Manager Bob Melvin was fired Monday by the San Francisco Giants after the club missed the playoffs for a fourth straight season.
Buster Posey, Giants president of baseball operations, announced the decision Monday. Posey had shown his confidence in Melvin by exercising the veteran manager’s contract option for the 2026 season on July 1.
But Melvin said after Sunday’s 4-0 victory against Colorado to conclude his second season that he had received no assurances about managing in 2026.
“It is what it is,” he said, “we’ll see what the next day brings.”
The Giants finished 81-81 for one more victory than in Melvin’s first year. They haven’t reached the post-season since winning the National League West with a franchise-record 107 victories to edge the rival Dodgers by one game in 2021 under then-skipper Gabe Kapler.
After meeting with ownership, I met with Bob today to inform him of my decision,” Posey said in a statement. “After careful evaluation, we determined that making a change in leadership was in the best interest of the team.
“The last couple of months have been both disappointing and frustrating for all of us, and we did not perform up to our standards. We now turn our focus to identifying a new leader to guide us forward.”
Players offered support for Melvin as the season ended.
“You know how I feel about BoMel, I loved him. He’s been my manager for I guess seven years,” said third baseman Matt Chapman, who also played for Melvin with Oakland. “I feel extremely grateful that I get to play for him and he’s the same guy every day. He’s been steady for us, he’s always honest with the players, he has our back.
“He’s done the best with what we’ve given him. The players, a lot of us didn’t play to probably our capabilities.”
The 63-year-old Melvin left the San Diego Padres to return home to the Bay Area and manage the Giants last year for the job he always dreamed of doing as a former catcher with the organization. This is his 22nd year as a major league manager.
Melvin has a 1,678-1,588 career regular-season managerial record. A three-time manager of the year who has won the award in both leagues, he has eight post-season appearances while guiding Arizona, Seattle, Oakland, San Diego and the Giants.
San Francisco finished 80-82 in Melvin’s first season last year after he replaced Kapler, who was fired with three days remaining in the 2023 season.
Melvin is a native of nearby Palo Alto, California. He attended the University of California-Berkeley and played for his hometown Giants from 1986-88.
Twins went 19-35 after trade deadline
The Minnesota Twins fired manager Rocco Baldelli, ending his seven-year tenure that included three American League Central titles after a second straight disappointing season.
Minnesota announced Baldelli’s firing following a season marked by a major selloff leading up to the trade deadline after the team faltered in June and failed to mount any momentum in July. The Twins (70-92) went 19-35 after the deadline passed following the departure of 10 players off their major league roster, with only the Colorado Rockies faring worse over the final two months.
The Twins finished with the fourth-worst record in the major leagues and their worst mark since 2016, when they went 59-103 after firing longtime general manager Terry Ryan at mid-season. Current team president Derek Falvey was hired to replace Ryan after that.
“Over the past seven years Rocco has been much more than our manager. He has been a trusted partner and teammate to me in leading this organization,” Falvey said in a statement. “Together we shared a deep care for the Twins, for our players and staff, and for doing everything in our power to put this club in the best position to succeed. Along the way we experienced some meaningful accomplishments, and I will always be proud of those, even as I wish we had ultimately achieved more.
“This is a difficult day because of what Rocco represents to so many people here. He led with honesty, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to our players and staff. He gave himself fully to this role and I have tremendous respect and gratitude for the way he carried himself and the way he showed up every single day.”
For the second straight year, uncertainty around Baldelli’s status hovered around the club. The Twins, who went 87-75 in 2023 to win their third AL Central title under Baldelli and their first series in the playoffs in 21 years, were in firm control of a wild-card spot down the stretch last season before tumbling out of contention with a 12-27 record over the last six weeks to land at 82-80.
Factoring that finish into their extended funk this year, the Twins are 82-119 over their last 201 games for a .408 winning percentage. That includes a 13-game winning streak they produced earlier this season.
Red Sox pitcher Giolito to miss wild-card series
Boston Red Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito will miss the American League wild-card series because of an injured elbow.
A 31-year-old right-hander, Giolito had been expected to start the third game of the best-of-three series on Thursday against the New York Yankees, following Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello in Boston’s rotation.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Monday that Giolito had gone to see Dr. Jeffrey Dugas at the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center. Dugas repaired the ulnar collateral ligament in Giolito’s right elbow with internal brace surgery on March 12 last year.
Giolito was 10-4 with a 3.41 earned-run average in 26 starts this season. He also had Tommy John surgery with Dr. Lewis Yocum on Sept. 13, 2012.
A 2019 all-star, Giolito is 71-66 with a 4.30 ERA in nine major league seasons with Washington (2016), Chicago White Sox (2017-23), Los Angeles Angels (2023), Cleveland (2023) and Boston (2025).
Left-handers Connelly Early and Kyle Harrison are candidates to start a Game 3.
Average game time at 2 hours 38 minutes
The average time of a nine-inning major league baseball game increased by two minutes this season to two hours 38 minutes in the third year of the pitch clock.
MLB’s average fell from 3:04 in 2022 to 2:40 the following year when the clock was instituted and decreased to 2:36 in 2024, its lowest since 1984’s 2:35.
The average game time passed three hours for the first time in 2016. It reached a record 3:10 in 2021 before the introduction of the PitchCom electronic pitch-calling device helped bring it down to 3:04 in 2022.
Three nine-inning games lasted 3:30 or longer this year, down from 391 such games in 2021.
Attendance up slightly for 3rd season in a row
Major League Baseball’s overall attendance increased for a third straight season for the first time since 2004-07, but the average dipped slightly because of fewer single-admission doubleheaders caused by weather postponements.
MLB drew 71.41 million fans for 2,423 gates in the regular season that ended Sunday for an average of 29,471. The total was up 0.1 per cent from last year’s 71.35 million fans over 2,413 gates.
This year’s average of 29,471 was down 0.3% from last year’s 29,568, MLB said Monday.
Attendance was depressed by the moves of the Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays to minor league ballparks.
Playing at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, Calif., the A’s drew a major league-low home attendance of 768,464 for 81 games, an average of 9,487. That was down from a total of 922,286 and an average of 11,529 last year at the Oakland Coliseum.
The A’s are planning to have most home games in Sacramento through 2027 while a new stadium is being built in Las Vegas. They have scheduled a six-game homestand at the triple-A Las Vegas Ballpark next June.
Tampa Bay played home games this season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees, because of damage caused last October by Hurricane Milton to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. The Rays drew 786,750 for an average of 9,713, selling out 61 games. Last year, they drew 1,337,739 to the Trop, 28th and ahead of only the Miami Marlins and A’s.
They intend to return to the Trop next season.
Six teams topped 3 million, up from five last year but down from eight in 2023.
The reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers reached 4 million for the first time at 4,012,470 for an average of 49,537, up from 3,941,251.
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