Logan Webb Is Still the Perfect Leader on the Giants’ Staff

Going into the 2026 season, there were some real question marks within the San Francisco Giants starting rotation. While Robbie Ray and Landen Roupp had strong 2025 campaigns, it’s been a bit more up and down throughout the first few months.

Looking back, they probably should’ve tried to sign some higher-tier options, but their two free-agent additions — Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser — have been extreme disappointments up to this point.

The one sure thing? Logan Webb.

In the middle of a four-year run of mediocre baseball by the bay, the one real bright spot has been the club’s righty. Even if he’s not the prototypical ace, Webb has safely secured himself as one of the league’s best and most consistent starters.

After a disappointing start to the season, the 29-year-old has proven he’s still the right guy to be leading this rotation.

A Rough Start

The Giants were chosen to host the league’s opening game on Netflix, which meant Webb would take the ball on national television. Coming off of a handful of strong starts in the World Baseball Classic, there were really no worries for San Francisco fans.

Unfortunately, this would be the start of one of the more inconsistent runs of Webb’s career. He ended up allowing seven runs (six earned) against the Yankees, despite striking Aaron Judge out three times.

While he would put together a relatively solid month of April (3.27 ERA), another rough outing to open May brought his season numbers to an unfamiliar place. Through his first eight starts of the year, Webb had tossed 48 innings with a 5.06 ERA.

It was an underwhelming start considering the amount of weight that was on his shoulders with the lack of real rotation additions throughout the winter. Whether it was the implementation of the ABS challenge system, or simply a regression in overall effectiveness, fans were grasping at straws trying to figure out where their ace had gone.

The one thing nobody considered was the possibility of Webb being hurt, and it was for good reason. Outside of getting shut down at the end of 2022 due to an innings limit, Webb hadn’t seen time on the IL since July of 2021.

Him being available is part of what makes him valuable, and for the first time in what felt like ages, Webb was heading to the IL.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

Webb made it clear that his knee was no excuse for the way he had pitched to open the year. However, results would suggest that the inflammation was bothering him significantly more than he and the Giants had led us to believe.

Webb had a tough task returning from his first IL stint in years with an outing at Coors Field, but in a limited 4.2 innings, he allowed just one lone run while striking out five. It wasn’t dominant by any means, but it was better than what he had shown to open the season and an encouraging sign for the trajectory of Webb’s season.

Fast forward to now, and there is absolutely zero questions on whether Webb is still an ace. Over his last four starts, he’s returned to being one of the best arms in MLB:

	IP	ER	H	SO	BB
6/21 @ MIA	8.0	2	5	5	1
6/14 vs. CHC	8.0	0	7	7	0
6/8 vs. WSN	8.0	1	5	7	0
6/3 @ MIL	7.0	0	1	4	1

If it weren’t for some kid named Jacob Misiorowski in Milwaukee, San Francisco’s horse would be running away as the NL Pitcher of the Month.

Despite missing nearly a month’s worth of starts, Webb still leads the Giants’ rotation in innings. While that shows how poor the rest of the group has been of late, it’s also a testament to how impressive Webb has been since the start of June. His 31 innings this month lead the league, while his ERA (0.87) and fWAR (1.1) rank second and third, respectively.

Even with the disappointing start, Webb is doing the thing he does every single year: proving to be one of the most effective starters in the league without overpowering hitters.

While the strikeout numbers have taken a step back from last year, Webb’s getting outs for a pitching staff that desperately needs them.

Thanks to this impressive run, folks around the league have floated the idea of San Francisco dealing their ace at this year’s deadline in the midst of an abysmal season.

However, Buster Posey immediately shut down all of those ideas in a recent media scrum.

“Posey said he will examine all options ahead of the Aug. 3 deadline, but gave a quick ‘no’ when asked if he would entertain offers for ace Logan Webb.”

– Alex Pavlovic, NBCSBA

Final Thoughts

While things can always change with a little over a month until the deadline, Webb is in San Francisco for the foreseeable future.

We may be calling it a lost season in San Francisco before reaching July, but thanks to the breakout of Bryce Eldridge and the emergence of Jung Hoo Lee, there’s a path to contention sooner rather than later for the Giants.

Naturally, Buster Posey and the front office will have to make some major moves to get there, but one thing is for sure: Logan Webb is still an ace in this league and the right person to lead this rotation.