When I turned them back on, the Giants were a completely different team than the one I was expecting. The Giants are tied for the second-highest batting average in baseball now. They scored 12 runs or more in three separate games last week, and the last time they did that was all the way back in August 2025<\/a>. That\u2019s not a meaningless comparison, either, as that was right around the time last season that the Giants started looking like an above-average offensive team. If they start looking like that again, two months ahead of last year\u2019s schedule, they could build some actual momentum. A month or so too late, but still.<\/p>\n Here are some scattered thoughts from a Giants writer who was frozen in carbonite on May 30 and only now is thawed out. It\u2019s been an interesting couple of hours on Baseball-Reference<\/a>, to be sure.<\/p>\n The 2026 Giants are finally the team we were expecting. Now what?<\/p>\n The 2026 Giants have a streaky, imperfect and perfectly capable lineup. They have enough offensive talent to contend, which means they have enough offensive talent for a deep October run. After a brutally slow start at the plate, they\u2019re returning to form.<\/p>\n Even if it weren\u2019t too late to save the season, which it probably is, all this does is highlight what a lousy offseason the Giants had. They went into the offseason with clear, unambiguous needs<\/a>, and they whiffed on them. They chose two starting pitchers, and they\u2019ve both been disasters. And while I agreed with them that it\u2019s silly to spend money on premium relievers<\/a>, there certainly could have been a more proactive and trustworthy plan than \u201csign a bunch of minor-league free-agent relievers.\u201d The Giants started the season with a ramshackle, three-lefty bullpen that led to Ryan Borucki facing Aaron Judge five batters into his season, and it\u2019s been a series of frustrations since then.<\/p>\n The Giants\u2019 homegrown rotation options (Landen Roupp, Trevor McDonald) have offered mostly positive contributions, which is dandy, but that just reminds us that the Giants needed more help toward the front of the rotation, not the back.<\/p>\n So if the Giants can actually hit baseballs like they\u2019ve been hitting them lately, it will be a bittersweet development. Yes, it will be entertaining to watch a lineup that pitchers have to plan for. But it will only make the pitching pitfalls feel much, much worse than they had to.<\/p>\n Lee and Eldridge could salvage the season on their own<\/p>\n Before the season, my annual doom-and-gloom preview<\/a> posed a bunch of spooky hypothetical scenarios that mostly came true. Sorry about that. It\u2019s been a season bad enough to call the whole operation into question, all the way to the top. The hitters with long-term contracts, to a man, struggled horribly to start the season. Everything was looking like a worst-case scenario, and it all stunk so badly that even a lengthy stretch of hot baseball wouldn\u2019t get them back into contention.<\/p>\n If, however, the Giants can go into 2027 with reasonable, realistic hopes that Jung Hoo Lee and Bryce Eldridge have All-Star potential, it would go a long way toward salvaging this season. That would give them a pair of 20-somethings to dream big on, which is the quickest way to pacify fans after a dreadful season. There\u2019s no cure like young talent.<\/p>\n On May 30, Eldridge had a .192 batting average, a .295 on-base percentage and a single home run in 61 chances. That might be the last time in his career that he\u2019s under the Mendoza line, though, as he\u2019s hit .433\/.485\/.633 since then, and his doubles are likely to start turning into home runs. Remember that when Judge was Eldridge\u2019s age, he was hitting against the San Jos\u00e9 State Spartans, not Jacob Misiorowski.<\/p>\n \n Jung Hoo Lee is playing at an All-Star level at the moment. (Michael Reaves \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n As for Lee, it\u2019s probably fair to define what \u201cAll-Star potential\u201d means\u00a0for him, and the answer is that you\u2019re probably looking at it. A high average. Lots of doubles. Helmets flying off his head. Helmets flying onto his head. It\u2019s a wild ride, and if it keeps up for the rest of the month, he has a good shot at making the All-Star team. If he keeps it up all season, the Giants will have an enviable foundation to build around, just as the prospects start to trickle up to the majors.<\/p>\n Easy, there. Let\u2019s start with the first one, where Lee keeps it going for the rest of June. He\u2019s had hot streaks<\/a> before, after all. But it\u2019s still worth remembering that he was more of a prospect than a fully formed veteran when the Giants got him, with plenty of seasoning still required. If he starts thwacking the ball around like his childhood idol, Ichiro, even a little bit, you might not remember the 2026 season as the one that fell into the toilet. You might remember it as the one where the Giants\u2019 future identity started to emerge.<\/p>\n (Wait until at least June to take a victory lap for either player, of course. I can\u2019t stress that enough.)<\/p>\n The Kyle Harrison start should be released on Criterion Edition Blu-Ray and 4K (with commentary tracks and other bonus features)<\/p>\n![\"Jung](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2280064408-scaled.jpg\")
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