The Giants are building 2027 on seven players, and two of them held up
Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge drew 128 of the club's 449 walks and share first base and designated hitter. Logan Webb, Landen Roupp, Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Jung Hoo Lee each have to get back something they had in 2025.
Buster Posey summed up the 2026 Giants in one sentence at the season-end news conference on September 29. "I think the easy thing to point to is we walked too many guys when we were pitching, and then we weren't drawing enough walks when we were hitting," he said, according to MLB.com.
Nothing announced that day moves any of the seven players the club is building 2027 on. Posey said he sees Willy Adames's future at shortstop. Matt Chapman at third, Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge at first base and designated hitter, and Jung Hoo Lee in right field are all under contract or club control, and so are Logan Webb and Landen Roupp, the two starters left standing from a rotation that lost 70 of its 162 starts to trades and elbow surgery. The five hitters among them took 2,517 of the club's 6,061 plate appearances in 2026. The two starters made 56 of its 162 starts.
Measured against what next season asks of each one, two of the seven delivered it in 2026. Each of the other five has to get back something he had in 2025.
| Player | Contract | 2026 | What 2027 needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rafael Devers, 1B/DH | Through 2033 | .865 OPS, 37 HR in 633 PA | The same, after core muscle surgery |
| Bryce Eldridge, 1B/DH | Pre-arbitration | .825 OPS, 59 walks in 448 PA | The same over a full season |
| Logan Webb, SP | Through 2028 | 160 2/3 IP, 4.31 ERA, 20.1% strikeouts | 2025's 207 innings and 26.2% |
| Landen Roupp, SP | Pre-arbitration | 155 IP, 4.01 ERA, 11.4% walks | 2025's 9.5% walk rate |
| Willy Adames, SS | Through 2031 | .713 OPS, -17 Outs Above Average | 2025's +5 at shortstop |
| Matt Chapman, 3B | Through 2030 | .692 OPS, +4 Outs Above Average | 2025's .770 OPS |
| Jung Hoo Lee, RF | Through 2029, opt-out after 2027 | .724 OPS, 5.0% walks | 2025's 7.6% walk rate |
The two who held#
Devers hit .258/.340/.525 with 37 home runs in 633 plate appearances. The club placed him on the 60-day injured list on September 13 for core muscle surgery, and its injury report, last updated September 29, says he will be fully ready by spring training. Eldridge, who turned 22 on Tuesday, hit .269/.364/.461 in 448 plate appearances over 107 games.
They are also most of the answer to the hitting half of Posey's sentence. The Giants drew 449 walks in 6,061 plate appearances, the fewest in the majors. Devers drew 69 and Eldridge 59, so the two of them produced 128 walks in 1,081 plate appearances. Every other Giant combined drew 321 in 4,980, a rate of 6.4 percent. The majors as a whole walked 8.9 percent of the time.
The limit on that good news is where the two of them play. Devers played 100 games at first base and 48 as the designated hitter; Eldridge played 41 at first and 66 at DH. The two hitters who held are sharing the two lineup spots that ask the least of a glove. The three who did not play shortstop, third base and right field.
Shortstop#
Adames's season split in two directions at once. At the plate his walk rate fell from 11.7 percent of 686 plate appearances in 2025 to 7.3 percent of 505, and he finished at .230/.289/.424. In the field he went from 0 Outs Above Average with Milwaukee in 2024 and +5 in his first Giants season to -17, tied with Washington's CJ Abrams for the lowest of the 273 qualified fielders at any position. A left elbow sprain put him on the injured list on August 24.
Posey's explanation is his back. "I see his future as a shortstop," he said, as reported by MLB.com's Maria Guardado. "I am hopeful that if he gets into a better place physically, that some of those metrics that you were talking about will move back to what he's done throughout his career."
The record of shortstops who fell this far is not encouraging and not hopeless. In Statcast's fielding data from 2017 through 2025, setting aside 2019 and 2020 because the 60-game season breaks the comparison, 26 qualified fielders whose main position was shortstop posted -10 Outs Above Average or worse. Twelve were qualified at shortstop again the next year, and three of those got back to zero or better: Tim Anderson in 2018, Xander Bogaerts in 2022 and Bobby Witt Jr. in 2023. Eleven of the 26 were qualified the next year at a different position.
That second number is the one the club has to weigh against Adames's interest. He is signed through 2031 and Posey has said shortstop. The Giants' best case is a shortstop who gets back to zero. If he does not, their next-best case is the one the eleven represent, and Guardado has written that the club will likely have to consider moving him to second base or another position "at some point down the line."
Third base and right field#
Chapman's problem is the opposite of Adames's. His glove held, at +11 in 2024 and +4 in each of the last two seasons. His .235/.324/.368 line is the lowest OPS of his ten seasons in the majors, in 352 plate appearances before an abdominal injury that required core muscle surgery put him on the injured list on July 1. The injury report says he will be ready by spring training. He turns 34 on April 28 and is signed through 2030.
Lee played 129 games in right field and hit .276/.320/.404. He struck out in 9.8 percent of his 579 plate appearances, the contact he was signed for, but his walk rate fell from 7.6 percent of 617 in 2025 to 5.0 percent, and he finished at -6 Outs Above Average in right.
His contract carries the one clause among the seven that cuts against the club. Lee can opt out after 2027 with two years and $41 million remaining, according to Spotrac. A Lee who hits in 2027 the way he did in 2026 is a Lee the Giants keep through 2029. A Lee who hits like a pillar is a Lee who can be a free agent at 29, and the season the club needs from him is the same season that makes the opt-out worth using.
The front of the rotation#
Webb threw 216 innings in 2023, 204 2/3 in 2024 and 207 in 2025, the last the most of any pitcher in the majors. In 2026 he made 27 starts and threw 160 2/3 innings around two stints on the injured list, for right knee bursitis in May and a blister on his right middle finger in September. His strikeout rate fell from 26.2 percent of 856 batters in 2025 to 20.1 percent of 668, and his 4.31 ERA is his highest since 2020. Three pitchers reached 200 innings in 2026. Webb is signed through 2028 and turns 30 next month.
Roupp made 29 starts, the most on the staff, and his 155 innings are a career high. He is also the pitching half of Posey's sentence. Roupp walked 75 of the 657 batters he faced, 11.4 percent, the fourth-highest rate among the 65 pitchers who threw 150 innings. In 2025 he walked 9.5 percent of 476.
Posey has named the bullpen as the winter's particular emphasis, according to MLB.com, and the rotation has 70 starts to replace. Both are about the pitchers around Webb and Roupp. Neither is about the lineup around Devers and Eldridge, where three of the five who have to be better are signed through 2029 or later. When the club makes its first position-player move of the winter, will it be a hitter who walks, or a decision to wait for Adames, Chapman and Lee to be what they were in 2025?
Sources: MLB Stats API (2026 team hitting for all 30 clubs; season, year-by-year and fielding-by-position lines for the seven players; pitching leaderboards for 2025 and 2026; the Giants' 40-man roster and transaction log); Baseball Savant (Outs Above Average leaderboards, qualified fielders, 2017 to 2026); MLB.com (season-end news conference, September 29; Maria Guardado, October 9; Giants injuries and roster moves, updated September 29); Spotrac (Giants contracts and Jung Hoo Lee's contract page).
