LAS VEGAS — Baseball keeps evolving, not just through analytics but through job titles. With expanded operations departments and coaching staffs, the modern game has branched out in terms of job designations.
Here’s the latest for the Giants: offensive coordinator.
The club on Thursday made official the addition of James Rowson to Tony Vitello’s coaching staff as offensive coordinator. Rowson had been the Yankees’ hitting coach for three years, and the Giants hired him and gave him a more prestigious title, borrowing from football vernacular.
“There’s going to be oversight on all run production,” said Buster Posey, the president of baseball operations.
The title, rare in baseball but gaining steam, is what Rowson desired. He’ll oversee the other hitting coaches — Oscar Bernard will return as an assisting hitting coach, and the Giants plan to hire one more to the group, perhaps from within the organization — and will orchestrate and structure offensive game planning, not just hitting but base running.
The trick is to get all coaches — including bench coach Jayce Tingler and base coaches Gary Pettis at third and Taira Uematsu at first — on the same page so that the hitters can reach their potential and contribute to winning baseball.
Rowson, 50, replaces Hunter Mense, last season’s top hitting coach, who took a job with the Royals. Previously, Mense was an assistant hitting coach in Toronto.
“I’m super excited about [Rowson] coming on board,” Posey said. “I feel like it was important for us to hire a guy — I’m not saying this was the downfall of Mense, but I do think after last year, hire a guy who has been there and done it before. And by all accounts, by making phone calls to a lot of different people, we kept hearing the same thing over and over again. He’s one of the better leaders they’ve been around, and I think the relationship that he’s made with players has been really, really good. That’s the hope for us here, is that he can come in and build some great trust with our group early on, because that’s the foundation to any teacher: Does the student trust him?”
Rowson will face plenty of challenges at training camp, whenever that is. Club officials can’t communicate with players once the collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, so Rowson has limited time to reach out to Giants hitters to introduce himself and discuss his philosophies and plans for 2027.
Here are five challenges for Rowson.
Energize the Big Three
The Giants fell in a hole right away last season, and the Big Three were a Big Reason. Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, and Matt Chapman slumped out of the gate, and the Giants never recovered.
Rowson will need to pull all his resources to get them going right away. Devers started hitting in May. In fact, his .953 OPS from May 1 through season’s end was higher than any of the full-season totals in his 10-year career. The trick is to hit from the jump.
There’s only so much a coach (or offensive coordinator) can do with a hitter. It comes down to the player’s willingness to make changes that’ll lead to better results throughout the season, even if it’s Devers’ strikeout rate or Adames’ swing path; on that front, Posey has made clear that he’s willing to accept the strikeouts if it means his big hitters provide ample power.
“I know as a player, the last thing I would want to hear is that a new hitting coach is coming in and just going to change me right away,” Posey said. “But at the same time, you hope that a different hitting coach has got some ideas that maybe you can apply to your game that makes you better.”
Emphasize patience
The overanxious Giants had issues reaching base. They drew the fewest walks in the majors, 449 — that was 225 fewer than the Cubs — and ranked 29th in on-base percentage at .306, just ahead of the Reds.
Opposing pitchers learned quickly that Giants hitters, especially Devers in the early weeks, often swung and missed at strikes. Painting the corners became less of a necessity, and it carried over to the entire lineup.
The Giants can’t succeed if they don’t reach base more, and Rowson needs to fix this by pushing his guys to work the count, pounce on strikes in the zone, and make pitchers believe nobody’s an easy out.
Adames’ OBP was just .287. Casey Schmitt, despite enjoying a breakout season, rarely drew a walk (11 in 409 plate appearances, a 2.7% walk rate) and had a .301 OBP. Jung Hoo Lee and Daniel Susac didn’t walk much either.
Conversely, two of the best at drawing walks were rookies: Bryce Eldridge and Drew Gilbert, which explains why their OBPs were nearly 100 points higher than their batting averages.
