L to R: San Francisco Giants infielder/DH Rafael Devers, outfielder Heliot Ramos, outfielder Jung Hoo Lee, and infielder Willy Adames during photo day at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
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L to R: San Francisco Giants catcher Partick Bailey, outfielder Harrison Bader, infielder Luis Arraez, and infielder Matt Chapman during photo day at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Infielder/DH Rafael Devers during photo day for the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Outfielder Heliot Ramos during photo day for the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Outfielder Harrison Bader during photo day for the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Infielder Luis Arraez during photo day for the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Infielder Matt Chapman during photo day for the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
In a decidedly mediocre 2025 season, the San Francisco Giants offense was also meh last year. The lineup boasted no single skill that separated itself from the rest. There were no red-flag flaws either; at various points the offense was clutch, struck out too much, flashed power and couldn’t buy a hit with runners on.
The highs and lows added up to a forgettable campaign. The Giants had 97 weighted runs created-plus (or wRC+); that’s a statistic that weighs offensive production compared to the average where 100 is the average. Finishing just below average summarizes a group that lacked reliable strengths.
On paper, the 2026 offense under manager Tony Vitello and a new coaching staff can be better. Here’s a look at key factors that can get them there.
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A full season of Rafael Devers: He’s one of the best hitters in baseball. And the Giants have only gotten a taste of what he can do.
“I think we have a really good lineup, we can compete with anyone,” Devers said earlier this spring, with team interpreter Erwin Higueros translating. “Our lineup is scary.”
The Giants have long needed a true superstar in the lineup. Buster Posey went out and got one for a manageable, disgruntled star price.
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Devers is the primary reason to believe the Giants can field a more explosive offense this year. He hit 35 home runs last year, most of which came during his half-season with the Boston Red Sox. He averages 33 home runs a year and displays the easy power not seen on the shores of McCovey Cove since Barry Bonds.
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He is the type of player who has been ranked among the top hitters in baseball since his debut in 2018 and projections indicate the 29-year-old won’t slow down much at Oracle Park.
The Szymborski Projection System (ZiPS) at FanGraphs estimates he’ll hit .257/.356/.474 with 30 home runs. Devers posted a career-high 15.4% walk rate last year, and ZiPS estimates that he’ll regress to 12.6%. Last year, he had a .365 weighted on-base average (wOBA) – a statistic that weighs offense based on how impactful the outcome is – and projections have him at .354 in 2026.
Heliot Ramos and his underlying metrics: Ramos didn’t quite build off his 2024 All-Star season last year. He was still productive, hitting 21 home runs, posting a .319 wOBA (his 2024 clip was .339) while playing nearly every day. But there are reasons to believe he can have a more noticeable impact in 2026.
Ramos attributes his bad stretches at the plate last year as a ripple effect from his defensive miscues, affecting his overall play. He made baserunning blunders and said he was pressing at the plate for good chunks of the year.
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Underlying metrics show Ramos has a lot more pop in his bat than shown in 2025, too. It breaks down into three key stats. His 91.8 mph average bat speed is in the league’s 87th percentile, his 47.4% hard-hit rate was in the 76th percentile and his 74 mph average bat speed is in the 77th percentile. That jumble of numbers goes to show that Ramos has a potent swing. Of course, results matter, but Ramos has also already shown that he can deliver.
What the new guys bring: The Giants didn’t top their Devers trade and make splashy additions in the offseason, but Harrison Bader and Luis Arráez fill two big gaps on last year’s team.
San Francisco Giants infielder Luis Arraez, left, and outfielder Harrison Bader
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San Francisco Giants infielder Luis Arraez, left, and outfielder Harrison Bader
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Arraez is a throwback bat-to-ball hitter, the type of player the Giants needed more of last year with runners on. He won three batting titles. His contact skill balances a lineup that skews towards power reliant with Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman.
Bader is a defensive anchor in center, but the adjustments he made last year in the box post-surgery had him hitting better than ever last year with Philadelphia. The hope is that he can be more than just a Gold Glove-caliber defensive upgrade.
