Not all Giants agree on whether a 100-loss season would matter: ‘What's the point of the discussion?'
· Yahoo Sports
With 19 more losses, the 2026 San Francisco Giants would become just the second team in franchise history to lose 100 games.
Does the three-digit number matter? To some, yes.
Visit tr-sport.bond for more information.
"I would say it does," starter Landen Roupp said. "That's not something we want to do. Regardless of whether we're in it or not, we still want to win baseball games and compete. I would say it's a thing that we don't want to hit."
Others believe once a team drops out of contention, the actual number of Ls is beside the point.
"To me, what difference does it make if you lose 95 or 100 games?" shortstop Willy Adames said. "You're out of the race, what's the point of the discussion? I see it as a disappointment either way."
As an indicator of all-time failures, though, 100 losses is a flashing neon sign. Bad, bad, bad!
"One hundred just looks worse," outfielder Drew Gilbert said.
"I think it's one of those round numbers that you want to avoid," president of baseball operations Buster Posey said. "Now, if you lose 98 or 99 games, I don't know if it makes that big of a difference, but would we like to avoid losing 100? Yes. Yeah."
To do so, San Francisco must win six of the remaining 24 games, with things wrapping up Sept. 27 against the Dodgers at Oracle Park. The Giants have lost 18 games in a month twice this season (May and August).
It's tough to imagine the Giants going 5-19 and joining the ignominy of the 1985 team. The fact it's still possible, though, speaks to the massive disappointment that defines the 2026 season.
The Giants were projected to be a much better team, but lack of production from the biggest bats early on set the downward spiral in motion. The bullpen, unexpectedly good in April, couldn't sustain that success. The team never managed to get in sync, with the pitching good when the offense was lacking and vice versa. Injuries crept in. Six players were traded at the deadline.
No one associated with a big league club wants anything to do with 100 losses as a matter of pride. It's a quick, easy descriptor - 100-loss team. That sticks.
"I've never been into streaks and those kinds of numbers," manager Tony Vitello said, "but it's not good."
Reliever Ryan Walker thinks that worrying about something negative can be counterproductive, anyway, saying, "You probably don't want to focus on, ‘Oh, we can't lose 100! ' If that's your main priority, it's going to be hard to win games."
The important thing to consider about 100-loss seasons is what happens next. Does hitting a symbolic rock bottom matter if it necessitates a much-needed rebuild or major changes? If significant progress follows, then it might even be worthwhile. Meandering around .500, as the Giants did each of the previous four seasons, is dull and doesn't always bring the same urgency for improvement.
That 1985 team (which featured broadcasters Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper) is instructive: The issue primarily was a lack of offense, and the next year, adding top prospect Will Clark, second baseman Robby Thompson and outfielder Candy Maldonado helped enormously. The Giants won 83 games, a 21-game improvement, and Krukow went 20-9. The next year, San Francisco made the playoffs.
Another plus of those 100 losses: The Giants got the third pick in the draft and took third baseman Matt Williams. San Francisco, thanks to the lottery system and revenue sharing, will get little draft benefit from this rotten season; the best the Giants can do is the 10th overall pick. But much like Clark coming up the year after he was drafted, San Francisco could look at 2026 top pick Jackson Flora, a starter from Pleasanton and UC Santa Barbara who is likely to make some starts at Class-A San Jose before the end of the season.
For the front office and coaches, the emphasis already is on next year, using the rest of this season to evaluate prospects and identify areas the team will have to go outside the organization to address.
"I would say the focus is on getting a look at some players that otherwise we wouldn't get a look at and also development," Posey said. "With these last 25-26 games, we can go into the offseason with some of them gaining some momentum.
"You're trying to find the positive in some of these things when there have been a lot of tough moments and negatives this year. One positive is being able to see how these guys play at the highest level."
For the young players, the final month is about minimizing mistakes, honing skills, nailing down fundamentals and maybe a roster spot at the same time.
"We're still trying to win as many games as we can," Gilbert said, "but this season hasn't been what we've wanted and some of the goals are shifting - the main thing is we've got to get better."
Subscribe
There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Not all Giants agree on whether a 100-loss season would matter: ‘What's the point of the discussion?'.