Interestingly, the Giants ranked 24th in chase rate, per Statcast, meaning they were either too often fooled by bad pitches or simply were overaggressive, especially early in the count. On the flip side, they were 25th in “meatball” swing percentage, meaning they were statues on too many pitches right down Broadway.
Rowson needs to bridge the gap by teaching better pitch recognition.
Casey Schmitt, right, posted a career-best .784 OPS but only drew 11 walks in 409 plate appearances. | Source: Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesBalance the attack
The Giants ranked 26th in runs, and they easily could have been lower. Three times, they ran up the score in routs by scoring 19, 18, and 16 runs, and they reached double figures 11 times. It was feast or famine — in 57 other games, they scored two or fewer runs. Thirteen times, they were shut out.
It’s not just runs scored. Other stats tell a similar story. The Giants were bottom third in wRC+ (weighted runs created plus), which is a measurement of a team’s overall offensive production compared with the other 29 clubs, and it takes into account how the ballparks play — so the Giants aren’t penalized for their pitcher-friendly digs.
2 days ago
Thursday, Nov. 5
Monday, Nov. 2
Either way you look at it, the offense needs work. Posey’s focus this offseason is adding pitchers. He believes the offense should be strong as is, and it’s up to Rowson to bring out everybody’s good side for better balance and efficiency.
Asked about Rowson’s philosophies, Posey said, “We talked at a pretty high level about that. I thought he gave a good answer. I’m paraphrasing, but he said, ‘From my experience, you can’t go in and say this is going to be our identity. You have to go in and give the guys the chance to show what their identity is going to be, and then mold that identity based on who they are.’”
After hitting-coach stints with the Cubs, Twins, and Tigers, Rowson worked with Aaron Judge, Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, and other big-name hitters in New York, where the Yankees certainly had their issues in 2026, but they were second in the majors in homers, sixth in slugging percentage, and ninth in runs.
The Giants wouldn’t mind those rankings, but they play in a much tougher hitters’ park than Yankee Stadium. Oracle Park’s right-field gap is 415 feet away, and the elements are no friend to hitters. It partly explains why the Giants were 20th in homers yet ninth in doubles — many of those long drives tend to bounce in fair territory, short of the wall.
Which is another issue for Rowson: cranking up the offense at home, where the Giants were a meager 37-44 last season.
Ignite the running game
For the first time in four years, the Giants didn’t finish last in the National League in steals. It helped that rookie Jonah Cox showed up and swiped 16 bags in 20 attempts.
For too long, Giants brass has talked about improving the running game — not just with stolen bases but with smart choices, good leads, and keen anticipation. Rowson will oversee this area as well, and it’ll help that Pettis (354 career steals), who joined the team in June, will be the primary baserunning coach.
“I think the word that I like to use a lot is being the ‘aggressor,’ “ Posey said of an approach he’d like to see on the bases. “It starts with the mindset, from the place of not being fearful. … Even though I say to them that there’s not going to be repercussions if you get thrown out, there’s still a hesitancy there, and we’ve got to get over that hurdle.”
Jung Hoo Lee stole 12 bases in his third big-league season. | Source: Richard Rodriguez/Getty ImagesMaximize the kid
Eldridge is the real deal. He crushes the ball and has elite plate awareness. He turned himself into a good defensive first baseman. And his personality and maturity should make him the leader of this team sooner rather than later.
Rowson will find it a pleasure to work with the 6-foot-7 Eldridge, who turned 22 last month. He listens. He’s a quick learner. And his potential is through the marine layer that hovers over China Basin.
Eldridge, called up from the minors in May, hit 17 homers with a .364 OBP and .825 OPS. His walk rate was highest on the team, and no Giant hits the ball harder — not even Devers. Eldridge’s final homer of the season traveled 461 feet at 112.7 mph.
The next step for Eldridge, with Rowson’s assistance, is playing at an All-Star level and joining the 30-homers club. Unlike some veteran hitters who are hesitant to change their approach, Eldridge is willing to do whatever is necessary to reach higher levels.
An offensive coordinator’s dream.