- Position
- 3B
- Number
- #26
- Age
- 33
- Pieces here
- 21
On the record
Called Shots →Neither Willy Adames nor Matt Chapman is traded by the August 3, 2026 deadline.
None of Willy Adames, Matt Chapman or Rafael Devers is traded by the August 3, 2026 deadline.
The Giants transfer Matt Chapman to the 60-day injured list at some point before the end of the 2026 regular season.
Matt Chapman hits 20 or more home runs in the 2027 regular season.
Shay Whitcomb is still on San Francisco's 40-man roster on Opening Day 2027.
Matt Chapman starts at third base for the Giants on Opening Day 2027.
Rafael Devers starts more games at first base than as designated hitter for the San Francisco Giants in the 2027 regular season. Scored off the league's own fielding game log for personId 646240, 2027 regular season games only: games STARTED at first base against games STARTED as designated hitter. RIGHT if first-base starts are strictly greater. WRONG if they are equal or fewer. Games he does not appear in do not count on either side. If San Francisco plays fewer than 40 regular-season games in 2027, score it off the games actually played and say so.
San Francisco finishes the 2027 regular season ranked in the bottom ten of the thirty major league clubs in team OPS against left-handed pitching, meaning 21st or worse.
Written about him
The Giants are building 2027 on seven players, and two of them held up
Nothing the Giants announced at their season-end news conference moves any of the seven players the club is building 2027 on: Rafael Devers, Bryce Eldridge, Logan Webb, Landen Roupp, Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Jung Hoo Lee. Measured against what next season asks of each, two of them delivered in 2026, and they are the two who split first base and designated hitter. Devers and Eldridge drew 128 walks in 1,081 plate appearances; every other Giant drew 321 in 4,980, a 6.4 percent rate against 8.9 for the majors. The other five each have to recover a specific thing from 2025: Webb's innings and strikeouts, Roupp's walk rate, Adames's defense at shortstop, Chapman's bat and Lee's walk rate. Adames went from +5 Outs Above Average to -17, and of 12 qualified shortstops since 2017 who fell to -10 or worse and stayed at the position, three got back to zero. Lee can opt out of his contract after 2027. One Called Shot filed.
Posey starts the winter with the bullpen, and the rotation lost more
At the season-end news conference on September 29, Buster Posey took the blame for the bullpen and said the club's offseason work starts there, with the rotation right behind it. The 2026 record explains why the bullpen is first in line: 16-29 in one-run games, and a relief corps whose strikeout-minus-walk rate beat only two clubs. The 2027 supply says the rotation has the bigger hole. Of 162 starts, 39 went to Robbie Ray and Tyler Mahle, both traded at the deadline, and 31 went to Trevor McDonald, Blade Tidwell and Carson Whisenhunt, whose elbows put their returns at late 2027 or 2028. The lineup the club intends to keep drew 449 walks, the fewest in the majors, and owes $451 million from 2027 on to Rafael Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman. The same week, MLB Pipeline named San Francisco its Farm System of the Year. No take filed.
The last time Rafael Devers played third base, an umpire put him there
Rafael Devers played third base in every one of his first eight major league seasons, 951 games in all, and has played nine innings there since. All nine came on September 2, 2025 at Coors Field, after home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi ejected Matt Chapman in the top of the first and Devers moved across the infield. He handled three chances, threw all three to first base and has not played the position again. In February 2025 he told reporters at Red Sox spring training that third base was his position. In March, Alex Cora announced on WEEI that Alex Bregman would play there and Devers would be the designated hitter. In May, after Triston Casas was lost for the season, Devers declined a request to play first base and said Boston had told him to put his glove away. Boston traded him to San Francisco on June 15, 2025. He made his first career start at first base on July 22 at Atlanta, wearing a glove he said he had ordered on his second day with the Giants. He played 100 games at first base in 2026 and was the designated hitter in 48, carrying a core muscle injury the club says he chose to keep playing through, and finished with 37 home runs and 98 RBIs in 148 games. One take filed.
