Why the 2025 Giants Went from Contenders to Paper Tigers:

It’s the night of June 13th, 2025, and the Giants have just defeated the Dodgers 6-2 to take sole possession of first place in the NL West. At that point, they were 41-29, playing like a legitimate contender. Since then, however, they are just 18-33, the second-worst record in all of baseball during that stretch. What happened to this team?

Many point to the Rafael Devers trade as the turning point. Acquired on June 15, Devers came in as one of the premier left-handed hitters in baseball, fresh off posting a .401 OBP in Boston, elite by any standard. If you look at his Baseball Savant page, it’s clear he’s still producing. In his first 35 games as a Giant, he hit only .231 with 4 homers and 15 RBIs, but over his last 10 games, he’s posted an .868 OPS. The problem is that the rest of the offense cratered. Since the trade, San Francisco has scored just 132 runs, tied for the fewest in MLB over that span. Devers didn’t break this team; the collapse came from elsewhere.

The real turning point was the pressure of the second half. All the Giants had to do was keep their pre-break pace, and they would’ve been obvious buyers at the deadline. Instead, they stumbled to a 2-10 record coming out of the break, falling under .500 by deadline day. This forced the front office into selling mode, trading two of their top bullpen arms, Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval, and moving Mike Yastrzemski, their longest-tenured player since 2019. Losing Rogers and Doval gutted their late-game reliability; bullpen ERA and high-leverage win probability both spiked after the sell-off, and the team struggled to close out games.

Manager Bob Melvin’s role can’t be overlooked. He has a long track record of managing talented rosters in Oakland and San Diego, but often falls short of deep playoff runs, with only one NLCS appearance to show for it. His bullpen management has been a persistent weakness, and with a depleted relief corps in San Francisco, those flaws were magnified. Under Melvin, the Giants’ situational hitting (OPS in high-leverage spots) and late-inning win percentage both declined sharply post-break, suggesting the team struggled to respond under pressure.

Perhaps the most overlooked culprit in the Giants’ collapse has been their defense, which ranks near the bottom of the league with –7 Outs Above Average and –1 Defensive Runs Saved. Heliot Ramos, despite contributing offensively, has been a consistent liability in the field, with poor jumps and misreads costing the team valuable outs. His most infamous moment came on a routine grounder that he booted in the ninth inning, turning it into a walk-off loss, a play emblematic of his defensive season. Combined with an outfield that struggles to cover ground efficiently, these lapses have magnified the bullpen’s post-deadline struggles and erased any margin for error in tight games.

When you put it all together, offensive stagnation despite a star acquisition, bullpen erosion from deadline trades, horrific defense, and managerial limitations in handling high-pressure stretches, you get the recipe for the Giants’ second-half collapse. The Devers trade didn’t sink them; the inability to withstand the weight of expectations did, which is exactly why they need to fire manager Bob Melvin.

Last fall, I called for the firing of the president of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, and it happened. They hired Buster Posey to replace Farhan, and he has been an excellent recruiter to add talent to a team that desperately needed it. Posey just needs the right man at the helm. Some names to look out for are: Mark Kotsay, Skip Schumaker, Don Mattingly, and maybe even Ryan Vogelsong. These names are some I could see Posey going after, especially his former teammate Ryan Vogelsong. 

This is a massive offseason for Posey. There are a lot of holes on this team; it’s on him to fix it. It’s time for him to show the true team builder he his, and bring winning baseball back to the Bay.