San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey didn't hold back when speaking about the quality of his team's bullpen this season. The Giants fell short of their expectations this season, winning just 65 games while finishing 35 games out of first place in the NL West. Their bullpen struggled, posting a 4.14 ERA during the season—ranking 19th in MLB.
Posey took accountability for the bullpen's construction, but also spoke his mind about the quality of players his team had. "I'll take the blame for that," Posey said, per NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic. "We probably overestimated some of the guys that we had in the pen and that's something we're going to do our best to address this offseason." Potentially their most egregious oversight came in the form of their Opening Day closer, Ryan Walker.
Walker had a strong start to his MLB career, posting a 2.48 ERA in 125 games during 2023 and 2024, but had a 4.11 ERA last season while recording 17 saves. He stepped up as the Giants' high-leverage guy after Camilo Doval, who is now back with the team, left, but failed to perform under the circumstances. In 2026, Walker appeared 33 times and posted a 7.16 ERA in 32.2 innings pitched.
He recorded just three saves on the season in six opportunities. The Giants struggled in more areas than just their bullpen, though, as they suffered multiple injuries to key players throughout the season. Rafael Devers' season ended early after he had a monster season for the Giants, hitting 37 homers and tallying 98 RBIs, and the rest of the infield suffered injuries as well.
Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, Casey Schmitt and Bryce Eldridge all suffered injuries, and they had too many injuries to the pitching staff to count. The Giants haven't had a season as bad as this year since 2017, but they have also only made the postseason once since then. They'll hope they can improve this offseason following a near 100-loss season as they try to knock the division-rival Dodgers off of their perch atop the NL West amid their middling stretch.
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