The SF Giants have moved on from manager Bob Melvin but the fate of some members of his coaching staff is still up in the air. There should be one obvious holdover from the previous regime in first base coach Mark Hallberg.

Melvin’s closest allies on his staff, third base coach Matt Williams and bench coach Ryan Christenson, have already been let go, but other members of the staff might have a chance to return. Pitching coach J.P. Martinez seems like a strong candidate to return, but Hallberg should be a shoe-in to return and he should reprise a previous role.

SF Giants should retain Mark Hallberg under new coaching staff

Tony Vitello is the new manager in San Francisco and he will have some say in his coaching staff, but it seems president of baseball operations Buster Posey and the front office will have a greater say in the composition of the coaching staff than they did with Melvin.

Hallberg seems like an obvious coach to bring back. He was seen as a potential managerial candidate for San Francisco after Melvin was let go, but his ties to Posey may have hurt him in the end. Posey and Hallberg were college teammates at Florida State and Hallberg has been with the Giants since 2020 when he was hired as an assistant coach on Gabe Kapler’s coaching staff.

He became the team’s third base coach after Ron Wotus retired following the 2021 season and even interviewed for the manager job after Gabe Kapler was fired in 2023. When Melvin got the job and made Williams the third base coach, Hallberg became the team’s first base coach.

After Williams had some questionable moments as the team’s third base coach during the 2025 season, bringing Hallberg back to that spot would be a wise move. He seemed to do a good job in that role and would provide continuity for a team that has seen quite a bit of coaching turnover these last few seasons.

It will be interesting to see how Vitello’s coaching staff does get filled out. How many coaches will be people he has familiarity with from his coaching career and how many people will have more ties to Posey? Or maybe the Giants will opt for fresh blood and bring in people with newer ideas who are not tied to the past.

The whole Vitello experiment is an interesting one, but to help smooth the transition over and provide some stability the Giants would be wise to retain Hallberg and make him the third base coach again.