How Rafael Devers and Tony Vitello can write a different script for Giants season

The San Francisco Giants are in an odd situation. They’re not a playoff team, have a roster that’s underperforming expectations and seem to be in a sort of baseball purgatory. The NL West division is a beast, making any second half surge in the season a long shot to contend for the division title let alone get one of the wild card spots. What they can do, though, is kickstart the focus for next season. 

Assuming the Giants don’t trade Devers again and truly rely on him to be the star they traded for and Vitello gets another crack after his dumpster fire, first year in the MLB, San Francisco can rely on both of them to be the face of the turnaround rather than the catalyst of why things went awry. 

Rafael Devers’ solid May proves he can be the star the San Francisco Giants want him to be

The first two months of the season weren’t nearly as promising for Devers as May has been. He started the year with a .201 batting average. In the month of May, it has bumped up to .301. With a week left, he can have more hits and prove he can be a consistent contributor to the offense. Vitello has played around with the lineup quite a bit this year, but keeping Devers in the four hole is the best option. He has played 33 games in the cleanup spot in 2026. 

In the 133 plate appearances batting fourth in the lineup, he has 36 hits –— he doesn’t have more than six in any other position in the batting order — and five home runs. This is the type of consistency the Giants always wanted from Devers. More than that, it’s the type of consistency that Vitello should appreciate from being patient with the lineup. 

Vitello is no stranger to making lineup changes, but finding where the players are most consistent can go a long way to figuring out this team. Speaking of, that’s how Vitello can capitalize on a rough first year. 

Experience is the biggest trait Tony Vitello can add to his resume

Everybody raised eyebrows at Buster Posey’s decision to hire Vitello right out of Knoxville with his only MLB experience being the draft prospects he’s produced. Patience was always going to be important if Posey was going to regain the faith of this fan base and ownership – not that San Francisco would turn on a franchise legend.

What Vitello takes from the rest of this season will determine if he’ll have a long career in MLB or be forced back into the amateur ranks to keep coaching. 

Baseball is a long season and drastic changes seldom work out. When they do, it typically takes time for it to start to pay off. That’s why Vitello feeling the pressure so early in the season is a sign he has a lot to learn in MLB. He can succeed, he just needs to not treat professional sports like amateur ones. It’s why college coaches across all sports seldom have long careers in professional sports. 

Are Tony Vitello, Rafael Devers the core of this Giants’ future?

Devers’ quick turnaround this month should prove he’s the right player to build around. This Giants team isn’t far from being competitive, they just have to be patient. They tried to force success in 2025 and it backfired. The knee-jerk move to land Devers didn’t turn into the quick return they expected. Maybe that’s the problem: it wasn’t supposed to be a quick fix. The rest of this season the Giants need to treat it like a glimpse into the future. 

What happens this season will either prove Devers and Vitello are either vital to the turnaround or they’re holding the Giants back. Any drastic moves before the end of this year would be giving up too early on what might just work out in the end.

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