Will Zaidi fortify Giants at deadline?
With a 57-32 record and a realistic chance to win the National League West, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has spent plenty of time thinking about the trade deadline.
The Giants expect to welcome a slew of key players including Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Evan Longoria and Tommy La Stella back from the injured list between the All-star break and the July 30 deadline, but Zaidi knows he may have to search for upgrades outside the organization to fortify the roster for a stretch run.
He also knows that Giants fans expect the club to build upon their first half success well beyond August, September and October. That’s why he’s just as focused on ensuring the Giants have a chance to contend into the future as they do this season.
“We’ve got a number of guys in that situation who are in the last year of their contracts and we’re not going to talk about that publicly, but...” Zaidi said on Friday in the dugout at Oracle Park.
“With the way we’re playing, I think we’re going to be motivated to keep a lot of these guys beyond this year. We think about that as much as we think about that over the next three weeks. How do we keep this group together?”
It would have been impossible to picture back in 2019 when Posey, Belt and Brandon Crawford all posted offensive numbers that were below the league average, but there’s now a realistic possibility that all three could remain with San Francisco past this year. A 2021 season that had the chance to be an informal farewell tour for the trio has turned into a banner year for the legacy Giants as all three have played critical roles in the team’s success.
Crawford, who ranked among the worst qualified hitters in baseball two years ago, is a legitimate MVP candidate as he’s pacing the Giants with 18 home runs, 58 RBIS and Gold Glove caliber defense. Posey, whose career seemed to be derailed by a 2018 hip surgery, has been the best two-way catcher in the majors this year. And Belt, who has been limited to just 55 games due to injuries, has posted a 138 OPS+ that’s in line with the best marks he’s finished
with in a full major league season.
Belt and Crawford are both playing out the final year of contract extensions while Posey has a club option for $22 million the Giants can exercise for next season, but all have performed well enough that the front office is expected to give strong consideration to keeping the group together.
It’s too early to say what kind of commitments the Giants would have to make to keep their longest-tenured players around beyond this season, but it’s increasingly obvious that allowing any of them to depart would create a big hole to fill in the lineup and perhaps an even bigger void in the clubhouse.
For an executive such as Zaidi who highlighted the value of continuity during his tenure as the Dodgers general manager, it makes sense that building around a core that continues to lead the way for the Giants would be an increasingly appealing option.
Down on the farm
The Giants’ approach to the 2021 MLB Draft has been fascinating for several reasons, and not only because the organization selected pitchers with their first nine picks.
After the coronavirus pandemic put sports on pause last spring, many high school and college baseball players found creative ways to improve their skill sets and remain on the radars of pro scouts. Giants amateur scouting director Michael Holmes said his department took into account how players approached shutdowns that canceled games, canceled seasons and postponed many of the traditional opportunities players have to showcase their talent in front of scouts.
“They took the time to get bigger, to get stronger, to identify areas of their game they need to improve and those guys that took advantage of it, it showed on the field this spring and at the beginning of this summer leading up to the draft,” Holmes said. “I always look for guys that are trending upward, guys that are showing improvement and then I always use the
old adage that good players get better.”
Third round pick Mason Black and fifth round selection Rohan Handa were among the prospects the Giants saw take big steps forward over the last year. Black was unable to pitch in the Cape Cod League due last year, but took what would normally be considered a lower-profile opportunity in a Florida collegiate league where he saw a spike in his fastball velocity.
“He needed to get out and throw and I think he really saw some strides in his arsenal, in the way he was able to learn how to pitch and we saw some velocity jump out of him,” Holmes said. “Another guy who made some minor adjustments in his delivery and arm action and really saw his stuff take off.”
Handa, who was throwing in the high-70s and low-80s with his fastball early in his career at Yale, topped out at 97 miles per hour this summer after training at a complex in Charlotte, North Carolina last year.
The Giants’ eighth round pick, Ian Villers, played high school ball at Northgate in Walnut Creek and pitched in college at Cal, but Holmes said a stint in the Cape Cod League earlier this summer made an even stronger impression on the Giants’ scouting department because he showed consistent improvement.
“With the draft being pushed to July, it obviously created more opportunity for us to continue to evaluate these guys and he’s a guy we got a lot of innings on in the short time we were able to scout the Cape.”
Statcast Study
At this point in the season, it’s no secret one of the Giants’ greatest strengths is the team’s depth.
And one of the players most responsible for providing quality depth is slugger Darin Ruf, a 34-year-old righthanded hitter who spent three seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization before returning to the United States to sign a minor league deal with the Giants last year.
Since arriving back in the states, Ruf has played 99 games for the Giants over two seasons and launched 14 home runs while posting a .929 OPS. The Omaha, Nebraska native was a weapon against left-handed pitchers last year, but this season, he’s developed a reputation for providing quality at-bats against all pitchers as he’ reaching base at a .399 clip with a .560 slugging percentage.