Jung Hoo Lee (51) beats the throw to first after hitting a swinging bunt in the eighth inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Monday, June 8, 2026 in San Francisco.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
San Francisco Giants right fielder Jung Hoo Lee (51) singles against the Athletics in the 7th inning during an MLB game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Wednesday, June 24, 2026.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
San Francisco Giants center fielder Grant McCray (58) hits for a single against the Milwaukee Brewers in the 7th inning during an MLB game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Tuesday, July 28, 2026.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
Rafael Devers (16) steals second as Jeremy Peña (3) can’t apply the tag after leaping to catch the throw in the second inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Houston Astros at Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Rafael Devers (16) rounds second on a hit by Bryce Eldridge (8) in the eighth inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Arizona Diamondbacks at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Many teams talk about stealing more bases or just being more aggressive on the basepaths, especially during spring training, but never really put it into action. The San Francisco Giants, though, are starting to run for real.
The new-look Giants, post-trades and with many veterans on the IL, have the personnel to up the pace on the bases and they have the perfect ballpark in which to do so. Games at Oracle Park typically are lower scoring, so any little edge helps. When Buster Posey took over the team’s top baseball operations job before last season, he talked about pitching and defense as the emphasis for winning here, but he’s now adding running to that mix — for more than just the obvious reasons.
“What I think about base stealing or taking the extra base is that as much as it helps with run production, it sets a tone for me,” Posey said. “And gosh, I’ve banged my head on the wall for two years because I want that tone set so much. You want to be the team that’s on the front foot. You want to be the aggressor.
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“I ultimately hope that we get to a place where we’re a team that’s constantly putting pressure on the opponent, where when we get on base, there’s going to be havoc and chaos, and you’re going to have to be clean with fielding the ball or we’re going to take that extra base.”
Speed, as they say, doesn’t take a day off, but even slower players can be savvy enough to take extra bases: Rafael Devers is the team’s best going first to third, for example, doing so twice as often as anyone else on the roster. He takes the extra base 45% of the time, tops on the team among those with at least 170 plate appearances.
There is no reason that anyone but the slowest of the slow can’t go first to third when the occasion arises. It’s attention to detail. It’s savvy, preparation and determination. Even catchers can steal a base now and then — Posey had 23 of them, and he took the extra base 32% of the time in his career.
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“We need the veterans like that to set the tone. Rafi’s done a nice job, Matt Chapman does a great job of it, too,” Posey said. “To me, being a great baserunner is one of the most selfless things that you can do because you’re showing, ‘Hey, I’m locked in for the team right now.’
“You don’t have to have the best sprint speed to be a dynamic baserunner. Sometimes I get a little bit annoyed with, ‘Well, personnel, personnel, personnel.’ Yeah, to a certain extent. But we’ve also seen the guys that don’t have elite sprint speed can take extra bases and force the issue. It’s a point of emphasis, for sure.”
The flashy aspect of baserunning, certainly, is stealing bases, and the Giants have a tremendous option there: Rookie Jonah Cox has the speed and the feel to steal second and then third even when the other team is expecting it. He’s in the top 1% when it comes to sprint speed, and he’s fearless.
“I put something like ‘Gone in a flash,’ in my report,” one AL scout said. “You better try to keep him close.”
The second half has seen the biggest shift for the Giants when it comes to running. The first three months, San Francisco stole 27 bases in 85 games; from July on, the team has 42 steals in 62 games.
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If pitchers are thinking about Cox or Grant McCray, who’s nearly as fast, when at first, they’re not giving their full attention to the batter. The middle infielders and first basemen, too, have a degree of distraction.
“It’s been the talk of town for the last couple years and we haven’t done it,” said McCray, who’s 5-for-5 on his stolen-base attempts. “This year we’ve actually been able to run and it’s paid dividends. Even when the bats are asleep, it’s hard to put the wheels to sleep, and if we’re running, causing chaos on the bases is just going to put more pressure on the defense.”
“You have to find more creative ways to score runs sometimes,” Cox said. “There are a lot of free bases out there and if you can find them, it’s a really good way to help the team win.”
There are other good base stealers on the club. Casey Schmitt, perhaps a bit surprisingly, is tied for third with nine steals and was only caught once before he landed on the IL with a torn meniscus. Christian Koss and Willy Adames can pick up a steal now and then. Drew Gilbert is fast but isn’t having great success on the bases this year, getting thrown out in 4 of 5 attempts; that’s an area he could improve.
Jung Hoo Lee is an interesting case. He’s not as fleet as the younger outfielders such as Cox and McCray, but he stole 69 bases in Korea and he’s adding it back into his game here. He appeared tentative at times to do so last year while coming back from injuries, but this year he’s been far more comfortable. He’s 12 for 13, all of it from June 6 on.
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“I wanted to be more aggressive with my running, but I think there were a lot of small injuries that were just holding me back with the lower body,” Lee said, with Justin Han interpreting. “Coming out at the second half, I feel more strong out there, and I really want to be aggressive. I’ve got to credit the coaches because they’ve been amazing helping me out.
“I feel like baserunning itself isn’t something that has a lot of ups and downs and the young guys are helping with the way they’re running the bases and working their asses off.”
First-base coach Shane Robinson works with the team’s baserunners and he said one of the primary differences in the second half is that players are taking the initiative, understanding that the coaching staff would rather have them err on the side of aggressiveness, especially with the Giants out of contention. The staff has even made it a competitive thing — did your pal take an extra base twice last game? Try to keep up!
“They’re being more free with their decisions,” Robinson said. “Guys don’t want to make mistakes, but now it’s a what-have-you-got-to-lose kind of thing and they’re focused on getting an extra 90 feet.
“Under Buster, it’s been like, ‘Hey, this is something that needs to change,’ and now we’ve got a good thing going.”
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Every little bit helps when trying to add on an extra run. San Francisco is 15-25 in one-run games this year, but each of the Giants’ past three wins, while sweeping the Cardinals this week, was a one-run squeaker.
Bunts, moving runners up — all of that pushes the action. Cox stands out as the team’s best bunter, including for base hits, but there’s zero excuse for any player not to be able to do so, and the Giants have bunted much more since the start of July, with 19 sacrifice hits in 62 games compared to 15 in the first 85 games.
Manager Tony Vitello is a big fan of pushing the action on the bases after growing up watching those old Whitey Herzog Cardinals, though his Tennessee teams were seldom among the top 50 Division I teams in that category.
“I think the biggest thing is to be flexible, so what went on the last month or two for us on the offensive end has worked,” Vitello said. “So why not try to make it grow?”
“Those old Cardinals teams played small ball, hit behind runners, stole bases and they won a lot of games doing it,” Cox said. “I think you can still still play baseball that way. That’s how teams win World Series games — playing complete baseball.”