In light of four consecutive postseason-less years of almost exactly .500 baseball, the San Francisco Giants needed the kind of breakthrough season that would blow away the criticisms facing the front office. They did not have one, though. Quite the opposite, in fact. They found themselves free-falling to a 65-97 record and fourth place in the division – and at least in part as a result, they are facing further criticism over their handling of a young prospect.
Catcher Zach Morgan, who spent time with the Giants at the major league level during the 2026 season on three separate occasions, nevertheless finished the year without ever making his actual MLB debut. Not so much as a half inning as a defensive replacement. And NBC Sports Bay Area reporter Alex Pavlovic condemned the decision on the latest episode of the Giants Talk podcast, describing it as “a really f’d-up decision.”
There’s a very real possibility that this was his best chance to get into a big league game. I don’t think it was Tony [Vitello, Giants manager]; I know Tony said he was very adamant a couple of times about getting him into a game. I don’t think Tony made this decision; I think Tony wanted him to play, and the front office made this decision. And I think it sucks. And I think it potentially cost this guy a chance to [ever] play in a big league game. I hope he gets an opportunity somewhere, whether it’s here or down the line somewhere else, because he – like all this guys who make it – has worked every hard to get to this level. And you should get that opportunity once you reach – literally – the active roster, multiple times, and don’t have a chance to get into a game.
You don’t have to start him at catcher the final day. He can pinch run, he can pinch hit for somebody, whatever. You can figure this out. But there was no good reason other than not wanting to hold this record – which isn’t even really a record – to not play Zach Morgan the final weekend. And I think it sucks. […] I hope people realise that that was a really F’d up decision. And I don’t think there’s any rationale for it.
– Giants Talk, NBC Sports Bay Area
Giants Were Not Exactly Competing For Anything
Pavlovic’s criticism stems both from the fact that Morgan was left unused despite multiple opportunities, and his reasoning as to why it happened. In Pavlovic’s estimation – seemingly arrived that through a combination of logic and reason on his part, along with implication from the team’s brain trust – the Giants did not play Morgan so as to avoid setting the record for the most players used in a single season in MLB history, which if true, Pavlovic decries – quite rightly – as being silly and irrelevant. Pavlovic’s remarks strongly implied that the front office, rather than manager Tony Vitello, was responsible – but whoever it is, Morgan was denied a moment of a lifetime, for no good reason.
Morgan had been called up twice to the major league team since being added to the Giants’ 40-man roster in August, and although he spent most of the time hence optioned back to the Triple A Sacramento River Cats, he had been recalled for the Giants’ season finally. He spent ten days on the Giants’ big league roster in all, and ended the season still waiting for his debut, without it being obvious why.
For a player who grew up supporting the Giants, and whose family were attending every game in the hopes he would appear for at least one half-inning, making that debut for San Francisco would have had particular significance. After all, it is not as if he could have cost them any wins in the postseason.
Might Have Been Morgan’s Only Chances
Morgan, 26, was selected by the Giants in the seventh round of the 2022 MLB Draft with the 226th overall pick, and progressed slowly through the minors. He began 2026 on Double-A Richmond’s roster, returning for his third season with the Flying Squirrels, and sports only a career .680 OPS across all minor league levels, usually unbefitting of a big league player. By August, however, injuries had created an unexpected opportunity in San Francisco, and the Giants called him up after Daniel Susac suffered a fractured patella, adding another problem to an already depleted catching group.
Morgan was recalled again when rosters expanded in September, but the second opportunity also ended without an appearance. With rosters expanded, nothing to play for, and literally nothing to lose except games they were likely to lose anyway, the final weeks of the season were the right time for the Giants to evaluate newcomers, or to at least reward those they already knew would not make it but who could use the pay boost for their years of minor league toil. Instead, the season concluded with no game action for him. And as Pavlovic said, given his limited performances with the bat to this point and advanced age for a prospect, Morgan may never get another chance.
The roster-record issue, if it was once, refers to how the Giants in 2026 used a record 71 different players, tying the major league mark set last season by the Atlanta Braves. Morgan’s debut would have taken the Giants beyond it. Vitello had previously acknowledged sensitivity around the number of players used, while also indicating that he wanted Morgan to receive an at-bat.
The Giants have not publicly established that avoiding the record was the deciding factor, and never will. They certainly used to go out of their way to stress that line-up decisions were all Vitello’s. Nevertheless, the supposition is a fair one, as no other reason seems to exist. San Francisco never gave him the appearance, and no one can explain why. It might be highly inconsequential to the wider baseball world, but it was not to the Morgans.
“F’d-Up Decision” – Giants Blasted Over Treatment of Young Player