San Francisco Giants ready to sell star players ahead of trade deadline as Buster Posey's rebuild unravels

We're not halfway through the 2026 Major League Baseball season, and already, the San Francisco Giants are ready to throw in the towel.

The Giants, even after a win over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday afternoon, are just 30-43. They're a whopping 17 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers. Incredibly, even with the addition of a third wild-card spot, they're eight games back of the San Diego Padres and Washington Nationals, who currently sit in that position.

Even worse, they'd have to pass the Cubs, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Marlins, Reds and Mets just to reach that third wild-card spot. Put differently, only the lowly Colorado Rockies have a worse record than the Giants in the National League.

So it's not surprising, then, that several new reports have said that San Francisco's front office is essentially open for business ahead of the league's trade deadline. MLB.com's Mark Feinsand, ESPN's Buster Olney and The Athletic have all said, to varying degrees, that the Giants are ready to sell.

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Feinsand and Olney specifically mentioned some of the team's most expensive players, including first baseman Rafael Devers, shortstop Willy Adames and third baseman Matt Chapman, among those the Giants are looking to deal. Star pitcher Logan Webb and several of the team's young major leaguers, however, are not expected to be put on the block.

Less than two years ago, in October 2024, the Giants' ownership group announced they'd appointed Buster Posey as president of Baseball Operations. Posey is a Giants franchise legend, and has a wealth of experience in and around the organization. But he also had little experience in the analytically driven evaluation methods most commonly favored in modern baseball.

That was viewed as a point in his favor among baseball purists when he took over for the more data-driven Farhan Zaidi. Zaidi joined the Giants' front office after helping build the Dodgers into a juggernaut, and despite winning 107 games in 2021, he was fired after three consecutive years of San Francisco playing .500 baseball.

Well, in Posey's first year on the job, they went ... 81-81. In his second year, they're tracking to be far worse. Even playing in the large San Francisco market and increasing payroll from $175 million in 2024 to $210 million in 2026. Maybe it's time to admit that the Buster Posey experiment has already failed.

Not all of San Francisco's current predicament is on him, of course, but it's also clear that some of his biggest moves haven't worked.

Matt Chapman signed his extension before Posey took over, but his first big move was bringing in free-agent shortstop Willy Adames. And while Adames was a well-above-average player in 2025, his plate discipline has cratered in 2026 and his defensive metrics have taken a huge step backward too. He was worth 4.8 wins above replacement in 2024, 4 in 2025 and -0.3 thus far in 2026 while making $26 million per year through 2031.

RED SOX SEND STAR RAFAEL DEVERS TO GIANTS IN SHOCKING BLOCKBUSTER TRADE: REPORTS

Then there's Rafael Devers. Devers developed into a star in Boston, but fell out with the front office over being asked to move positions. The Giants swooped in, trading several prospects to the Red Sox with the intention of building around him through the end of his contract in 2033.

Instead, Devers has just nine homers in 2026, is hitting .234 with a .294 on-base percentage, has been a below-average hitter this season and has been worth -0.1 wins above replacement. And now he's on the trading block.

That's bad enough. But the players Posey traded away make it much worse.

The key to the trade was former top prospect Kyle Harrison. Harrison was flipped to the Brewers in the offseason, and, surprise, surprise, has immediately excelled. He's struck out 80 hitters in 65 innings with a 2.47 ERA and just 18 walks. Devers has negative WAR, Harrison is +1.7, per FanGraphs. He's making just $782,000 this year, and doesn't reach arbitration until 2028. Devers is making nearly $29 million per year through 2033.

James Tibbs III was the other headliner in the Devers trade, eventually also traded away, this time to the Dodgers. He, too, has turned himself back into a top prospect, hitting .305/.423/.609 in Triple-A, with 19 home runs in 67 games. Keith Law ranked him as the 24th-best prospect in baseball in his latest update.

It's not all doom and gloom; Bryce Eldridge looks to finally be delivering on his promise, and 18-year-old Josuar Gonzalez could become a star down the road. Luis Arraez has been a pleasant surprise, and Casey Schmitt has turned himself into an everyday player. But their pitching staff has been disappointing to awful, and there's little help coming from the farm system.

And therein lies the problem. The Giants, despite their market size and budget, have not been able to build a complete roster.

The Dodgers, as a comparison, are currently missing Will Smith and Teoscar Hernandez, while Tommy Edman just played his first game of the season. Blake Snell has pitched three innings this season, and Tyler Glasnow is on the 60-day IL with a back injury. Edwin Diaz had an ERA over 10 before going down with an arm injury. And LA is 48-27 and headed toward yet another division title. How are they doing it?

With Alex Call, Ryan Ward, Emmett Sheehan, Dalton Rushing, Justin Wrobleski, Will Klein and Kyle Hurt. LA excels at having a farm system full of talent at Triple-A, ready to step in for injured stars. They build quality depth and backups at key positions. Use analytics to put together the best defensive positioning of any team in the league. And they find bullpen pieces in unexpected places. Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia, Klein, Hurt, Jack Dreyer, Edgardo Henriquez. All have played major roles.

Posey, meanwhile, whiffed on the franchise-changing Devers trade. Gave away Kyle Harrison and James Tibbs. Signed Adames, only for him to fall off a cliff. And now is looking to dump salary and rebuild yet again. It's a mess, and it's what separates the best organizations from the rest. The Giants right now are squarely below even what we'd call "the rest."