What do the SF Giants do with a pair of struggling veterans?

The short answer is nothing. Rafael Devers and Willy Adames are off to brutal starts for the SF Giants in 2026, but the only real course of action might be to ride this out until things improve.

What to the SF Giants do with a pair of struggling veterans?

Devers has a .540 OPS with two home runs and 11 RBI in 132 plate appearances. He has a strikeout rate north of 30 percent in a Giants uniform, and no one seems to have an answer. 

The left-handed bat was an elite hitter during his nine-year run with the Boston Red Sox. However, he has put up a .737 OPS in 527 plate appearances with San Francisco, which is more fine than good.

On the other hand, Adames got off to a quality start but his overall numbers have cratered over the past few weeks. He now has a .594 OPS with three home runs and six RBI in 132 plate appearances. 

Similar to Devers, Adames has an extremely high strikeout rate at 31.1 percent. It is a frustrating trend for someone who has better contact skills than that.

Not surprisingly, the Giants' offense goes through those two, along with Matt Chapman. If they struggle, so will the rest of the offense. The Giants’ offense is near the bottom in every meaningful category.

The Giants do not have an answer for the slumping veterans. Maybe there is no answer at all but to wait it out.

They do not have any alternatives they can lean on while Devers and Adames work through their struggles. Sure, they could use Jerar Encarnación in place of Devers for a few games. However, Encarnación continues to struggle and it feels like that is an experiment that is nearing its end.

The Giants could bring up Bryce Eldridge and move Casey Schmitt into a super utility role. However, Tony Vitello has not shown much of a desire to mix up the lineup in his young tenure with the Giants.

Christian Koss could fill in to give Adames a day off. However, he has barely seen the field in 2026, so it feels like that is not an option. 

The Giants do not have any alternatives, and they did not really plan for that either. In football, if the quarterback goes down, then the team is out of luck. The front office could very well view it that way with Adames and Devers.

However, this is not football. Good teams prepare for injuries and underperformance. This is not to say that the Giants could or should have an alternative for Devers or Adames. They should have a stopgap option to hold them over for a few games, but they do not even have that. One of the problems with wanting a fixed roster and a fixed lineup is that it really limits flexibility for times like this. 

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