SF Giants re-assign Borg, name Wotus as interim third base coach
Hector Borg is out as the Giants’ third base coach and will transition to a new role within the organization’s player development staff, the team announced on Friday afternoon.
Ron Wotus, who has been in the dugout for home games this season, will serve as the team’s interim third base coach. The 65-year-old Wotus, who spent 24 seasons on the Giants’ coaching staff before becoming a special assistant to baseball operations, served as the third base coach for the first four games of the Giants’ recent homestand when Borg was away from the team following the death of his grandmother.
Borg is far from the main reason that San Francisco (22-34) enters Friday 12 games under .500, but the Giants have been the worst baserunning team in the National League, according to FanGraphs’ Base Running metric. Their shortcomings in that department have partially been the product of poor decisions on Borg’s part.
On Wednesday, for example, Borg aggressively waved home Willy Adames on a single by Luis Arraez, and Adames was thrown out at the plate by several feet. Manager Tony Vitello described Borg’s send as being on the “aggressive side.”
Instead of having runners on first and third with one out for the red-hot Casey Schmitt, the Giants had to settle for Arraez on second with two outs. Arraez was then picked off and the inning was over without Schmitt getting a chance to swing the bat.
Borg’s aggressive send of Adames was just one of the questionable decisions Borg made in his two months as San Francisco’s third-base coach.
On April 21, Borg waved home Jung Hoo Lee on a single by Heliot Ramos off the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Lee wasn’t even in scoring position when Yamamoto fired the pitch, beginning the at-bat at first base before taking off for second on the payoff pitch. Even with the running start, Lee was thrown out by several feet.
There was also Borg’s controversial non-send during the second game of the Giants’ doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies on April 30.
With Drew Gilbert on second as the automatic runner in the top of the 10th, Ramos hit a sharp grounder that deflected off of second baseman Bryson Stott’s glove and rolled into shallow center field. Gilbert, running on contact, would’ve easily scored because of how far the ball rolled away from Stott, but Borg held Gilbert at third base.
The Giants didn’t score that inning, and the Phillies walked it off in the bottom of the 10th.
Not too long after these consequential decisions, Adames ran right through a very clear stop sign from Borg on May 5 when rookie Jesús Rodríguez notched the first hit of his major league career.
Borg spent four seasons in the Giants’ farm system as a player before transitioning to the coaching ranks. Before becoming the team’s third-base coach, Borg had been part of the franchise’s player development group since 2008 as a coach, manager and coordinator. Borg also led the Dominican Republic to a bronze medal during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 1:51 PM.