Giants announce MASSIVE decision...

The San Francisco Giants are handing their offense to the man who ran the Yankees lineup. The report came this morning. James Ralston, the Yankees hitting coach since November 2023, is heading to San Francisco, and John Heyman says the official title will be offensive coordinator. That's not a normal hitting coach hire. That's a new job with a new name built around one person. Here's what he ran. The Yankees hit 223 home runs this year, second in baseball, and Aaron Judge missed most of the season. The Giants hit 178, 20th. But, by WRC+, the Yankees were just the 14th best offense in baseball. All that power, and barely above average. So, did the Giants just land the power fix they've needed, or the wrong answer to the problem that sank them? We'll have to wait and see. Heyman's tweet came a few minutes after Murray's. The Giants are planning to hire him, and the title will be offensive coordinator. It isn't official yet. Ralston has been the Yankees hitting coach since November 2023. Before that, he was with the Tigers, the Twins, and the Marlins, and he was the Marlins bench coach from 2020 to 2022. And he's done this before. He was the Twins hitting coach from 2017 to 2019, and the 2019 Twins hit 307 home runs, tied with the 2023 Braves for the most in a single season in baseball history. The Yankees are not sure what happens next. Brian Cashman called him a free agent at the GM meetings and said New York is talking to other hitting coach candidates. There is a clock on all of this too. The lockout is looming on December 1st and a coach hired during one can't have any contact with its players. That's why the Giants moved now. Buster Posey said yesterday at the GM meetings that they were close to hiring a hitting coach and now this is the guy. Alex Pavlovich reported yesterday that Tyra Umatsu will be the new first base coach, Ron Washington is back on staff, and Gary Pettis is returning to third base. So the majority of the staff is set. The one open seat was the hitting coach because Hunter Mendoza left for Kansas City. Mence is now the Royals' assistant hitting coach, and on his YouTube channel, Alex Pavlovich hinted that family being in that area was one of the biggest factors. Before we talk about the replacement, let's look at what he's replacing. The 2026 Giants offense was a mixed bag, not necessarily a disaster. The Giants scored 669 runs down from 7.05 in 2025, and they walked 449 times down from 5.56. Those two numbers fell the most. But the OPS actually went up from 697 to 706, and the strikeouts came down from 1380 to 1342. The offense got a little better at the plate, and a lot worse at scoring. Part of that is injuries. Willie Adames, Matt Chapman, even Rafael Devers all dealt with significant injuries in 2026. And of course, the record shows it. The Giants finished 65-97, 35 games out of first, and were eliminated on September 6th, their fifth straight year of missing the playoffs. Now, if you're enjoying this video, 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. It's completely free, takes just a second of your time, and would be greatly appreciated. There are hitters in the Giants lineup that also point in different directions. Rafael Devers hit 37 home runs with a .267 isolated power and a .525 slugging percentage. Jung-Hoo Lee is the exact opposite. He struck out only 9.8% of the time, 98th percentile, and hit .276, but only 2.1% of his batted balls were barreled. Then, there's Bryce Eldridge, who walked in 13.2% of his plate appearances, 93rd percentile, and finished with an 825 OPS in 107 games. So the Giants have a mixed bag of power bats, contact bats, patient bats, and impatient bats. So, what did the Yankees and Ralston's offense look like last year? Start with the power, because it was elite. The Yankees hit 223 home runs, second in baseball, behind only Houston's 226. And they did that without Aaron Judge for the majority of the season. He played in 66 games, hit 18 home runs, and was out from May 31st with a rib stress fracture, then hurt his calf in September. So that's the second most home runs in baseball from a lineup that missed the best power hitter in baseball for the majority of the season. That's the case for Ralston, and it's a pretty good one. Their isolated power, which is slugging minus batting average, was 175, 4th in the league, and their slugging percentage was 409. But the power output did come with a little bit of a price. The Yankees hit 235 as a team, and they struck out in 24.7% of their plate appearances, the 4th highest rate in baseball. When you add it all up, they scored 739 runs, an OPS of 720, 11th in baseball, and that 101 WRC+, again, 14th. To be fair, they walked 9.5% of the time, which is well above average. That's real, and it's the part of Rauhson's offense the Giants could use. So the Yankees had power, patience, and a lot of strikeouts. It just didn't make them a top 10 offense in baseball. Now, let's compare them to the Giants this year. The Giants hit 178 home runs, 20th. That's 45 fewer than New York. Their isolated power was 155 against the Yankees' 175. But look at the slugging. The Giants slugged just 400, the Yankees 