Thomsen Young

The season ended the way a fifth straight miss ends. Quietly, at home, against the Dodgers, with the booth already saying goodbye.

San Francisco finished 65-97, fourth in the National League West, 35 games behind Los Angeles. The winter argument is not a lineup teardown. It is an arm problem, and Buster Posey owns it.

The Dodgers closed at 100-62. San Diego was second at 91-71. Arizona was third at 86-76. Colorado was last at 58-104. The Giants were eliminated on September 6. They lost the finale at Oracle Park on September 27. One box listing has that game 5-1. A Mercury News account described an extra-innings ending. The confirmed number is the record.

They were 37-44 at home and 28-53 on the road. The last 10 were 2-8. Tony Vitello’s first season produced the third-most losses since the franchise moved west in 1958. The club used 71 players. Seventeen were on the 60-day injured list at the end. Mike Krukow called his last game after 36 years in the booth. There is no October baseball on the schedule. The next date is the offseason.

Rafael Devers was the count that held. He hit .258/.340/.525 with 37 home runs and 98 RBI in 148 games. He led the team in both. He hit 12 home runs in his final 21 games before a core-muscle injury ended the year in surgery. He is under contract through 2033. Bo Davidson’s .350 average led the listed batting marks.

The pitching card does not offer the same sentence. Landen Roupp posted a 4.01 ERA, nine wins, and 143 strikeouts. Logan Webb’s ERA was 4.31, and a blister ended his season. The team line was .245/.306/.400 with 178 home runs. San Francisco ranked 29th in on-base percentage and 30th in walks. Team ERA was 4.33. The bullpen had 30 saves, 29th in the majors.

The storyline that matters next is the rotation, and it is not close.

Robbie Ray and Tyler Mahle were traded. Hayden Birdsong, Carson Whisenhunt, and Trevor McDonald are expected to miss most of 2027 after Tommy John surgery. Blade Tidwell suffered a late UCL sprain. That leaves Webb and Roupp as the two established starters Posey can write in without a caveat. An SI offseason ranking put a proven starter and a second source of innings first, ahead of high-leverage relief.

Camilo Doval struck out three in a September return. That is a bullpen conversation, not a signed closer. The Athletic’s framing is that the position side looks mostly set, with Devers, Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, Casey Schmitt, and Bryce Eldridge expected back. Chapman, Schmitt, and catcher Daniel Susac were among the season-ending surgeries. Eldridge’s year ended after he hit his head at the team hotel in Los Angeles. Jung Hoo Lee’s year ended with a contusion.

The stat note is Devers because the line is finished. Thirty-seven home runs and 98 RBI in 148 games, with a .525 slugging percentage, came on a 65-win club and with an injury that required surgery. That is the offensive number the front office does not have to re-solve. The pitching number is the problem sitting next to it: a 4.33 team ERA, 30 saves, and three Tommy John cases in the same starter group.

Posey has said the Giants can contend in 2027. The sentence only works if April has more than two names he trusts.

If the position side is mostly staying, which inning-eating starter is actually available, and is Doval the closer or a piece of a bullpen that finished 29th in saves?