Rafael Devers Is Done For The Year, And The Paperwork That Says So Is Also A Call-Up
San Francisco placed Rafael Devers on the 60-day injured list on Sunday with a core muscle injury, and the league's roster system carries his status as Injured 60-Day. With 13 games left on the schedule the designation ends his season by the calendar, whatever Monday's consultation with a Philadelphia specialist recommends. The club's 40-man roster held 40 of 40 before the move and 40 of 40 after it: the transaction that closed Devers's year is the transaction that made room for Scott Bandura, whose contract was selected from Sacramento the same day. Devers hit .258 with a .340 on-base percentage and a .525 slugging percentage across 148 games, with 37 home runs, 98 RBI and 36 doubles, which ties him with three other hitters for the major league lead. He homered in each of his last two games. He is the 16th man on this club's 60-day list and the second infielder it has moved there to end a season, after Matt Chapman in August. Seven contract years remain. One take filed at -160.
Losing Willy Adames Costs The Giants A Third Baseman, Not A Shortstop
Six men have started a game at third base for San Francisco in 2026. Matt Chapman made 82 of those starts and has not played since June 30; Casey Schmitt made 24 and has not played since July 27. Both had surgery in the following days and MLB's injury page gives both an expected return of 2027. Christian Koss has held the job since July 28, but he has also started nine games at shortstop since July 1, and on every one of those days somebody else played third: Schmitt once, Buddy Kennedy five times, Shay Whitcomb three. Kennedy and Whitcomb were both claimed off waivers this month, from Seattle on August 2 and Houston on August 13, and Kennedy was designated for assignment on Thursday after going 4 for 33 with four singles. Willy Adames received a PRP injection in his sprained left elbow on Thursday; Tony Vitello said three or four weeks of rest and the club's injury page says a four-week minimum, which lands on September 24 against a last scheduled game of September 27. Koss and Whitcomb have drawn six walks in 159 plate appearances between them this season, against 74 in 857 for Chapman and Adames. Three takes filed, on Adames, on Koss at shortstop and on a seventh third baseman.
The Best Giants At Oracle Park In July 2028 May Be In The Futures Game
Major League Baseball awarded San Francisco the 2028 All-Star Game on Friday, the city's fourth and its first at Oracle Park since 2007. The Giants are 50-72 and spent the deadline turning veterans into prospects. Four of their five Baseball America Top 100 prospects are in Single-A or below, and on the reported date of the game the two that shop ranks highest will be 20 and 19 years old. The men actually under contract that summer are Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Logan Webb, and Webb's deal expires that year.
The Paperwork Still Says Abdominal Strain
Chapman finishes 2026 at 84 games, a .692 OPS and seven home runs, with four seasons still to run on his contract. Four men have started at third base since he left, and the newest arrived on a waiver claim the same day his season formally closed. The 2027 question is not whether he is the third baseman. It is who the Giants think the alternative is.
San Francisco Claimed A Third Baseman Thursday. The Roster Spot Came From An Elbow.
San Francisco claimed Shay Whitcomb off waivers from Houston on Thursday and optioned him to Triple-A Sacramento, opening the roster spot by transferring Trevor McDonald to the 60-day injured list. Nothing about McDonald's elbow changed Thursday. It was rebuilt on August 5. The transfer was a piece of paperwork the club had been able to file for eight days and filed the moment it wanted something.
Matt Chapman Played Most Of This Season With A Hernia
A second MRI this week confirmed a core muscle injury, and MLB.com's Maria Guardado reports a hernia that hampered Chapman throughout the year. He batted 224 times in April and May without a home run. Whether those two facts are connected is a question this site can raise and cannot answer, and the difference matters.
San Francisco Sold Everything It Was Allowed To Sell
The Giants moved Mahle, Arraez, Ray, Ramos and Erik Miller and got eight players back, one of whom matters. What they did not move is the story: Adames and Chapman each hold a full no-trade clause, which means the salary relief everyone was pricing was never actually on the market. Plus an honest accounting of six deadline calls filed here on Sunday, two of which were right.