Have the Giants Finally Found a Solution at First Base?
After trading for Rafael Devers and promoting Bryce Eldridge, the Giants finally have some clarity at first base.
| | 
It’s no secret that it’s been an underwhelming string of seasons for the San Francisco Giants. After a 107-win season in 2021, the organization has had four straight years of mediocre baseball, finishing around .500 in all of them.
This run of mediocrity has been highlighted by some rosters that, quite frankly, are nowhere near the tier of division rivals like the Dodgers and Padres. However, heading into 2026, the Giants finally have some star power and high-upside pieces.
Stars like Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, and Willy Adames, including top prospect Bryce Eldridge, now dominate the backs of jerseys in San Francisco. This has led to a significant step forward in stability on the lineup card from a day-to-day basis.
After some rough stretches at the position, has this stability finally reached first base? Let’s take a look.
Former First-Base Options
LaMonte Wade Jr. was a huge part of the Giants’ success in 2021, when they won the NL West title and a franchise record 107 games. In 109 games in a platoon role, he hit 18 home runs, accumulated 1.9 fWAR and posted a 118 wRC+.
While he played outfield for the majority of that season, he would be the team’s primary option at first base for the next few years.
Wilmer Flores is the other name that spent the majority of time at first base throughout the last few seasons. He was a fan favorite but never seemed like the long-term solution if the Giants wanted to play winning baseball anytime soon.
Wade and Flores both have unusual hitting profiles for everyday first-base options and, in 2025, saw an extreme dip in production.
| Games | AVG. | OBP. | SLG. | HR | wRC+ | fWAR | |
| Lamonte Wade Jr. | 50 | .167 | .275 | .271 | 1 | 58 | -1.0 |
| Wilmer Flores | 125 | 241. | .307 | .379 | 9 | 95 | -0.2 |
While both players had some good seasons with San Francisco and were beloved by fans for the majority of their tenures, the production wasn’t good enough to continue running them out there every day.
This forced Buster Posey and the front office to look in another direction for their everyday first baseman. Wade was traded in the middle of last season after being designated for assignment, and Flores recently elected free agency.
The Present & The Future
In June of this past season, Posey shocked the world and acquired Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox in one of the biggest trades in recent MLB history. Fans immediately thought that San Francisco got their designated hitter for the foreseeable future, but that wasn’t necessarily the case.
Devers immediately stated that he’d be willing to play anywhere and the Giants haven’t enjoyed an everyday DH throughout the past few years. First base was the first thought that jumped to everybody’s mind after the infamous situation between Devers, the Red Sox, and their first-base opening earlier in 2025.
In a comic twist from his thoughts on playing first base with Boston, Devers suited up as the starting first baseman for the Giants on August 22 against the Atlanta Braves. He quickly became the team’s first option at the position and acclimated pretty well on the defensive side of things.
Of course, there’s no question with the bat. After a slow start with the club, Devers held a 142 wRC+ with 18 home runs from July 15 until the end of the season. Since the beginning of 2021, he’s averaged a 134 wRC+, showcasing his elite consistency at the plate as one of the best pure mashers in Major League Baseball.
However, Devers isn’t the only long-term solution at first base for San Francisco. Throughout the last few weeks of the 2025 campaign, we saw the Giants’ best prospect since Buster Posey get his first taste of big-league baseball.
While his two week cup of coffee didn’t have a ton of highlights outside of a double, his minor-league numbers and advanced metrics tell you all you need to know about the 21-year-old. Across two levels in the minors in 2025, Eldridge launched 25 home runs and held a 120 wRC+.
Those numbers are already impressive, but it’s some of the nerdy numbers that truly have the Giants excited. In Triple-A Sacramento this year, Eldridge ran an average exit velocity of 95.7 mph and a max exit velocity of 114.6 mph.
To keep it simple, when making contact, Eldridge hits the ball as hard, if not harder than anybody in the game.
In his mere two weeks with the big-league club, he hit a ball just under 110 mph (109.7 mph) and in just 16 events held an average exit velocity of 95.6 mph, which would’ve ranked second among qualified MLB hitters.
With Devers and Eldridge locked down in San Francisco for north of the next half-decade, the Giants finally have their first base position locked down. The Giants have seen a number of less-than-ideal options sliding in for the majority of the last few seasons, and the franchise can now cross first base off their list of needs this winter.
Final Thoughts
Between Devers’ otherworldly consistency and Eldridge’s elite metrics, San Francisco enters 2026 with real clarity at first base — something they haven’t necessarily had since the retirement of Brandon Belt.
After years of short-term fixes at the position, the Giants can turn their focus to other needs this upcoming winter. The organization is gearing up for a legit return to contention in the National League under new manager Tony Vitello and POBO Buster Posey, and it’s clear that they have a powerhouse planted at first base.
Written by
Michael Monreal got his start in baseball media when he started his own website covering the San Francisco Giants after playing two years of college baseball.…