How in the World Are the Giants Walking This Rarely?

It has been an excellent 12 months for walks. No matter you wish to attribute it to – and belief me, I’ve executed plenty of attributing – batters are drawing free passes extra ceaselessly than they’ve for a very long time. Effectively, most batters. The San Francisco Giants didn’t get the memo. As a squad, the Giants have walked solely 5.8% of the time this 12 months. That’s final in baseball by a mile. The hole between them and the Twenty ninth-place Rockies is as massive because the hole between the Rockies and the league common. What provides?

My investigation began with the 2025 Giants. Stroll price is a secure statistic on the entire. For those who stroll quite a bit in a single 12 months, you’re prone to stroll quite a bit the following 12 months. However the Giants had been no slouches when it got here to taking a free base in 2025. The truth is, they’d one of many highest group stroll charges in baseball – 9.2%, fourth within the majors. Within the second half of the 12 months, they walked 8.7% of the time. The ten Giants who batted most ceaselessly had a mixed 9.6% stroll price. 4 of these gamers are not on the group, however they had been really hurting the typical – the six remaining Giants who batted most ceaselessly in 2025 posted an mixture 10.2% stroll price.

Let’s begin, then, with these six gamers:

As Keanu Reeves memorably put it: Whoa. These six have taken 61.5% of the Giants’ plate appearances this 12 months. In the event that they had been strolling on the clip they did final 12 months, that may add a whopping three proportion factors to the group’s general stroll price, putting San Francisco squarely in the midst of the pack as an alternative of traditionally low.

What may cause this sort of decline in stroll price? Simplistically, it’s most likely some mixture of three issues: Getting pitched in a different way, chasing extra, and making much less contact (to finish extra at-bats with strikeouts), with chasing extra a very powerful of the lot. I needed to get somewhat artistic to outline “getting pitched in a different way,” however as you may see, whereas these six have skilled somewhat little bit of all the things this 12 months, chase price is driving their lower in walks:

One other manner of placing it: The Giants had the eighth-lowest chase price in baseball final 12 months. This season, they’ve the sixth highest. The one two Giants to lower their chase price from final 12 months are Luis Arraez, who wasn’t on the group in ‘25, and Patrick Bailey, who isn’t on the group now.

Just about throughout the board, the Giants have adopted a extra aggressive posture in 2026. In 2025, they’d the third-lowest mark in a metric that I like utilizing to approximate strategy on the plate: swing price at pitches within the shadow zone when forward within the depend. These aren’t pitches that anybody needs to swing at – they’re pitcher’s pitches in hitter’s counts. These swings are largely byproducts of making an attempt to hit one thing juicy and getting a much less centrally positioned pitch than anticipated. For those who swing at much more of those from one 12 months to the following, it’s probably as a result of you are attempting to swing much more typically. This 12 months, the Giants have posted the sixth-highest swing price on these pitches, which means they’re dealing with the pitcher on the pitcher’s phrases extra usually than they used to.

There’s a confounding variable right here: Pitchers aren’t giving the Giants a lot likelihood to stroll, even when San Francisco hitters do handle to chase much less usually. No group has seen pitches over the guts of the plate at a better price this 12 months. Groups are coming after Adames, Devers, Arraez, and Ramos over the guts of the plate at career-high marks. The Giants are chasing extra usually, and so they’re getting force-fed strikes extra usually. Mix the 2, and also you’re going to see fewer walks.

This consequence doesn’t sound like a coincidence. The Giants talked an enormous sport about enjoying a extra contact-oriented fashion of baseball in the course of the offseason. Their entrance workplace and followers had been hardly the one group idealizing the Blue Jays’ contact abilities of their high-octane playoff run (although I’d word that the Jays’ actual talent was combining contact with energy, not merely making contact). And certainly, swinging extra usually is an efficient strategy to put the ball in play extra usually. However it’s additionally a good way to stroll much less usually, and the Giants have made a horrible tradeoff on this entrance. Their strikeout price has declined by just one.6 proportion factors, whereas their stroll price is down 3.6 proportion factors.

If you wish to take into consideration what this does to their general sport, changing it to wOBA is simple sufficient. Final 12 months, that 5.2 p.c of their plate appearances (1.6 plus 3.6) got here with a blended wOBA of .486. They’ve changed that 5.2 p.c with balls in play – fewer strikeouts, fewer walks. The Giants’ wOBA on contact in 2025 was .351; it’s .354 this 12 months. In different phrases, they changed a mixture of walks and strikeouts with a much less helpful mixture of batted balls. A 134-point wOBA hole is the distinction between Aaron Choose and a stable common – on just one/twentieth of their plate appearances, in equity.

The defenders of this contact-at-all-costs strategy inevitably insist that wOBA undervalues all of the extremely thrilling ancillary results of placing the ball in play. You give your group a chance to run the bases. Runners can transfer extra than simply station to station. Balls in play can rating runs the place non-contact occasions can’t. The extra baserunners on, the higher a success is in comparison with a stroll. However there are two clear issues right here: The Giants are poor baserunners, and in addition they don’t get on base.

Maybe poor is simply too charitable. The Giants are thirtieth in baserunning runs this 12 months, and that’s regardless of having fewer alternatives than common to lose worth. Bailey, who’s a catcher and in addition not on the group, is second on the squad in BsR. Arraez is the one baserunner price even half a run above common. The Giants have the bottom stolen base success price within the majors, and one of many lowest additional base development charges. They’re one of many slowest groups in baseball within the mixture. It’s not clear that placing these guys in movement extra usually is an efficient factor.

