I asked ChatGPT to produce this. I didn’t dare use a real picture of the real team that won. Not sure why they all look like brothers with the same facial hair.
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The MLB season is officially over, and it ended in agonizing fashion with the Dodgers squeaking out their second consecutive championship over a Toronto Blue Jays team that just couldn’t put the nail in the coffin. We beat the dead horse that should have been a ring for Toronto, but before that, we break down Tony Vitello’s presser at Oracle, Gold Glove wins for Bailey and Webb, and some new coaching hires. We’ll be back periodically throughout the offseason as news breaks, but thank you for your continued support as we close out season 15 of the TortureCast.
The Pirates celebrate their sweep over the Giants after a 2-1 victory in 10 innings on Wednesday, July 30. Photo by AP.
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After the Giants defeated the Dodgers on June 13, they were tied for first place in the NL West with LA and held the 4th best record in baseball. Since that time, they have been the worst team in baseball (yes, even worse than the Colorado Rockies), going 13-26 and plummeting out of the playoff race. They had an 0-6 homestand, something the Giants haven’t done since 1898! They’ve lost 12 of 14. They are nine games out of the west and six behind in the wild card. They also have the worst record since the Devers trade. So, what went wrong? How did one of the best teams in baseball in mid-June suddenly implode? You can certainly point to situational hitting. The Giants went 0-22 with runners in scoring position during the Mets sweep at home. Untimely bullpen moves seems to be Melvin’s calling card, yet he was signed to a one year extension in the middle of this slump. Pitching has gotten worse with a 4.35 team ERA during this stretch, and they’ve been outscored 4.9 to 3.7 on average.
The silver lining to this is that the collapse happened so quickly, that Buster Posey could pivot from being buyers to sellers. They started the sale by trading fan-favorite Tyler Rogers to the Mets for three players. It’s a two-month rental for the Mets and there’s a good chance that the Giants re-sign Rogers for 2026. The deadline is this evening, so we’ll see if the Giants can fleece another desperate team for an arm and maybe this season won’t be a complete waste. The three of us break it down in this eulogy of the 2025 season.
Patrick Bailey is greeted by Casey Schmitt as he crosses home plate after his walk-off inside-the-park homerun against the Phillies on Tuesday night.
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Patrick Bailey’s walk-off inside-the-park homerun on Tuesday night is something that will be burned into Giants’ lore for decades to come. Pagan’s similar feat happened 12 years ago, and we still talk about it. This one was better. We open the episode discussing Bailey’s round-tripper and how the Giants have picked themselves up after a horrific streak to end June. Getting swept at home by the Marlins and losing two of three to the lowly White Sox put them 9 games behind their rivals, but since then, they have won 6 of 8 and the Dodgers have lost 6 in a row, closing the gap to 5 games. Three Giants pitchers were selected to the All Star Game (Webb, Ray, Rodriguez) and the mid-summer classic will feature the ABS challenge system, which is eventually coming to the big leagues. Although Devers has been meddling in mediocrity since coming to SF (.225/2/9), Adames seems to be waking up, hitting .313 with a .910 OPS over the last 2 weeks. Justin Verlander is flummoxed, and although he isn’t having a great year, it’s not catastrophic. Even a pitcher with his stats (4.70 ERA, 1.41 WHIP) should have a couple of wins on a winning team. Yet, he is winless in 15 Giants starts. He’ll tie the MLB record if he doesn’t win his next start. However, the pen has blown 6 leads for him, and he has the second-worst run support of any starting pitcher in the bigs (26 runs in 15 starts). Heading into LA is big. The set up the rotation with Webb, Roupp, and Ray, but the Dodgers counter with May, Ohtani, and Yamamoto. They will be anywhere between 2 and 8 games back of the Dodgers after this series, a huge potential swing.
Buster Posey stands next to his shiny new slugger, Rafael Devers, after the Boston Red Sox traded him to the Giants for Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks, and two prospects. (AP Photo/Jeff Chui)
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In a truly stunning, out-of-left-field event, the Giants traded for slugger Rafael Devers. It really did come out of nowhere, but it’s genesis was the discontent that was brewing in Boston after Devers was not being treated like a franchise player, being promised third base, only to have Alex Bregman usurp it. The Giants gave up relatively little as a price for securing Devers for the next 8 1/2 years. This was not a rental, and often 2 month rentals end up costing teams a LOT more than what the Giants gave up. All told, the Giants traded away Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks, and two prospects. Even the AAV for Devers is under what the market would bear now and certainly what it will bear in several years. Devers is in the prime of his career at age 28. Buster Posey made this happen, and he is the man right now. Eric, Willie, and Chad discuss this blockbuster and can’t find a comp to it in recent Giants history. We are all excited, but if the Giants would just actually perform on the field. After briefly tying the Dodgers for first place in the NL West over the weekend, they have lost 4 in a row and 5 of 6 overall. Let’s hope they snap out of it with the help of their new shiny star.
Mike Yastrzemski gestures to the dugout after he reached second base on an double that drove in two runs in the eighth inning at Colorado to help the Giants win streak reach a season-tying high 7. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
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It’s in the title. The Giants are on a 7-game winning streak, bookended with our recording of 315 during game 1 of the streak and tonight’s recording of 316 during the 7th game of the streak. They’re just 1/2 game back of LA and if they complete the sweep of the Rockies tomorrow, the Giants will go into Chavez Ravine tied for first. This incredible streak started with six consecutive one-run wins and eight consecutive one-run games overall, both franchise records. They haven’t lost since Buster Posey shook up the roster, DFA’ing LaMonte Wade Jr. and calling in some journeymen. Although the new guys haven’t contributed much statistically speaking, something has happened to their ability to come back and hold on to tight games, get knocks in clutch situations in between droughts of hits. Some may call it a lucky streak, but it also shows the strength of the pitching staff and their resolve. Either way, wins are wins, and the Giants are hot. Let’s hope it continues. Oh, and the pope was seen today wearing a White Sox hat, so that was cool.
First baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. was DFA’d on June 4, 2025. He had a .352 on-base percentage in his first four seasons with the Giants, but that fell to .275 this season as the entire offense has struggled. (Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle)
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It must have been somewhat depressing or bittersweet for Buster Posey to make the decision to DFA LaMonte Wade Jr., a consistent player in this lineup that suited up with Posey for the 2021 season when they both performed well and won the NL West as teammates. Yet, it was a move they had to make. The Giants ranked last or near last in all offensive categories at first base. It also serves as a wake-up call for other players that are underperforming this year. The Giants also DFA’d catcher Sam Huff, which is a little puzzling considering he was the NL Pitcher of the Month’s (Robbie Ray) main backstop and brought up two journeymen from Sacramento and signed another free agent journeyman. The Giants were in an incredible streak of 16 games of scoring 4 runs or less, averaging only 2 during that streak, yet their team ERA was an unbelievable 1.77, making them a competitive 7-9. The moves worked, at least for game one, as the Giants roared back from a 5-0 deficit to clip the Padres 6-5 after two heart-wrenching extra-inning losses to their southern rivals. Eric and Chad break it down and even bring in some baseball superstitions that the Giants may want to consider going forward.
Robbie Ray has been the Giants’ best starter in 2025 at 7-0, 2.56 ERA. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
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We are one-third of the way through the season, and it’s episode 314. So, pi. Anyhoo…we are beginning to fear that the Giants are whom they’ve been the last few years, aside from the outlier of the 8-1 start. Since then, they’ve been mediocre. They’re bullpen is the best in baseball, by a lot, but starting has been middle of the pack (aside from Ray and Webb), and their biggest problem is their anemic offense. Only five Giants are hitting above .250, and the rest of the team is below .225. They are in the lower quarter in most offensive stats. The spunk they showed with comeback wins earlier in the year seems to have vacated the bench. The Giants have re-settled on Doval as their closer, Birdsong is in for Hicks, and Harrison is temporarily in for Verlander as he nurses his right pec. Posey said they will mix in more at first base to help the struggling Wade, but Bailey IS their catcher, and Adames is “a dude,” so don’t expect any changes there.
Giants starting pitcher Jordan Hicks hands the ball to manager Bob Melvin during a pitching change in the third inning on Wednesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Oracle Park. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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After an impressive 8-1 start to the season, the Giants have come back to Earth, going 17-18 since and have lost 5 of their last 6. That said, they are only 4 games out of first and hold the final wild card spot, the path that seems most likely for their entry into the postseason. They lost 4 of those 5 games by just one run, and the other by two. They are not getting crushed…just missing. One of the reasons is Jordan Hicks, who has compiled a 6.55 ERA this year and a .293 batting avg against. It’s not just this year…over his last 9 starts last year, he had a 6.44 ERA and his BAA was over .300. We think those 18 starts is a sufficient sample size, and maybe his time as a starter should end. Options? Birdsong first, Harrison next. We also critique LaMonte Wade, Jr. and his anemic offensive stats and hitting metrics. He’s just cold. And his defense ain’t cutting it, unlike Patrick Bailey’s. We chat about how to potentially solve these issues, and Eric has some important and heartfelt words at the end of the episode, so don’t miss that.
Camilo Doval gets pulled after giving up four runs in the 9th to the Yankees. The game went from a 5-3 Giants’ lead to a 7-5 loss. Photo by Brandon Vallance/GettyImages
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The Giants had a good two weeks going, winning 10 of 12 games and getting 2 games north of .500. Until they faced the Yankees. Aaron Judge went off at Oracle, something Giants fans dreamt of a couple of years ago. Except, he did it in Yankee road grey going 6-10 with 3 bombs and even 2 stolen bases. It didn’t help that Camilo Doval blew a 2 run lead in the 9th to complete the Yankee sweep. We look into some of Doval’s metrics, and let’s just say his barrel and hard hit percentage are near the bottom of the league, where it’s traditionally near the top. Perhaps his stuff isn’t moving as much, because the velocity is there. After recording, the Giants went out and lost another heartbreaker to Arizona in walk-off fashion. They have lost 5 in a row and are 3 games below water. Not great, but still within 1.5 games of the wild card.
Chad, Eric, and Willie are actually pretty positive about this team. They ran into the Yankee buzzsaw, but also took 2 of 3 from the best team in the NL, so there’s that. Still, it’s going to be an uphill climb with the piling injuries (Lee out for the year, Wade out for 4 weeks, etc.) and young guys trying to find their place.
Jorge Soler is introduced to the media at Spring Training on February 18, 2024. Photo by Andy Kuno.
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The Giants officially opened up spring training this week, and we had a lot to catch up on. First and foremost, the Giants plugged in some desperately needed power by signing Jorge Soler to a 3 year, $42 million contract. He’s slotted to bat fourth and be the Giants’ primary DH. Zaidi also said that they are essentially “done” with acquisitions and trades for now, although Blake Snell is still sitting out there as a prized free agent, not to mention Matt Chapman and Cody Bellinger. The Giants traded Ross Stripling to Oakland, but their opening day rotation looks a little light. Perhaps the Giants will stand pat with signing Jordan Hicks, who will become a starter after a long stint as a flame-throwing reliever, along with a trio of young starters, until Alex Cobb and Robbie Ray come off the injury shelf. Hey, the Panda is back! But, don’t expect him to make the roster out of spring training. We also talk about numbers, jerseys, and a LOT of 49ers talk.
The TortureCast 