The Giants just made a MASSIVE decision...

The San Francisco Giants just lost their hitting coach, and we didn't even know he was trying to leave. Hunter Pence is headed to Kansas City. The Royals have hired him as their new hitting coach, according to Mark Finesen, and Giants beat writer Justin salve Santos says he's leaving. Personally, I thought Pence was the right guy for the job, but now he's moving on. The Giants have to answer who's the next guy and what they want this offense to be. Pence is leaving a team that hit 178 home runs and scored just the 26th most runs in baseball. For those that may have forgotten, Pence was hired by the Giants on November 12th, 2025, away from the team that had just appeared in the World Series, the Blue Jays. And that was right after the Giants hired Tony Vitello, who Pence played for at the University of Missouri. Now before we get too deep into today's video, if you want all of the breaking news this offseason, make sure to go down below and hit that subscribe button. About two-thirds of you guys watching these videos are not actually subscribed to the channel, completely free, takes just a second of your time, and really helps us continue to bring the best Giants content and analysis on YouTube. As I mentioned, before coming to San Francisco, Pence spent three seasons as the Blue Jays assistant hitting coach from 2022 to 2025. That was after three years as their minor league hitting coordinator. Toronto's President Ross Atkins said of him, quote, he's exceptionally disciplined and very bright, and his focus there was swing mechanics and drill design. As for why he's leaving the Giants, we honestly don't really know yet. It sounds like the Giants probably gave him permission to go interview with the Royals because it is more of a lateral move, and he decided to leave. That's more of my read, not necessarily a report. It's still very early in this news. What we do know is that it won't be the only change. NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovich wrote that the Giants are looking for a new hitting coach and that it sounds like it won't be the only change to their staff. And that came after the shuffling of their pitching coaches a few weeks ago, so it seems like this whole staff is going to be altered. Let's break down the offense that Pence is leaving behind, because it's not as simple as a bad offense. In 2026, the San Francisco Giants had a 97 WRC Plus on Fangraphs, tied for 20th in Major League Baseball. For those that may not know, WRC Plus is basically an all-encompassing stat, and 100 is league average, so they were slightly below it. The Giants as a whole had a 7.06 OPS, which ranked 23rd in baseball, and they scored 669 runs, which was 26th out of all 30 teams. Honestly, the contact and the gap power was completely fine. They hit 262 doubles, which was 9th in baseball. They also had a 2.45 batting average, tied for 13th, both of those obviously in the top half. The rest of it says the same thing. They had 1,341 hits, tied for 13th in baseball. They struck out 1,342 times, 14th fewest, so strikeouts also weren't necessarily the problem. Their 178 home runs was 20th in baseball and up from 173 in 2025. They stole 88 bases, 22nd, up from 68. Their slugging percentage was 400, tied for 16th in baseball, right in the middle. It was a wildly interesting year from this offense. Obviously, they dealt with injuries, and the runs fell from 7.05 to 6.69, but the OPS actually went up from 6.97 in 2025 to 7.06 this year. There's a very real chance that this lineup is exactly the same heading into 2027, so Pence didn't leave behind a lineup that couldn't hit. It was their on-base percentage that really had them behind the 8-ball. With a .306 OBP, they ranked 29th out of all 30 teams. They walked just 449 times. That was the fewest of any team in baseball, with their walk rate, 7.4%, also being dead last. For those that may not remember, the first few weeks or months of the season, they were walking at a historically low rate. So clearly, the biggest problem was this team just struggled to get on base. Now, don't get me wrong, there were some exceptions. Bryce Eldridge came up and walked in 13.2% of his plate appearances, Rafael Devers at 10.9%. But on the flip side, you have guys like Jung-Hoo Lee or Casey Schmidt that simply don't walk at all. Now, of course, we do have to mention the injuries. Casey Schmidt hit the IL on July 28th with the meniscus, and he went on to have surgery. Matt Chapman missed the majority of the season with core surgery. Of course, Willie Adames was banged up all season long with the back. Then, towards the end of the season, Rafael Devers went on the 60-day IL on September 13th, and on the 21st, Jung-Hoo