Is an MLB trade deadline overhaul ahead for struggling Giants?

A spring of disappointment could turn into a summer of change for the San Francisco Giants. Offensive inconsistency combined with an underachieving pitching staff is likely to lead to an organizational pivot at the upcoming MLB trade deadline.

Even though the team has shown signs of life recently, the struggles have made for a rough first year for manager Tony Vitello, who came to MLB from SEC power Tennessee hoping to infuse energy in a veteran clubhouse. Instead of improving on last season's .500 finish, though, the Giants have taken a step backward and are just 31-43 nearing the midway point of this season.

In other words, if the Giants don't go on a prolonged run soon, they will be open for business this trade season as players with expiring contracts and high-price players should be available via trade, sources tell ESPN.

"I think we're going to have to be open-minded," president of baseball operations Buster Posey told ESPN. "Based on today, June 13th, unless things really turn around, we're going to have to be open-minded and consider a variety of possibilities."

It's a much different feeling than just a few months ago when there were hopes entering the season that San Francisco could push the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres at the top of the NL West. Instead, the Giants have spent the first half trading places with the Colorado Rockies at the bottom.

"We get into these lulls where we're not clicking," catcher Eric Haase said. "We flip flop both sides of that coin. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. It's extremely frustrating looking around and seeing the guys in the locker room. We talk about ad nauseum. We have meeting after meeting, just trying to right the ship. We're seeing more and more signs of it. It's encouraging but frustrating."

The Vitello experiment

Posey believes that the struggles have little to do with the outside-the-box hiring of a college coach rather than bringing in someone with professional experience. In his second full season in charge in San Francisco, Posey points instead to a veteran-heavy roster that hasn't lived up to his expectations and lays most of the blame on the person who put the team together -- himself.

"I don't think the waters are any more muddied because of that (his hiring)," Posey said. "I always feel like I take more blame if the guys don't play well because it's my responsibility to pick the players that I believe are going to be successful on the field."

But scrutiny has fallen on San Francisco's new skipper throughout a poor start featuring sloppy play, meager offense, late-inning blown leads and even a rare midseason firing of a base coach.

"All eyes on him, especially coming from college, not having any major league or professional experience," third baseman Matt Chapman said. "I think that magnifies things. It's hard when the players aren't playing well and the manager has to wear some of that."

Vitello admits it hasn't been an easy ride but also believes he is learning from the experience.

"Early in the year we had a few consistent struggles in areas that maybe we needed to clean up and no one party was guilty, but just as a collective group, it would have paid off to talk about it earlier and it was kind of wait, wait," Vitello said. "And then eventually just kind of boiled over...By that time everyone's just wanting to explode and so I did it for the group."

The low point came in late April and carried over into early May, when the Giants blew ninth-inning leads in both games of a doubleheader in Philadelphia, got on a plane and were swept by the Tampa Bay Rays over the next three days.

That stretch turned a middling start into a full-out disappointment with the Giants falling from 13-15 to 13-21 and dead last in the NL West in a six-day span. Sitting back and waiting for the team to turn things around was no longer an option.

"I wouldn't say boiled over," Haase said. "Just needing correction. You feel the tension rising. Tony addressed the team but it wasn't like he was saying anything that people weren't feeling or sensing themselves."

The Giants finally broke out of their malaise, winning five of the next eight games, before falling back into their losing ways in late-May. San Francisco is finally playing its best baseball of the season in June though, perhaps a sign that the rookie manager and his players are coming together. But even stringing together a handful of wins hasn't lessened the scrutiny on Vitello when a decision doesn't work out -- especially when it is the type of decision he rarely had to make in college baseball.

On June 8, the Giants took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning against the Washington Nationals after getting eight strong innings from ace Logan Webb. It left Vitello with a decision to make: roll with his starter, who was sitting at 99 pitches, or turn to the bullpen?

The rookie manager chose the latter, with disastrous results. After summoning right-hander Keaton Winn from the bullpen for the third straight day, the reliever gave up three runs in the top of the ninth. The Giants lost the game and, adding to the matter, Winn hit the injured list six days later with an elbow strain.

There is perhaps no part of the job that leaves a manager more susceptible to criticism than the decision of when to pull a starter for a reliever, and this move was no exception. Former Giants starter Shawn Estes blasted the decision on the postgame show and Vitello's choice was debated on social media and sports talk radio in the Bay Area.

If Vitello's first year on the job is about learning as he goes, the next time Webb took the mound marked a sign of that progress. With their ace again still piling up outs as his pitch count climbed, Vitello visited the mound in the eighth inning of a matchup with the Chicago Cubs. This time, the ace stayed in, and the Giants won the game.

