Logan Webb calls out SF Giants teammates for second-half free fall

Sometimes it takes a big win to expose what’s been causing all of the losses.

After Logan Webb pitched a complete game in the Giants’ 2-1 win over the Padres on Monday night, Webb took the time to call for “big changes” from the team this offseason.

“It’s definitely something I would like to do, but to be honest with you, winning is more important,” Webb told reporters in the locker room when asked about winning the Cy Young. “If we don’t do that, then it’s kind of a waste to me. … I’m tired. I’m tired of losing. It’s not enjoyable. It’s not fun. We’ve got to make some big changes in here to really create that winning culture. We want to show up every single year and try to win the whole thing. I think, I think we’re there. It’s just, we gotta, I don’t know what it is. But I’m just sick of losing, to be honest. That’s No. 1 for me, goal-wise.”

Webb’s comments could be seen as a shot up at Giants leadership, particularly the team’s ownership, Chairman Greg Johnson and President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi. But a report from The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly indicates that Webb’s message was directed more internally, to his fellow players at the clubhouse.

In a story published Tuesday morning, Baggarly reported that Giants players have taken up playing Bob Marley in the clubhouse after losses.

“When’s the last time you heard music in a major-league clubhouse after a loss?” one Giants player, granted anonymity in order to speak freely, reportedly told Baggarly. “I mean, you shouldn’t hang your head for too long after a loss. But you shouldn’t be OK with it, either.”

The music is part of what Baggarly describes as “a clubhouse that has included too many ho-hum reactions to losing along with a near-zealotry to Pusoy, a Filipino card game that Jon Pederson and some other Giants players appear to find more compelling than studying the night’s opposing starting pitcher.”

Efforts to fix the clubhouse, which Baggarly reports have included public comments or internal speeches from Mike Yastrzemski, Wilmer Flores, Thairo Estrada and apparently Webb, haven’t stopped the second-half free fall for the Giants. Monday’s win puts them at 78-79 and needing to win out, plus get help from the other wild-card contenders losing, to make the playoffs. It is a virtual certainty that they will miss the postseason for the sixth time in the past seven years.

All of that led to Webb’s call for change in the clubhouse Monday night. He used Alex Cobb, his fellow rotation stalwart from 2023, as an example of whom guys in the orange and black should be playing for.

“We’ve got to come in here with the same winning mentality every single day,” Webb said. “Not saying we don’t have that. Just saying we need to throw a little extra onto that. I know (right-hander Alex) Cobb hasn’t been to the playoffs in a long time and I feel terrible for a guy like that. He pitches his ass off this year, he’s an All-Star, and he should be pitching in the playoffs. I want to help make that happen for him. It’s just tough.”

As Webb begins the first year of his five-year extension in 2024, the Giants should attempt to build a core of players around him that he knows will be here for a while.

And, in particular, find players who are just as sick of losing as Webb.