Lee and Bryce Eldridge both went on the injured list, Eldridge with a concussion, Jung-Hoo Lee with a groin injury. And before any of that, this was one of the most inconsistent offenses in all of Major League Baseball. As of July 30th, the Giants had scored three runs or fewer in 63 of their 108 games, the most in Major League Baseball. But on the flip side, they also had three games of 16 runs or more, also the most in MLB, not to mention they hit Grand Slam after Grand Slam. So when it worked, it really worked. It just didn't happen enough. So you can see why a hitting coach would look back at that season and want a clean slate, or why a team would look back at it and want a different voice. As of right now, we just don't know which one it is. And to be fair to Mensch, there were a lot of wins. Of course, Rafael Devers slugged 525 in 2026, up 65 points from the 460 he slugged in his first 90 games as a Giant in 2025. Now he's a Silver Slugger finalist. Bryce Eldridge went from playing minor league baseball in April to a 133 OPS Plus in the big leagues Not to mention the absolute breakout season from Casey Schmidt, where he was in all-star conversations. The team's OPS went up, the stolen bases went up, and their strikeouts fell from 1380 to 1342. Now again, he wasn't perfect, but in his first season as the Giants hitting coach, I still felt he was the right guy for the job. And it does get tricky because this offense is built in several different ways. Rafael Devers hit 37 home runs with a .267 isolated power in the 98th percentile and a .525 slugging percentage, 5th in Major League Baseball. Willie Adames hit 21 home runs with a .194 isolated power, but he struck out 27.5% of the time. Now Matt Chapman is typically in that group as well, but in 2024 he hit 7 home runs in 84 games before he hit the IL. But then you have guys like Jung-Hoo Lee who struck out just 9.8% of the time in the 98th percentile in baseball. He also hit .276, but only 2.1% of his batted balls were barrels. So you have guys trying to leave the yard in every single at bat, and then you have guys trying to poke the ball in the outfield to get a base hit. That's not just one philosophy. And we should mention that whoever the hitting coach is, he's going to have to develop the young, top prospects that have come up with the Giants in recent years. Bryce Eldridge hit 17 home runs in 107 games with an 825 OPS, which was 33% better than league average after park adjustment. He got recalled on May 4th, then he walked in 13.2% of his plate appearances. He brought exactly what this offense was missing. Then, of course, we saw Bo Davidson on September 21st through the end of the season, in 22 plate appearances. That's a small sample, but he's the next top prospect in line. And with how good this farm system is currently, we know there are many to come. Gavin Keelan, Parks Harbor are very close to the big leagues. Which brings us to Tony Vitello and Buster Posey. Vitello was, of course, a first-year manager, coming straight from the college ranks. And Mence was Vitello's hire. In their first year together, they went 65-97 and were eliminated in the early days of September. It was the fifth straight season the Giants had missed the playoffs. So whoever Buster Posey and Tony Vitello decide to hire, it will tell us a lot about what they want this offense to be. Do they try and get a coach who wants more power and more bat speed, or do they try and get a coach who wants more hits and more bat on ball, or someone in the middle? Now, I understand it's hard to tell guys like Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, Willie Davis to change their ways at the plate because it's made them a lot of money and very successful big leaguers. But at the end of the day, you simply need to get on base more often. It's going to be hard to find success and stack up wins when you're the last team in baseball in terms of walking and getting on base. Now, I'm not saying that this next hire has to be a superstar. This is the coach who's going to have to sit in a room with Devers and Lee and Adamas and then teach Eldridge and Davidson what to do as big leaguers. The Giants need to find the coach who gets the most out of the Giants superstars, Devers, Adamas, and Chapman, and develops Eldridge and Davidson into pure superstars. Now, as of now, we don't know why Mence left or who's coming, but right now, all we know is that there are more changes to be made. Let me know down in the comment section below what you thought of Hunter Mence and who you'd like to see the Giants hire as their next hitting coach. If you enjoyed today's video, go down below, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. Thank you for watching.