There are some coaching changes coming for the San Francisco Giants. Last week, in a surprising move, Giants hitting coach Hunter Mense departed the organization after a single year, opting to take the same job with the Kansas City Royals, a move that appears to be driven by a desire to be closer to family. In the aftermath of Mense’s departure there wer numerous reports that the Giants would likely make a few other moves, which is fairly standard stuff for a team coming off one of the worst seasons
in franchise history.
On Tuesday, at the opening of the GM Meetings, Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey revealed that the organization is very close to announcing Mense’s replacement, so we’ll likely have a new name to dissect shortly. Until then, however, Posey left us with three nuggets for the 2027 staff: Ron Washington and Gary Pettis are returning in their same roles, and Taira Uematsu has been promoted to first base coach.
Retaining Washington and Pettis is big for the Giants. Not much went well for them in 2026, but the presence of those two was an unquestioned positive. Washington worked his defensive wizardry across multiple players, most notably Luis Arráez, who blossomed from one of the league’s worst defensive second basemen to one of its best under Washington’s tutelage. Pettis, who was born and raised in the Bay Area, was hired during the season to replace Hector Borg as the third base coach, slid into the role admirably, and turned a huge talking point early in the season into something the team didn’t need to worry about.
As for Uematsu, he replaces Shane Robinson at first base, with Robinson staying in the organization, but moving to the Minor League side of things. Uematsu, who has been with the Giants for a while and is very well respected, will become the first Japanese-born base coach in MLB history.