Equally, if there’s nobody on base, a stroll and a single are equally helpful. The Giants have nobody on base quite a bit. They by no means stroll! They’re one of many groups to bat most ceaselessly with the bases empty this 12 months. A few of that’s as a result of they play in a tricky offensive atmosphere, however as a counterpoint, that is the bottom group OBP for a Giants squad since Oracle Park (then Pac Bell Park) opened in 2000.

This group has loads of energy. The truth is, lots of Buster Posey’s strikes since taking on as president of baseball operations have leaned into energy particularly. Matt Chapman and Willy Adames, each of whom had been Posey signings, are power-and-defense sorts. (Whereas it’s true the Giants prolonged Chapman earlier than Posey was employed, he’s the one who negotiated with Chapman on their behalf, so I’m counting it right here.) Devers, Posey’s largest commerce acquisition, is most notable for his colossal uncooked energy. Daniel Susac, the group’s new beginning catcher, is a power-over-OBP form of man. Harrison Bader, a winter addition, hits for energy however doesn’t get on base.

Arraez is the one clear counterpoint to this technique, and you may see the considering right here: Discover a man who will get on base an excellent deal (profession .363 OBP) a technique or one other to pair with the boppers. I’ve beforehand argued that Arraez’s abilities are geared extra towards batting with runners on base, which is a separate problem, however the general level is that the Giants appear to have constructed a lineup constructed largely round energy, with a secondary emphasis on protection.

That feels to me just like the mistaken form of group to lean into prioritizing contact – however the pitch-level information recommend that there’s been a team-wide change in strategy. It’s not likely a change in group composition. It’s not likely just a few hitters skewing the typical. Throughout the board, the Giants are exhibiting all of the indicators of a contact-first strategy. They’re placing out and strolling much less ceaselessly. They’re hitting for much less energy, hitting the ball onerous much less ceaselessly, and hitting the ball on the bottom extra usually once they make contact. They’re swinging extra throughout the board, and but they’re swinging and lacking much less usually than final 12 months. That final pattern is extra of a combined bag, however within the mixture, it positive seems to be like how I’d describe a contact-hitting strategy. However now that I’ve had just a few paragraphs to rant about what I feel is a few improper alignment of group development and strategy, let’s get again to the walks.

In the event that they proceed at this tempo, the Giants are going to make some ignominious historical past. They’re strolling 1.8 proportion factors much less ceaselessly than the next-lowest group. The final time there was a spot of even 1 proportion level was 1939, when the Boston Bees walked 6.3% of the time and the Phillies walked 7.4% of the time. And shockingly, I feel there’s some likelihood that issues will proceed at this tempo.

If the season had began a month in the past, the Giants can be final in baseball in stroll price, with a 6% mark. If the season had began two weeks in the past, the Giants can be final in baseball in stroll price, with a 5.9% mark. If the season began final week, the Giants would solely be third-last in stroll price – however with a 6.3% mark. They’re nonetheless one of many swing-happiest groups in baseball.

It’s an indication of how unusual issues are in San Francisco that Arraez has really been one of the affected person Giants. As talked about above, he’s chasing much less this season than he did a 12 months in the past. He’s strolling greater than he has at any level since 2022. He’s really second amongst frequent Giants batters in stroll price, which boggles my thoughts. He was eleventh on the Padres in stroll price in 2025, twelfth in ‘24, and eleventh on the Marlins in ‘23.

However there’s one signal that augurs some constructive regression, and I feel that it’s going to hold these Giants from taking place in historical past because the group least able to drawing a stroll. Particularly, San Francisco’s aggression is simply half of the puzzle. The opposite half, which I nodded to above, is that opposing groups have been flooding the strike zone on the identical time that the Giants are swinging greater than ever. That technique labored extremely effectively at first of the season; by way of the tip of April, the Giants had been scoring 3.3 runs per sport, had been final in baseball in dwelling runs, and had posted the bottom ISO within the majors.

It’s not merely a matter of the climate heating up – this isn’t a scorching time of 12 months in San Francisco, as I can attest. However whereas the group nonetheless isn’t strolling, the facility hitting that the offense is constructed round has turned a nook. Over the past 30 days, the Giants are eighth in baseball in ISO and sixth in slugging proportion. Throughout the final two weeks, they’re second in baseball in each classes. They’re scoring 4 runs a sport, not a dire degree, notably after accounting for park results. Devers was dragging the offense down at first of the season; in Might, he’s 14th in baseball with a 162 wRC+. He’s executed that with solely a 6.4% stroll price, as a result of opponents proceed to problem him aggressively, however I can’t think about that can proceed indefinitely.

The cat-and-mouse sport of pitchers reacting to hitters reacting to pitchers doesn’t occur instantaneously. The Giants obtained comprehensively trounced offensively to start out the season. Why would pitchers change what they had been doing? However now the Giants have made an adjustment; with opposing groups flooding the zone, they’re hitting for energy. Pitchers will probably counter by attacking much less aggressively – which in flip will probably result in greater stroll and strikeout charges. Which may consequence within the Giants swinging much less as a complete – there are ranges to this, in different phrases.

I’ll shut this text with a confession: I’m rooting for my evaluation to be mistaken. I’m rooting for the Giants to set an all-time report for lowest stroll price in a 12 months the place the principles of the sport modified and made walks extra frequent. I’m undoubtedly rooting for Arraez to guide the group in walks. I’m a fan of tales in baseball extra so than groups at this level, and this story is one which significantly amuses me. However whereas it actually does seem that plenty of the Giants’ shockingly low stroll price is pushed by choices the group is making, and due to this fact may proceed to make, I feel their batters are simply doing an excessive amount of harm to maintain getting pitched the way in which they’re now.