{"slug": "kurtenbach-sf-giants-excuse-making-keeps-proving-theyre-a-rudderless-ship", "title": "Kurtenbach: SF Giants’ excuse-making keeps proving they’re a rudderless ship", "summary": "San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey, star Rafael Devers, and manager Tony Vitello held press conferences Tuesday that failed to address the team's ongoing controversies, including a Pride Night dispute and Devers' public insubordination, confirming the organization's lack of leadership and accountability as they struggle near the bottom of the NL West.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...The Giants called the press conferences.\n\n[President of baseball operations Buster Posey](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/23/san-francisco-giants-buster-posey-pride-hat-lgbtqia-doj-hawley-manfred/) — the head honcho — 2 p.m. Tuesday, home dugout at Oracle Park.\n\n[Rafael Devers](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/23/san-francisco-giants-devers-vitello-posey-miami-pinch-run/) would speak after that in the clubhouse.\n\n[Tony Vitello](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/21/kurtenbach-a-pathetic-ninth-inning-conflict-perfectly-summarized-the-sf-giants-miserable-season/) would be in the dugout after that.\n\nThere had been a lot going on around the team — trade rumors, federal legal issues, a public temper tantrum from the team’s highest-paid star — so no subject matter was needed in the email announcing the times.\n\nThey called the press conferences.\n\nBecause how can there be leadership without accountability?\n\nAnd how can there be wins without leadership?\n\nI’m still asking. Tuesday provided no answers.\n\nWhen Posey took his seat on the top of the bench, he seemingly had no interest in talking.\n\nHe was there because there was an expectation he would be. Because someone called the presser.\n\nIt has long appeared as if the Giants were a rudderless operation. Tuesday, they confirmed just that.\n\n[Posey](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/24/logan-webb-trade-buster-posey-sf-giants/) dodged the team’s ongoing [Pride Night controversy](https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/23/san-francisco-giants-pride-night-lgbtq-controversy-protest-posey-manfred-mlb/). A cabal of lawyers likely advised him that silence is cheaper than honesty.\n\nHe wouldn’t even engage much in the *approved* baseball questions. He hadn’t even spoken to Devers about his first-base meltdown in Miami.\n\nHe was present, but unaccounted for.\n\nThe whole meeting could have been an email.\n\nThen came Devers. The highest-paid player on the payroll marked the summer solstice by talking to the media for the first time in months.\n\nRather than own an embarrassing public display of insubordination by admitting that, like anyone, he lost his cool and messed up, Devers claimed it was just a media smear campaign. He claimed we didn’t see what our eyes clearly saw.\n\nLike him wagging his finger at the dugout. Or him telling a rookie pinch-runner to get off the field. Or him yelling into his helmet and ducking out of the dugout so no one could talk to him. All things that are unimpeachably insubordinate. All things that found no defenders amid former players, the media, or, as far as I can tell, any fan, in the 48 hours following the outburst.\n\nBut according to Devers, he wasn’t showing up his manager with that little show. No, it was just a giant misunderstanding about a sore hamstring.\n\nIt takes a special level of skill to throw a public fit and then insult the intelligence of everyone who saw it. To say — earnestly or not — that, actually, it was just him having zero situational awareness in the game; that he was merely putting his desires over what was best for the team in that critical moment.\n\nIs that really better?\n\n“You guys are the ones who blow things out of proportion. I don’t know why. I’m a person who doesn’t talk a lot and doesn’t give a lot of interviews. Maybe that’s why most of you don’t like me. Every time something happens with me, you guys make a big deal out of it,” Devers said through interpreter Erwin Higueros. “I don’t care what you guys think of me because you guys are the ones who always focus on the negatives.”\n\nHave you ever seen an IMAX movie? Well, now you’ve seen a bigger projection.\n\nWith leadership like that from the team’s highest-paid player, however could the Giants be fending off the Rockies for last place in the National League West?\n\nAnd, of course, Vitello finished the circus by brushing the whole thing under the rug. To be fair, what else can he do? Stand up for himself? Draw on some authority? That’s funny.\n\nDevers was right back in the lineup Tuesday night, batting fourth. He hit an RBI single in a [tidy 3-1 win over the A’s](https://www.mercurynews.com/sports/mlb/san-francisco-giants/#:~:text=SF%20Giants%20down%20A%E2%80%99s%203%2D1%20as%20Robbie%20Ray%20yields%20two%20hits%20in%20eight%20innings).\n\nDust settled? Perhaps.\n\nBut nothing was accomplished, and the discord around this team grew a little louder in the process.\n\nThe most staggering part of this farce is the math.\n\nThe Giants had two full days off to prepare for this media availability.\n\nThat’s 48 hours for Posey — the boss — to talk to his $200 million superstar about a situation that, at the very least, was embarrassing to the club.\n\nIt’s two days for the front office, the manager and the player to get a story straight — to come up with a tight script from which everyone would read.\n\nIt was more than enough time for the public relations team to draft an answer better than Posey’s blank stare, or to put someone else in front of the media to discuss the Pride night controversy.\n\nWhat did they do with those two days?\n\nIf there was any connective thread that showed on Tuesday, it was to gaslight both media and fans and insult our intelligence in the process.\n\nBut, I say again, the team called the press conferences.\n\nIf you want to understand how a once-proud franchise has collapsed this spectacularly, look no further than Tuesday afternoon.\n\nThere is plenty of movement inside the building, but zero coordination.\n\nPlenty of action, but no real plan.\n\nIt’s a team that’s built via reaction, not strategy. Public relations first, substance second and winning will magically come if the baseball gods grant it.\n\nThey haven’t. Because the baseball gods don’t reward dysfunction.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kurtenbach-sf-giants-excuse-making-keeps-proving-theyre-a-rudderless-ship", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/24/buster-posey-tony-vitello-kurtenbach-rafael-devers-sf-giants-lgbt-pride/", "published_at": "2026-06-24 21:42:21+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-24 21:46:37.910539+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Buster Posey", "Rafael Devers", "Tony Vitello", "San Francisco Giants", "Oracle Park", "Miami"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kurtenbach-sf-giants-excuse-making-keeps-proving-theyre-a-rudderless-ship", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kurtenbach-sf-giants-excuse-making-keeps-proving-theyre-a-rudderless-ship.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kurtenbach-sf-giants-excuse-making-keeps-proving-theyre-a-rudderless-ship.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kurtenbach-sf-giants-excuse-making-keeps-proving-theyre-a-rudderless-ship.jsonld"}}