The Giants are officially eliminated, and these five issues led to their downfall

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The Giants didn’t hit enough or pitch enough or field enough, and they certainly didn’t win enough. But ace Logan Webb said they were plenty good enough.

It’s debatable, of course, but Webb is a team leader who’s always quick to praise teammates and anticipate better days. No more are coming this season because the Giants were eliminated from any playoff possibility Tuesday.

Fittingly, the rubber stamp on another lost season came on a sad night in front of the latest dismayed Oracle Park crowd that witnessed the Giants blow an 8-3 lead and lose 9-8 to the Cardinals after Ryan Walker coughed up two runs in the ninth.

It’s the fourth straight season the Giants will finish without a winning record, and even the lucrative offseason signing of shortstop Willy Adames and stunning mid-June trade for Rafael Devers didn’t make a difference in the standings.

“No offense to the teams we’ve had before, but this is the most talented team I’ve been on,” said Webb, who surrendered three runs in the first inning but then pitched scoreless ball through the sixth. “I think there were a lot of expectations, and it sucks.

“We traded for Devers, and we were excited. It’s kind of hard to pinpoint. When things go wrong, unfortunately, it seems like we’ve let them stay wrong for a long time, and that’s not a very good recipe for success. Unfortunately, it seems like this is four straight years that it’s been like that.”

In the end, the long, streaky, hectic, confusing, captivating, and frustrating run has expired on this once-hopeful team, and the Giants are playing Wednesday’s series finale and the upcoming Rockies series just for the heck of it.

It’s the eighth time in nine years the Giants won’t see the postseason. Webb has been a Giant since 2019, and his only playoff experience came in the wild 2021 season when the Giants raced to 107 wins.

“Look, if there’s one thing about Buster Posey, he’s not OK with losing,” Webb said of the Giants’ president of baseball operations. “I don’t think he’s OK with even being .500. He wants to win. I’m not going to play his job because it’s not my job, but I don’t think he’s OK with this. I don’t think there’s a lot of people OK with this in this clubhouse.”

Webb said by no means were his comments a reflection of the manager, Bob Melvin, or coaching staff. “No. Not at all. At the end of the day, it’s on the players. It’s all of us,” said Webb, adding he wants Melvin to return in 2026. “Yeah, 100%.”

Little matters anymore beyond pride and the pursuit of a .500 record, if that’s a thing. With four games left, the Giants are 77-81, 4 ½ lengths behind the Mets, who did their best to fold in recent weeks only to watch the Giants fold as well – they’ve lost nine of 11 since Patrick Bailey’s walk-off grand slam beat L.A. on Sept. 12, back when they were in a virtual tie with the Mets.

There were many reasons the Giants failed to overtake a field of inconsistent teams eyeing the National League’s final playoff spot. Here are five:

Much was expected right away after he signed a seven-year, $182 million contract, but he struggled at the plate and in the field. He eventually showed noticeable improvement on both sides of the ball, but there’s no denying his .219 batting average through June. He enjoyed a stellar July (.337/.422/.674), but is hitting .198 the past two months. He hit nine homers in August but has been stuck on 28 since Sept. 9.

Adames wasn’t alone. Giants first basemen, despite Devers’ presence, rank 30th in the majors in OPS. Catchers rank 29th, second basemen and right fielders 27th. Overall, the Giants are 23rd.

Webb, the Giants’ first 200-inning, 200-strikeout pitcher since Madison Bumgarner, and Robbie Ray were All-Stars, but there was little consistency everywhere else. Jordan Hicks pitched himself out of the rotation and off the team. Justin Verlander didn’t win his first start until July 23, though he had pitched winnable games and was getting little support.

Landen Roupp won the final rotation job out of spring training but had an ERA north of 5.00 through six April starts before rebounding to post a 2.27 in May, June and July, winning a spot in next year’s rotation. Injuries sidetracked the rest of his season, however. The top pitching prospects didn’t come through – Kyle Harrison was shipped to Boston with Hicks in the Devers trade, and Hayden Birdsong’s meltdown earned him a one-way ticket to Triple-A.

After Tuesday’s loss, the Giants pulled Ray from the rotation (6.47 ERA in last eight starts) and announced JT Brubaker will start Wednesday.

Posey boldly acquired Devers on June 15, one of the game’s elite hitters, two days after the Giants pulled into a first-place tie with the Dodgers. The fan base and clubhouse were thrilled, but the Giants have gone 36-50 since the deal, an alarming development.

The Giants remained in the playoff hunt at the All-Star break at 51-43, then went in the tank and forgot how to win at home. Devers has demonstrated some raw power, homering 18 times in 86 games as a Giant, but he strikes out way too much, at a 35% clip. Both he and Adames have career highs in strikeouts, 188 and 176, respectively. 

Teammates spoke of the challenges of Devers adjusting to a new league, new city, new team, and new position, but hitters of his caliber are supposed to hit in all conditions. His OPS as a Giant is .784, comfortably south of his career mark of .854. The Giants need Devers to be Devers in 2026.

The strength of the team for much of the season, sporting the majors’ lowest ERA, the bullpen lost two key assets at the trade deadline when Posey dealt Camilo Doval and Tyler Rogers, not a big concern at the time because the Giants appeared out of the wild-card race, six games back, and could afford to enhance their farm system.

Stunningly, the Giants began a run in late August winning 11 of 12 and homering in 18 straight games, but the bullpen was further hamstrung when Randy Rodriguez and Erik Miller were lost for the season. There’s no true closer or setup men, making it tough on Melvin on a nightly basis.

Tuesday was all too typical. Webb handed the bullpen a five-run lead in the seventh, but the Cards immediately rallied for four runs and later marched off with the victory.

This one hurt. The difference in talent was never more noticeable than when the Giants played the top two teams in their division. They went 4-9 against the Dodgers, 3-10 against the Padres, a combined 7-19 while getting outscored 139-83.

A day after Bailey’s walk-off grand slam, Webb sidetracked from his usual repertoire and had one of his worst games of the season, the beginning of the end for the Giants.

“I feel really bad about the game a couple of weeks ago against the Dodgers,” said Webb, adding, “It’s frustrating. I think we have a better group than what we’ve shown here. It’s not the way we wanted the season to end.”

Webb said he plans to stay in the rotation to make his last start Sunday, the season finale.