SAN FRANCISCO — There is never a good time to lose six consecutive games, but within the clubhouse, players know that one stretch of the year sticks out more than any other to front offices.
Buster Posey was on the 2019 Giants team that caught fire for a stretch in July and convinced then-lead executive Farhan Zaidi to stand pat at the deadline instead of trading some big names. Last year, Posey watched closely as Zaidi held Blake Snell and others, a decision that was made in part because a few days worth of dominant starting pitching convinced the front office that an MLB playoff run could be made. While the Giants do not often sell, Posey has seen plenty of other teams in the division and league quickly go from buy to sell because of a stretch of lackluster play in late July.
Things can change in a hurry this time of year, and it’s now up to Posey to decide how the front office will react to a six-game losing streak. On Monday, his manager hinted at what the clubhouse might be forcing.
“It’s not a good look, what we’re doing right now,” Bob Melvin told reporters in Atlanta. “It’s not timely at all. They know that.”
When Posey picked up Melvin’s contract option a few weeks ago, he forcefully said that better play had to come from within the clubhouse. Things briefly got better, but over their last six games, the Giants haven’t looked like a playoff team. They have not done much of anything to encourage Posey to follow the Rafael Devers trade with additional moves, but if the former catcher does want to keep pushing chips into the center of the table, it’s easy to see what he’ll need.
Even before Monday’s game, there were serious questions about the rotation. Hayden Birdsong had a start skipped at the end of the first half and Justin Verlander kicked off the second half with a clunker, dropping to 0-8 with a 4.99 ERA. After Monday’s 9-5 loss, the Giants have a potential rotation hole to deal with.
Birdsong was supposed to grow into a foundational piece, but he was lost Monday, walking four and hitting one while failing to record an out. He threw 25 pitches and just six were strikes, and while the performance was difficult to watch, the main culprit also was not new.
Birdsong has 25 walks in 27 2/3 innings over his last seven starts. Over that span, he has an 8.13 ERA.
“Every single time I have struggles [with my command] I try to find it,” Birdsong told reporters in Atlanta. “I haven’t found it yet. We’ll keep working.”
The Giants did not offer much Monday in terms of what’s next for Birdsong, but it’s hard to imagine he’ll start against the New York Mets on “Sunday Night Baseball.” Melvin noted the outing was “back to square one with him” in terms of lack of command, and when that happens to a young pitcher, the solution often is to take extreme measures. Given how important Birdsong is to their future, the Giants could opt for a full reboot, allowing him to work on any mechanical issues in a series of bullpen sessions and then ease himself into the Triple-A rotation in search of answers.
If a roster move is made, it’ll need to come Tuesday, because the rest of the pitching staff desperately needs fresh arms. The Giants threw 188 pitches in eight innings, including 53 from Spencer Bivens, who had pitched 1 1/3 innings Sunday. Tristan Beck threw 4 1/3 on Friday and came back Monday for another 1 1/3 innings. New lefty reliever Matt Gage threw a career-high 41 pitches, and Ryan Walker pitched two innings.
The Giants realistically could use two fresh bullpen arms for the final two games of this series. That’s a short-term concern. Long-term, it’s clear that the rotation will need a boost if they are to reach the postseason, which brings this all back to Posey.
Does the president of baseball operations still believe in this group? If he does, he’ll need to find a starter, and they don’t come cheap in July. The Giants don’t want to add much payroll after taking on the rest of the Devers contract, and they’re a bit short on desirable assets after dealing Kyle Harrison and their 2024 first-round pick in that deal, but they’ll need to find a way to add somebody.
The best options in Triple-A are Carson Seymour and Carson Whisenhunt, but relying on unproven starters can be dangerous in the second half, a lesson the Giants are seeing first hand. There’s enough reliever depth to get by with a few full bullpen games in the next couple weeks, but that would ultimately weaken the group that has kept the rest of the roster afloat.
The bullpen had to wear it Monday in what ended up being the ugliest all-around game of the year. The Giants made multiple errors, let Ronald Acuña Jr. score from first on a single, and gave up another run on a misplayed fly ball to left-center. Melvin said the Acuña sequence looked “terrible.”
“It was just another instance today that was not a good look for us,” he said.
There’s been a lot of that recently, and the timing couldn’t be worse.
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