A Dissection of the Struggling San Francisco Giants
Stats from Fangraphs & Pro Baseball Reference
An enraged fanbase. A directionless front office. An ineffective management staff that produces questionable decisions after the next. Attendance numbers are declining year after year. A glaring inability to land marquee-free agents. Ineptitude on all 4 levels of the field: struggling to find a consistent rotation, an ineffective offense full of below-average to league-average veterans and raw rookies, undisciplined baserunning, and dysfunctional defense.
Where to even start with this team?
The offense is the most glaring and frequently discussed issue with this team. Things were great up until the July all-star break. They had a plethora of impressive wins and series overall, like the three game sweep of the mighty Dodgers in LA during the June series. They entered the All-Star break feeling good. But since July 12th, the Giants have been in one of the most atrocious offensive slumps in the league, and things haven’t gotten better in those two following months.
They have won a handful of games thanks to some pitching excellence and scoring just enough to scrape by for the win. You can stomach those if you’re finding ways to win, but they’re simply not scoring enough. Having the 5th-least scored runs in the past 30 days, doesn’t help, but this is only a glimpse into the potentially league-worst offense since July.
Since July 12th, the Giants are second-to-last in the league in runs scored at 216, just 3 more than the lowly Oakland Athletics, who sit in last place since then. They have the second-lowest batting average in the league since July 12th (.227), sitting just above the struggling New York Yankees (.218) who have been mired with injuries and relegated to playing inexperienced young players and journeymen veterans. In case that wasn’t enough, they have the lowest slugging percentage (.363), the second-least home runs (54), and the second-lowest wRC+ (85) since the break. They have the 9th-most strikeouts in the league since July 12, with most seemingly coming during the most critical times of the game.
(Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) (Getty Images) Giants’ Thairo Estrada walks back to the dugout after a strikeout
Needless to say, it has been a shocking offensive decline. To make matters worse, it doesn’t look as if it will be improving anytime soon. The combination of underperforming veterans and inexperienced rookies leave the Giants with nowhere else to turn for offensive potential. It seems like the Giants will just have to stick it out, and hope this thing works out.
There have been flashes of the Giants regaining their footing. Rookies Luis Matos, Patrick Bailey, Kyle Harrison, Ryan Walker, Keaton Winn, and Tristan Beck have had positive contributions to the club. Mitch Haniger, Conforto, Stripling, and Manaea have been positive contributors on winning teams before. There have been glimmers that the offense can finally put it all together. Unfortunately, it simply hasn’t happened.
The pitching has been solid. Logan Webb has been his usual consistent self. Kyle Harrison provided a glimpse into what could be his ace-future. Alex Cobb has battled through injuries to provide quality starts, and the bullpen has remained quietly lockdown. However, games cannot be won if your team cannot provide any run support whatsoever.
Jeff Chiu / Associated Press (Getty Images)
Off the field, the management and the front office have been the target for the fanbase’s ire. Kapler’s decision to keep using openers has clearly made an impact, as heavily worked relievers such as the Rogers brothers and Ryan Walker have started to struggle recently. The devotion to platooning has created an aura of boredom from fans regarding the team, as most players don’t play everyday or are only on the field for half of the game. There are minimal attachments to players you do not see everyday. Consequently, fans are growing tired of Kapler’s management style.
Kapler, who has shown success when given a talented team, winning 107 games in 2021, has seemingly been losing public favor with the fanbase. Although not perfect, he has kept this team relatively competitive all year. However, it is time for him to wake up as a leader of the clubhouse. Light a fire in them, inspire them, become their leader, not just their coach.
Kapler must figure out what works and figure it out fast. Time is running out for the Giants to figure it out, and it all starts with the man leading them on the field and in the clubhouse.
In reality though, none have been criticized as much as President of Baseball Operations, Farhan Zaidi.
(Scott Strazzante, Staff Photographer / The Chronicle) (Getty Images)
It has been a questionable season for Zaidi, who was already under fire before the season for his failed pursuits of Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa. Zaidi, (along with Larry Baer, another target of criticism) promised dividends from their free agent crop of Michael Conforto, Ross Stripling, Sean Manaea, Mitch Haniger, and Tyler Rogers — but they have combined for 0.3 WAR since the all-star break. The team showed glaring signs of the impending offensive slump at the all-star break, but Zaidi claimed the Giants would be “very aggressive” in upgrading where they needed too.
Instead, they left the deadline with the (as of 9/5) already-cut AJ Pollock and career minor-leaguer Mark Mathias, who is on the 60-day IL now.
Zaidi must steer the Giants in a definitive direction. That now becomes his main objective with the Giants mired in constant mediocrity from 2022-present. Zaidi either must prioritize the young players and create opportunities for them by parting with his prized free agents, or be aggressive with his opportunities by signing some marquee hitters and pitchers from the 2024 free agency class (and I can think of one who does both). The Giants cannot remain an analytics-driven, platoon-heavy team. It lowers their ceiling to league average and fills their roster with league-average players.
They must commit to the future, or winning. Fans want to see progress, in any direction, and the lack of it is showing with the attendance numbers. They have been declining year after year, and they now sit 9th out of 15th NL teams in home attendance, a fall from grace during the era of their title years where they consistently sat in the top 3. Frustration is boiling over for the fans. 10 years ago, this team was competing for a title. Now? They consistently hover around .500 and operate like a small-market team wearing a big-market team’s shoes.
As of today, September 16th, the Giants now sit at 75-74. They are 2.5 games back from the third and final Wild Card spot. They have dropped three games in a row to the NL cellar-dweller Colorado Rockies.
Might they still have a chance to make a final push?
It’s not looking great folks.
