Giants other rookie saves the day

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - MAY 04: Trevor McDonald #72 of the San Francisco Giants pitches against the San Diego Padres in the top of the first inning at Oracle Park on May 04, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) | Getty Images The San Francisco Giants, feckless and fully on life support after one of the worst road trips in franchise history, were in desperation mode after Sunday’s defeat.

As we’ve been told since birth, desperate times call for desperate measures, and in baseball parlance, desperate measures means desperate transactions. And so it wasn’t surprising that the team that flew out of Tampa Bay on Sunday was not the same as the one that arrive to Oracle Park on Monday to face the San Diego Padres to kick off a six-game homestand. The reports trickled in on Sunday night while the plane was likely still on the tarmac in Florida.

They were confirmed by the beat reporters later in the evening. They were announced by the team on Monday afternoon. Exactly a month ahead of the schedule set by last year’s “it’s time to go” quote, Buster Posey was pulling the trigger on the biggest in-house moves he could make.

Bryce Eldridge, the team’s top hitting prospect since Posey himself, was coming up. Jesús Rodríguez, one of the top contact hitters in all of the Minors, was accompanying him. The third move was almost an afterthought, both in the announcement and in the literal sense.