- Chapman has an operation booked for Tuesday in Philadelphia to fix a hernia and a right-side core muscle tear.
- He hit .235 with seven home runs, 18 doubles and 42 RBIs in 84 games before the injured list.
- Statcast put his expected batting average at .210 and expected slugging at .319, both under weak actual marks.
- San Francisco is 49-70 and 22 games behind the Dodgers with 43 games left to play.
SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco Giants will play out the year without Matt Chapman, their third baseman, who has an operation booked for Tuesday in Philadelphia to fix a hernia and a tear in the core muscle on his right side. He had been playing through both problems and last appeared in a game June 30.
Six Weeks Passed Before The Diagnosis Stuck
Chapman went on the 10-day injured list July 1 with what the club treated as an abdominal strain. It took until this month to name it. Manager Tony Vitello said Friday that surgery was more likely than not, and the diagnosis came back Monday from Dr. William C. Meyers, the Philadelphia specialist in core muscle injuries, who found both the hernia and the tear.
Vitello then told reporters that “everything was confirmed with Dr. Meyers and I’m pretty sure they’re going to get that done as quick as possible while he’s up there.” Rather than fly home first, Chapman stayed east and goes into the operating room a day later.
The Bat Was Already Gone Before The Surgery
The season line is thin on its own: .235/.324/.368 in 84 games, seven home runs and 42 RBIs, against a career mark of .240/.330/.452. The slugging is where the injury shows. Chapman’s isolated power sat at .134 this year, well under the .212 he has carried across 1,234 career games.
The contact data says the same thing louder. Baseball Savant has him at an 88.2 mph average exit velocity and a 35.8% hard-hit rate, both below league average, with a 6.6% barrel rate that also sits under the league mark.
The expected numbers close off the bad-luck read. His .286 expected wOBA came in under his .309 actual mark, his .210 expected batting average under his .235 average, and his .319 expected slugging under his .368 mark. The batted-ball profile was worse than the box score, not better.
What held up was the part of hitting that does not need a healthy core. Chapman walked in 10.5% of his plate appearances, in line with his 10.8% career rate, and struck out in 23.0%, down from a 26.2% career mark. He controlled the zone all year and could not drive the ball, which is what a torn core muscle looks like in a stat line.
Four Seasons Remain On A Deal Signed In 2024
Chapman signed a six-year, $151 million extension in September 2024 with a final season of 2030. This is the second year of it. He turns 34 next spring and will be 37 in the final season of the contract, and he enters that stretch coming off core surgery, in an organization that has spent this year losing.
The Giants get the whole offseason to rehab him, which is the one piece of luck in the timing. There is no October to miss.
What The Loss Costs In The NL West
San Francisco was not a live division team before Chapman saw Meyers and is not one after. Los Angeles leads the NL West at 71-48, Arizona is 7.5 games back and San Diego 8.5, while the Giants sit 22 out in fourth with 43 to play. Chapman’s absence costs them defense at third base and nothing that shows up in a standings column.
The division’s remaining interest, and the piece of it that matters to gambling in California, belongs to the Dodgers and the two clubs chasing them rather than the Bay. There are still no legal California sportsbooks operating inside the state, and nothing in the NL West’s pricing turns on who plays third base at Oracle Park the rest of the way.
San Francisco has 43 games left, continuing its series against Houston on Tuesday night at Oracle Park.