Who Are San Francisco’s Untouchables Heading Into the Deadline?

The San Francisco Giants have been reluctant to rebuild since entering Oracle Park in 2000. Despite having several opportunities, it’s something ownership has simply never been up for.

The 2026 season feels like an opportunity to finally do so. Buster Posey tried going the expensive route, giving Matt Chapman and Willy Adames some of the biggest guaranteed deals in franchise history and later trading for Rafael Devers and his contract worth north of $200 million.

Unfortunately for Giants fans, it simply hasn’t worked out. While Devers has been relatively fine, Chapman has dealt with injuries and Adames has been extremely disappointing for his price point.

San Francisco now sits well below .500 in the middle of what looked like a contention window. For the first time in a long time, blowing it up makes sense.

Not only because of the big-league club’s situation, but because the farm system looks the best it has in roughly 15 years. Even if San Francisco fully committing to a rebuild feels extremely unlikely, there are a couple of names who should be untouchable.

The Non-Negotiable

There’s only one name on the Giants roster that would force Buster Posey to immediately hang up the phone: Bryce Eldridge.

Eldridge was the organization’s best prospect since Posey himself and was untouchable before he had even reached the big leagues. However, him hitting the ground running at the highest level has only solidified that stance.

Despite an underwhelming cup of coffee last year, he has fully looked like the future of the franchise in 2026.

Even with some regression over the last month or so, Eldridge has a .253/.348/.442 slash with a 121 wRC+ and 11 home runs. Not to mention, he’s walking 12.9% of the time and his 26.8% strikeout rate is better than anything he posted in the minor leagues since the start of 2025.

Consistency hasn’t necessarily been his game, but he’s shown enough that every decision the Giants make over the next few days needs to be with him in mind.

The Newest Untouchable

Casey Schmitt was not a household name heading into 2026, but a breakout season has completely turned that around. If it weren’t for Luis Arraez, who the Giants just traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, Schmitt would’ve undoubtedly been the club’s best and most consistent hitter through the year’s first four months.

Talks started about a month ago about whether the Giants would move him. Thanks to his four years of control, it was worth wondering what San Francisco could get for him on the trade market.

With how little the Giants have been able to develop above-average big-leaguers however, having a cheap, controllable player with Schmitt’s upside on both sides of the ball feels difficult to trade away this quickly.

Sure, him going down with a torn meniscus last week nearly guarantees he’s a Giant past the deadline, but in all honesty, it shouldn’t even be a conversation. Some fans felt this way before 2026, but San Francisco now has a long-term solution at second base.

On The Bubble

With Arraez and Robbie Ray — the Giants most obvious trade candidates — being rentals, they likely won’t get a world-altering return for either of them unless an absurd bidding war takes places.

This brings one to wonder how serious Buster Posey is about Logan Webb staying put in San Francisco. The right-hander has been the face of the Giants since Posey’s retirement after the 2021 season and one of the most consistent starters in Major League Baseball.

In that span, he’s finished top 12 in Cy Young voting (including a 2nd place finish) every season while making three straight All-Star teams. If San Francisco was serious about acquiring as much talent for the future as possible, they’d float Webb in talks.

He’s making $47 million over the next two years, which is certainly less than what he’d hypothetically get on the free agent market. Not to mention, there are a handful of teams that would be open to taking on that contract and willing to give up a significant package to do so.

While there’s probably a 98% chance Webb stays put, it’s an interesting conversation.

Final Thoughts

Everybody outside of Bryce Eldridge and Casey Schmitt should be on the table for the Giants. Despite them having a true core for the first time since Posey, Brandon Crawford, Madison Bumgarner, and Brandon Belt, it simply hasn’t resulted in consistent wins and changes should be made.

Naturally, it’ll be hard to move any of the club’s major contracts, but if Posey and Co. want to get creative, they might just be able to.

The real question, however, is how big the front office goes before Monday’s deadline. Is a name like Logan Webb actually untouchable or would the right package motivate Posey to move him?