Joining Giants as OC was easy decision for Rowson: 'What's not to like?'
SAN FRANCISCO -- Joining the Giants wasn’t a hard sell for new offensive coordinator James Rowson.
“What's not to like?” Rowson said during a Zoom availability with reporters on Friday. “When I looked at the position, and I talked with [president of baseball operations] Buster [Posey] and I talked with [manager] Tony [Vitello], [there was] excitement [about] what this group is capable of doing. Looking from afar and seeing the veteran presence on this club as well as seeing the youth on this club -- this is a great situation to be in from an offensive standpoint. I look forward to it."
Rowson, 50, was officially named to Vitello’s coaching staff on Thursday, filling the void left by Hunter Mense, who served as the Giants’ hitting coach for one season before being hired away by his hometown Royals earlier this month.
Rowson spent the last three seasons as the Yankees’ top hitting coach, though he proposed taking on a fancier job title with the Giants, as he’ll be in charge of overseeing all run-production efforts, including hitting instruction, game-planning and baserunning.
The offensive coordinator position is more commonly associated with football, though a handful of baseball teams have started adopting the title to better reflect the breadth of responsibilities a hitting coach can have.
“I always felt like the NFL kind of had a good model for this,” Rowson said. “In the NFL, they have running backs coaches, they have wide receiver coaches. They have individual coaches for areas, but at the end of the day, they have an offensive coordinator who's trying to put all that together, who's trying to figure out what's the best way for us to go down there and score as a club. It's focused on scoring, and I feel like baseball can take a page from that.”
Vitello said he felt philosophically aligned with Rowson from the start, which gave him confidence that the Giants had found the right person to shape the club’s offensive identity moving forward.
“Aside from a track record of being able to handle big stars, being in a big market, been in the game a long time, incredible feedback from players, I think really what the big focus was from us, or what was highlighted from the conversations, is just how in sync everybody was,” Vitello said.
The Giants are still expected to hire another hitting coach to work alongside Rowson and Oscar Bernard, who will return for his third season as an assistant hitting coach.
Under Rowson, the Yankees led the Majors in home runs in 2024 and '25, with 237 and 274, respectively, and finished second in '26 with 223. With San Francisco, Rowson will be tasked with squeezing more out of an offense that didn’t have that same level of firepower this year.
Even with veteran hitters like Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman and Willy Adames, the Giants struggled to find a consistent rhythm at the plate, ranking 20th in homers (178), 26th in runs scored (669), 29th in on-base percentage (.306) and 30th in walks (449) in 2026.
“I think my job is to come in and get to know the guys,” Rowson said. “Get to know the players, come in and have some conversations and see where they stand. Get their thoughts on the year, get their thoughts on where they feel like they did well, where they feel like we can improve.
“Once we start building that, we can kind of take steps to move forward. But here's what I can say: These guys have a good track record. These guys are really solid Major League players. They've done it at this level. They know what they're doing. They played well. They have a feel for this league, so I'm excited to get to know what they're thinking and what they're doing moving forward.”
Rowson plans to spend the rest of the month connecting with his new group of hitters, though he knows he might have a short window to start building those relationships, as club officials likely won’t be able to communicate with players once the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on Dec. 1.
Rowson said he’s particularly eager to get to know 22-year-old first baseman Bryce Eldridge, who drew down-ballot National League Rookie of the Year votes after batting .269 with an .825 OPS and 17 home runs over 107 games this season.
“He's a monster, right?” Rowson said. “I'm excited to get to know him and work with him and see how he thinks. … This roster to me is really exciting. There's a lot of good guys on this roster. A lot of guys that understand the game. There's young talent. There's speed. There's power. There's hit-ability. There's so much to look forward to from an offensive standpoint with the guys on this roster. I'm excited to be working with all of them. But Bryce, seeing him step on the scene and what he did in his rookie year, that's pretty phenomenal for a young kid.”