The San Francisco Giants used to be at the top of the National League West, so what happened?
The even year ritual for the San Francisco Giants was more than believable after they won in 2010, 2012 and 2014. From that season on though, the franchise started into a decline with no impactful youth, dismal pitching and an old clubhouse.
This team is still washed up from their last World Series. They haven’t moved on from this group, although for good reason, and it seems they attempted to win again for too long.
That showed more than ever this season as the Giants went 73-89. In the offseason, the club did go out and acquire veteran talent to infuse with what they had in Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria. Unfortunately, both players were already on a downturn in their careers.
The club gave up even more young talent they didn’t have and the trades backfired on them hard. San Francisco still has a boatload of money left on Longoria’s deal that could hinder them in utilizing funds elsewhere.
Offensively, the Giants ranked 29th in the MLB with the bats. The Miami Marlins were the worst. Miami is a team in a rebuild, so that’s understandable. The Giants still thought they were contenders, so this should’ve been a red light to restart.
Longoria lead the team in home runs with 16, which is absolutely terrible. No contender’s home run leader topped out at 16 homers. A huge blow was Buster Posey having season-ending surgery.
No one special stood out amongst the WS core still on the team such as Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford. There is just a lot of middle of the road veterans underproducing. Not much to go on with young talent.
Surprisingly, the pitching side of things was middle of the pack at 13th. Derek Holland was a nice low risk, high upside signing as he tossed a 3.57 ERA. The Giants do have one intriguing young arm named Dereck Rodriguez, who had a 2.81 ERA in 118.1 innings pitched.
He did end the seasons losing seven starts in a row. Madison Bumgarner wasn’t too shabby with a 3.26 ERA and San Francisco should think about dealing him. Other than Mark Melancon and Will Smith, the club lacks reliable bullpen arms.
Also, past big signings such as the Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto deals have backfired.
The Giants lack impact young talent in the pipeline other than Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos, who are their top two guys. The club should evaluate the stock in their veteran guys and see what they can get for them. Eating money on a deal will sweeten the return on their end.
There is just an abundance of “meh” with this team. Hopefully someone new at the helm, the front office will wipe the face of this franchise.
That means trading off anyone of value, even if that means Buster Posey. Since he won’t be catching much longer, he can focus more of the hitting side now that first base will be his spot. At the moment, Belt is anchored to that position.
For Giants’ fans, it’s a huge Band-Aid that will need to be ripped off. If the Giants trade off everyone except Posey, I think that’s a success. San Francisco needs a facelift if they want to get back on that even year ritual.