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The San Francisco Giants announced their full coaching staff, who will help guide new manager Tony Vitello in 2026.
While the San Francisco Giants certainly hope that newcomers like Tyler Mahle, Adrian Houser, Luis Arráez and Harrison Bader will make the team better in 2026 than it was in 2025, the biggest offseason move the team made was hiring a new manager, Tony Vitello.
Vitello was a highly successful coach at the University of Tennessee, winning a National Championship with the Volunteers in 2024. One thing he lacks, though, is Major League experience. The same cannot be said about his coaching staff, which was announced on February 6.
When looking at the coaching staff, one thing that stands out is that two of its members, Jayce Tingler and Ron Washington, have Major League managing experience. Washington’s expertise will be vital in helping another one of the team’s biggest acquisitions reach his full potential.
Ron Washington Will Coach the San Francisco Giants’ infielders
Despite being one of baseball’s best contact hitters, Arráez’s signing brings some concerns about his defense at second base.
Jeff Young of Around the Foghorn detailed Arráez’s defensive struggles throughout his career, particularly at the keystone.
“Since Arráez made his debut with the Minnesota Twins in 2019, he has tallied -60 Outs Above Average (OAA), which is the worst mark in baseball,” Young wrote. “He has graded out as a below-average fielder at nearly every position he has played based on this metric.
“Second base is where Arráez has accumulated most of those defensive metrics,” continued Young. “Throughout his career, he has recorded -6 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), -35 OAA, and -27 Fielding Run Value (FRV). Regardless of the metric you use, he has graded out as a poor defender at second base.”
Arráez will undeniably help the Giants‘ offense. While 2025 was a relative down year, he hit .292 with 21 strikeouts in 620 at-bats. By contrast, Jung Hoo Lee’s .266 average led San Francisco among qualified hitters (Dominic Smith’s .284 was the highest among non-qualified hitters) and every Giant who logged at least 144 at-bats struck out more than Arráez.
Improving Arráez’s defense is where Washington comes in. Washington will serve as San Francisco’s infield coach, something that Vitello was excited about.
“His ability to coach infielders, you could strip everything away other than that, and what you’ve got there is great value,” Vitello said, per Justice delos Santos, Bay Area News Group. “He’ll be one of the guys working with the infielders. Looking to make any improvements possible with that group is always huge, whether it’s the guys who are your everyday players or the guys who are fighting for a job.”
Will New Hitting Coach Bring a Different Philosophy?
The Giants’ new hitting coach in 2026 is Hunter Mense, who comes from the Toronto Blue Jays, where he’d previously served as an assistant batting coach. In November, delos Santos detailed how different Toronto’s approach was at the plate from San Francisco’s last season.
“Toronto boasted one of baseball’s best offenses and pushed en route to pushing the Los Angeles Dodgers to seven games in the World Series, finishing the regular season with the third-best OPS (.761) and fourth-most runs scored (798) in the majors,” delos Santos wrote. “That production was partially the product of the Blue Jays boasting both the lowest strikeout rate (17.8%) and highest contact rate in the majors last season.”
While Arráez is one of baseball’s best contact hitters, he’s only one of nine guys in the lineup. San Francisco ranked near the bottom of the league in both batting average and hitter strikeouts in 2025, something that the hiring of Hunter Mense shows that the organization seemingly wants to change.
Michael Dixon Michael Dixon has over 15 years of experience in journalism, both online and in print. While originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, he presently lives in the greater Indianapolis area. He’s also previously lived and worked in Arizona.
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