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Is Jung Hoo Lee used to this?The big leagues have a different workload than the Korean Baseball Organization, where Lee spent most of his baseball life. MLB travels more (and farther), the season is longer and Lee was balancing a different work life on top of adjusting to living in a new culture.
The changes caused him to lose weight and run out of steam toward the second half last year, overshadowing his hot April and May. He had to take several days off to stay afloat as the season wound down.
Outfielder Jung Hoo Lee during photo day for the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Lee says he’s changing his daily schedule, eating at different times of the day to keep his body well fueled. With another year under his belt to familiarize himself with MLB pitching and how opponents approach him, this is the year it should all come together.
Can Adames have a good start?Adames’ debut season in San Francisco was disappointing, especially initially, which he salvaged somewhat with a magnificent show of power in August and September to wind up with a 30-homer year.
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Having starred in domed parks before for Tampa Bay and Milwaukee, Adames needed to learn how to hit in the Oracle Park elements, dealing with the thick marine layer that has frustrated hitters for more than 25 years. Now, with Devers aboard and his own first year with the team behind him, the pressure to perform up to the seven-year, $182 million contract is lessened, slightly.
“You go into the offseason, you are going to work hard and make adjustments,” Adames said this spring. “This is going to be my second year now. I don’t have to impress anybody. They all know me and now I’m more adjusted to the city, the stadium. Now I know a little more about how everything works in San Francisco. I know I don’t have to change my swing, the ball is going to fly. It’ll be harder in Milwaukee or Cincinnati, but the ball will still fly when you hit it.”
Infielder Willy Adames during photo day for the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
The question with Adames is whether he’s still able to hit as well as he did in 2024, or if that was an outlier year for the shortstop. He posted a .251/.331/.462 line and a .794 OPS with 21 stolen bases in that season with Milwaukee. Last year, he finished with a .225/.318/.421 line and .740 OPS for the Giants, but in his last 95 games he hit .248/.344/.504. The signing looks a lot better if Adames can do that over a full season.
Who is the designated hitter? The DH duties will rotate initially, Vitello said, which means whoever makes up the bench could see a fair bit of time here. Devers and Wilmer Flores were the primary DHs last year and the results were decent, producing a .333 wOBA, good for 14th in MLB at the position.
Matchups may dictate how Vitello staffs the slot. Among roster hopefuls, that could mean at-bats for Casey Schmitt (projected .308 wOBA) and outfielder Jerar Encarnacion (projected .306 wOBA). Devers could slide into the position every so often, but who sticks between outfielders Luis Matos, Drew Gilbert, Will Brennan and Jared Oliva will impact how the DH slot gets used.
Patrick Bailey, clutch hitter? Bailey can get overlooked because his defense is undeniably his strength. Advanced metrics estimated Bailey to be the most valuable defensive player in baseball, primarily because of the way he frames pitches to steal strikes. But his defense couldn’t completely hide his issues at the plate last year; his average fell to .188 the day before he hit his stunning inside-the-park, walk-off homer.
Catcher Partick Bailey during photo day for the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
But that moment pointed to Bailey’s strength: He’s pretty good in clutch situations. FanGraphs’ “clutch” statistic determines how much better a player performed in high-leverage situations compared to normal ones, and that metric had Bailey as the most clutch everyday Giant last year. (Dominic Smith, Flores, Matos and Christian Koss ranked above him, but played fewer games.)
New hitting coach: Fairly or not, hitting coaches get the brunt of blame when offenses sputter. New hitting coach Hunter Mense replaced Pat Burrell and comes from the Toronto Blue Jays, where he served as an assistant hitting coach for a team that dominated with their contact-hitting ability. That World Series-bound squad rarely struck out, put the ball in play productively. Mense says a large part of that was the team’s pre-game preparation for opposing pitchers.
“I think you can create a lot more contact, or contact skills start to play up a little bit, when the game’s planned really well,” Mense said earlier this spring.
“We would always have ways or knowledge of ways to — if this ball needs to be put in play, what’s the swing that you need to take to be able to put this ball in play? This ball needs to be driven out of the yard, what’s the type of swing that you need to impart to drive the ball out of the yard? So I think it was just helping them to build the Rolodex of swings that are needed within the game.”