For the third consecutive year, the San Francisco Giants will kick off their offseason by looking for a new leader. Two years after firing Gabe Kapler and one year after dismissing Farhan Zaidi, the Giants have decided to move on from manager Bob Melvin. On Monday morning, less than 24 hours after an 81-81 season wrapped up, the Giants announced with a short tweet and a small press release that Melvin had been relieved of his duties after two years managing the team.
In the press release, President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey thanked Melvin and explained the decision:
After meeting with ownership, I met with Bob today to inform him of my decision. On behalf of the organization, I want to express my appreciation to Bob for his dedication, professionalism, and class. I wish him all the best.
After careful evaluation, we determined that making a change in leadership was in the best interest of the team. The last couple of months have been both disappointing and frustrating for all of us, and we did not perform up to our standards. We now turn our focus to identifying a new leader to guide us forward.
Melvin’s job status seemed to wax and wane throughout the year. At the start of July, Posey announced that the team had picked up Melvin’s option for the 2026 season, even though the team was in a free fall. It was overwhelmingly likely at that point that Melvin would return next year, but as the team spiraled further and further out of control — and further and further from the postseason race — it started to look as though Melvin’s days were numbered.
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The Giants recovered in late August and early September, where they were the best team in baseball, and came roaring back into the postseason race. With that, Melvin appeared to have saved his job. But with the playoffs on the line, the Giants faltered again, losing nine of 11 games late in the season to miss the postseason for fourth straight year, and the eighth time in the last nine seasons.
It’s surely heartbreaking news for Melvin, who was born and raised in the Bay Area, played college ball at Cal, and spent three seasons as a catcher on the Giants in the 1980s. He made it abundantly clear when he was hired after the 2023 season that managing the Giants was the job he always dreamed of. It’s sad to see that dream come to such a swift conclusion. He ends his time with the Giants with a 161-163 record, but remains respected enough around the league that he’ll likely find another opportunity should he seek one out (though there’s no rush, as he’ll get a nice paycheck in 2026 either way).
For the front office, it’s now time to not just identify a new leader in the clubhouse, but evaluate their own roster-building skills. As disappointing as the 2025 season was, it does need to be reminded that the Giants did not fall short of preseason expectations from people outside the Bay Area. When the season began, Fangraphs projected the Giants to finish below .500, with a 28.5% chance of making the playoffs. ESPN ranked the Giants 22nd in their preseason power rankings, and predicted them to win 80 games.
The midseason trade for Rafael Devers certainly changed the equation a little bit, but the Giants do need to reckon with the fact that their biggest issue this year was not a lack of proper management, but a lack of talent. They entered the season with not enough starting pitching depth, and then traded some of it away. They went an entire season — again — without having an answer at second base. They cycled through journeymen catchers, gave Wilmer Flores 463 plate appearances to hit below average, and assumed that Jerar Encarnación would be both healthy and good, when he has no track record of either thing, while having no contingency plan in right field.
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You can’t blame them for moving on from Melvin. But you have to hope they’re not banking on someone else being able to do much better with the same ball of clay.