"That's a tough spot," Webb said afterward. "It has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world. I think he's done a great job. I know it hasn't gone the way it's supposed to go but I have his back."

Fellow starter Adrian Houser summed up the first few months of the Vitello experience: "He's kind of a first-round draft pick that didn't go to the minor leagues. There's adjustments and figuring out your way -- where to step in and where not to step in kind of stuff. He's communicating well. There's bumps in the road but we're keeping the clubhouse vibe up."

The up-and-down offense

Keeping spirits high in the clubhouse would be challenging for any manager -- let alone a rookie skipper -- given the inconsistent performance of San Francisco's offense. From Opening Day through May 16, the Giants ranked 28th in OPS. Since then, their .842 mark leads the majors.

"I think that the first month of the season when the offense struggled so much, that was probably the most, I'd say, dumbfounding part of the season," Posey said.

In Posey's time running the front office, San Francisco has made big expenditures with hopes of solidifying the offense in inking shortstop Willy Adames to a $182 million deal and trading for Rafael Devers, with third baseman Matt Chapman also signing a $151 million extension just before Posey took over. But those high-priced veterans have been at the heart of San Francisco's offensive struggles.

Adames and Devers both posted an OPS under .600 for the first month of the season before showing improvement in May. Meanwhile, Chapman's OPS sat at .633 at the end of May before hitting .340 with a 1.178 OPS during a red-hot June.

"I think there was a little bit of guys just getting into a rhythm, for whatever reason a buildup was needed," Vitello said. "The bottom line is it wasn't as good as it could be at the very beginning..

Even more troubling than the lack of hitting, though, has been an inability to draw walks throughout the season. The Giants' current 6.2% walk rate would be the lowest in a full season since the 2002 Detroit Tigers -- a team that went 55-106.

"I think we were so bad to start the year taking walks, there was really no fear from the pitchers," Posey stated. "So they said, 'here it comes big boys and see what you can do with it.' We weren't doing a lot with it. Now, we're hitting better."

That offensive improvement has brought with it reasons for Giants fans to get excited in recent weeks. None bigger than when rookie slugger Bryce Eldridge sent Oracle Park into a frenzy with a walk-off grand slam to cap one of the wildest comebacks in MLB history, as the Giants scored 10 times over the final two innings of an 11-10 win.

""Hopefully I'm not going to jinx him here," Posey said. "But he's kind of exceeded my expectations just in the maturity of at-bats that he's taking right now."

After that signature moment, the 21-year-old Eldridge stated that he wants to become "the face of this franchise" and has played like that type of player early on: hitting .319 with 15 extra-base hits in just 33 games this season. He and Casey Schmitt (15 home runs) along with Jung Hoo Lee (.331) and Luis Arraez (.319) have provided offensive consistency while the bigger-name veterans find their way.

"Early on, it wasn't happening," Schmitt said. "It's starting to click a little bit better. We need to get over the hump."

What's next

Building a contender will likely mean saying some difficult goodbyes to players currently on the roster, but the question being asked by rival teams is how much trade value do San Francisco's players actually hold.

Pitching is always in demand at the deadline, but Webb, signed through 2028, is unlikely to go anywhere. That leaves starters Tyler Mahle (6.04 ERA) and Robbie Ray (4.42 ERA) as candidates to be moved, if San Francisco can find a taker.

"Their home stadium is still a pitcher's park," one NL scout said. "Look at some of their road splits. I'm not sure I would take anyone outside of Webb."

There are similar concerns -- and perhaps even more contract restraints -- about the offense. Buster Olney reported this week that the Giants are open to offers for their highest-paid players, but trading them will prove challenging. Chapman has a full no-trade clause while Devers and Adames still have several years and big dollars left on their deal.

The same NL scout who questioned the trade value of San Francisco's starters pointed to Arraez as one Giants veteran who will draw interest over the weeks ahead.

Posey admits that as an executive - unlike when he was a player -- there are only a few times a year he can impact the team in a big way. The trade deadline is one of those times. But instead of revving up for a big acquisition to boost the pennant pursuit envisioned going into the year, the Giants most likely are in for a midsummer retool.

"I'm very frustrated," Posey said. "Yeah, I'm very frustrated. It's always a hard thing because I'm here watching the guys. I know they're putting in the work. I know they want to do well. I don't have the sense that it's like these guys are just apathetic to losing, but sure, I'm frustrated. I want a winner for this fan base badly."br/]