409. That's a 9-point difference. And the overall gap wasn't huge either. The Giants had a 7.06 OPS, 23rd in baseball. The Yankees had a 7.20, 11th. That's 14 points. The runs were a bigger difference. The Yankees scored 739. The Giants, 669. That's 70. And the Giants WRC Plus was below league average at 97, tied for 20th in baseball, against the Yankees 101. Now here's the biggest difference. The Giants walked 7.4% of the time, the lowest rate in Major League Baseball. The Yankees walked 9.5% of the time. And remember, to start the season, the Giants were walking at a historically low rate. On the flip side, the Giants struck out less, 22.1% against 24.7%, and hit 245, 10 points better than the Yankees. So the Giants were a worse power team and worse at scoring runs, but they made more contact. Rauhson's Yankees were the other way around. So who actually needs the power? Devers and Adames will always get theirs. The bats, the Giants want more from, Chapman, Lee, Drew Gilbert, and Marcelo Meyer. Adames hit 21 home runs with a 194 isolated power and a 713 OPS. He struck out in 27.5% of his plate appearances. Chapman is the biggest drop, 7 home runs in 84 games, a 134 isolated power, and a 692 OPS before he hit the 60 day IL with core muscle surgery. Jung-Koo Lee hit just 10 home runs with a 128 isolated power, Gilbert hit 11 with 724, and Meyer hit just 3 with a 570 OPS. That's a lot of room to add some impact, and young hitters are the easiest to change. So if the Giants want more impact from those bats towards the bottom of the lineup, a coach who ran the second most home runs in baseball sounds like the answer. That's probably one of the arguments for this hire, and I do get it. A new voice, a new swing plan, a bounce back from two guys with real track records. But look at what the Yankees' power cost. They strike out almost 25% of the time. Adames already struck out 27.5% of the time. If power for Adames means more swing and more strikeouts, his 713 OPS isn't going to get better. That's something I'd watch. Chapman is on the other end of the spectrum. He didn't hit for power, so the question is whether Raulson can fix his swing, not whether he can sell out for homers. My biggest problem with this hire is the Giants' biggest hole was never home runs. It was getting on base. San Francisco's on-base percentage was .306 and their walk rate was the lowest in baseball. They drew 449 walks, the fewest of any team. And the Yankees' offense wasn't built for getting on base either. Their on-base percentage was .311, only 5 points higher. So the Yankees' formula was take a lot of walks, strike out a lot, and hit the ball over the fence. The first part helps the Giants, the other two are a gamble. And hitting coaches don't control the roster. The Yankees' power came from a lineup with 223 home runs in it, and they had the 14th best offense by WRC+. That doesn't mean Raulson is a bad hire, it means his best number is something the Giants didn't necessarily need. There's also a bigger story about this hire, and it's the people who made it. Tony Vitello was hired as manager on October 22, 2025, straight from the University of Tennessee. Adames was his guy. He played outfield for Vitello at Missouri from 2004-2006, and the Giants hired him on November 12th, 2025. There's also emerging rookie Bryce Eldridge, who hit 17 home runs with a 192 isolated power as a rookie. Bringing in Aaron Judge's hitting coach for the last few years when you have a young power bat emerging makes sense. Both Judge and Eldridge are 6'7". So the first hitting coach of the Vitello and Posey era lasted just one season, and the Giants went 65-97. That's what makes this hire matter. Vitello and Posey are not just replacing a coach, they're saying out loud they want one person in charge of how this offense hits. If Raulson comes in and says the Giants need to hit more home runs, that's the Yankees formula. If he says they need more walks, that's the first half of it and the part I like. Either way, he has to have some conversations with Devers, Adames, Lee, Chapman, and Eldridge and a couple of hitters before this lockout emerges. It makes sense why the Giants wanted to move quickly, and the timing is right. The lockout begins on December 1st, and remember, he can't talk to any of his offense during that time. Look, it's extremely early in this process. It's going to be a wait-and-see type of hire. I don't know much about him, and he has some fun bats in San Francisco to work with. Now, if I had to choose very, very early, I don't love the hire, but I also don't hate it. The Yankees' power was real, and Raulson has done this before, but the Giants' hole was getting on base. If the Giants' walk rate as a team climbs, and Adama's and Chapman both have bounce-back seasons, I'll be a believer. Over the next few days and the next few weeks, we will be following what else happens on this coaching staff, what his official title is, and what happens on December 1st. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on this hire for the San Francisco Giants of Raulson, and if you enjoyed today's video, hit that subscribe button, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for watching.