising through the first three innings against Philadelphia, Mahle found himself with the bases loaded and just one out. He ended up minimizing the damage to just one run, but the 25 pitches he threw in the inning might have contributed to his ensuing collapse.

He entered the sixth inning having allowed just three total hits. Then, Trea Turner collected his third hit of the night, and Kyle Schwarber drew his second walk of the game. This time, Bryce Harper and Adolis Garcia didn't let the opportunity slip away. Their consecutive doubles drove in three runs, eventually bringing Mahle's night to an abrupt end. Alec Bohm made matters worse by driving in another run off reliever Matt Gage — the fourth run of the inning and the fifth charged to Mahle, who saw his ERA rise to 5.87.

"Just got to be better. Can't lose it like that, especially when you're facing the top of a lineup. You got to make pitches. I just put myself in too many bad situations there," Tyler Mahle said of his sixth-inning loss of command. "None of my pitches were anywhere close to the strike zone. I was trying to throw them competitive pitches and they weren't finding their spots."

Cristopher Sanchez will be on the mound Wednesday to take on Logan Webb. The Giants managed 11 hits for four runs in their first meeting against the lefty this season. But if they want to have a chance to string together a fourth straight series win, they'll need contributions from their top dogs.

All three players mentioned above have had success against Sanchez in their careers. Chapman is 7-for-11 with two doubles and a home run, Devers is 5-for-11 with a triple, and Adames is 4-for-13 with three doubles and two walks.

"It's not the end of the world that we lost this one, you know, we come back tomorrow, get a W tomorrow and then we're right back on track."

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