Giants have playoff aspirations.
The Giants have won six straight and are thinking realistically about the possibility of grabbing a spot in an expanded MLB postseason field
SAN bRANIISIO >> The 2020 season was destined to be unpredictable, but a week ago, it felt relatively safe to call the San Francisco Giants one of the worst teams in baseball.
Closer Trevor Gott had blown three consecutive ninth-inning leads, the club was suffering through a fivegame losing streak and the Giants’ defense was easily the shakiest in the National League.
Fast forward to Sunday afternoon at Oracle Park, where the Giants were wrapping up a three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks, celebrating their sixth consecutive win and taking a peek at the NL standings where the club had battled its way into position for a playoff spot.
With 30 games down and 30
games to go, the Giants have emerged from the first half of the season with optimism, hope and a very real opportunity to sneak into the postseason in a year in which MLB expanded the playoff field.
What went well during the first half? What needs improvement? Can Mike Yastrzemski seriously contend for the NL MVP Award? Let’s grade the Giants’ first half performance.
Front office: A-minus
Considering how the Giants are in the midst of a multi-year rebuild, it’s remarkable manager Gabe Kapler and his players can think realistically about a postseason run.
The Giants’ ability to claw their way back into playoff contention starts at the top with president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and general manager Scott Harris, who made several shrewd offseason moves including signing infielder Wilmer Flores (one of baseball’s best bargains), starting pitcher Kevin Gausman, and picking up several key arms for nextto-nothing including Tyler Anderson, Trevor Cahill and Jarlín García.
The best move of Zaidi’s tenure, and perhaps the best of his career as an executive, was trading for Yastrzemski in 2019 in a minor league deal that brought the former Orioles prospect into the system. Zaidi acquired one of the MVP front-runners for a pitcher, Tyler Herb, who wasn’t ready to contribute to a major league roster. Other additions such as Darin Ruf, Alex Dickerson, Mauricio Dubón and Donovan Solano show how impressive of a job he’s done while barely putting any unnecessary financial stress on the franchise.
The only mark against the Giants’ front office, and it’s a big one, was leaving top prospect Joey Bart at the Sacramento alternate camp for so long. It was abundantly clear Bart was the team’s best catcher during summer camp and if the Giants miss the postseason by a game or two, everyone will point to this decision as a major contributing factor. Bart undoubtedly should have been on the Opening Day roster, but he’s here now.
Manager and coaching staff: B
Kapler shouldered a massive amount of criticism for the Giants’ 8-16 start because of how he handled an inexperienced and unproven bullpen and how the team’s defense performed, so it’s only fair the first-year manager receives credit for how well his club played this week.
Some of the his bullpen decisions including an over-reliance on Tyler Rogers, sticking with Gott in Anaheim for a third straight save opportunity and consistently using certain relievers on back-to-back days have frustrated fans, but the Giants’ pitching staff is beginning to stabilize. One of the reasons is starters are being allowed to work deeper into games and given the rash of injuries to pitchers around baseball, it’s increasingly clear Kapler and his coaching staff’s determination to slowly build up their starters was the right call.
A cautious approach led to some frustration among veteran starters and an overworked young bullpen, but it’s starting to pay dividends as the team’s rotation ERA is down to 4.41, ranking 14th in baseball.
Hitting coaches Donnie Ecker, Dustin Lind and Justin Viele are the ones who appear to have had the greatest impact with the 2020 team as the Giants have become one of the
league’s best teams hitting with two strikes. San Francisco’s 20 home runs while batting with two strikes are tied for second while the team’s .602 OPS trails in two-strike counts trails only the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Starting rotation: B-plus
Led by Johnny Cueto and Kevin Gausman, the Giants have two trusted, veteran arms at the top of the rotation. The secret to the team’s recent success, however, has been the emergence of Logan Webb and Tyler Anderson, who both have lower ERAs than the more established arms on staff.
Cueto is as good as any pitcher in baseball when facing an order the first two times through while Gausman’s 97-to98 mile per hour fastball coupled with an elite splitter is as fun to watch of a one-two combination as any starter in recent Giants history.
Webb’s 3.14 FIP compared to his 3.29 ERA suggests his breakout is sustainable while Anderson is coming off the first complete game of his career and finally pitching with confidence again after major knee surgery ended his 2019 season early. With Trevor Cahill handling his role in the fifth spot in the rotation well, it’s easy to see why Yastrzemski said the team’s sixgame win streak feels like more “complete” success than their hot stretch in July, 2019.
There’s no question the Giants improved when Jeff Samardzija went on the injured list with shoulder inflammation and it would have been interesting to see if the front office would have considered cutting the veteran right-hander if he was healthy and continuing to struggle. When Drew Smyly returns from the injured list, it’s possible his best fit will be as a long reliever.
Bullpen: C-minus
What should we have realistically expected out of a bullpen that started the year with three only pitchers — Gott, Tony Watson and Wandy Peralta — who had more than 100 career appearances? The Giants fielded one of the most inexperienced relief corps in baseball and have paid the price for it. The longterm goal is to see who might emerge as a future bullpen fixture when the franchise is ready to contend for division titles, and it’s possible there’s progress being made.
García, the left-handed picked up on a waiver claim from the Marlins, looks the part and rookie Caleb Baragar should only improve with more time. Rogers’ 3.54 FIP suggests he’s been the victim of some bad luck while Sam Selman’s slider is clearly a plus pitch.
One of the primary issues Kapler and the Giants have is they lack a trustworthy righthander. That’s a massive problem for a team that ranks 21st in bullpen ERA, but perhaps they’ll soon be willing to call up Camilo Doval or Sam Wolff from the Sacramento alternate site. Both are unproven, but Gott, Shaun Anderson and Rico Garcia haven’t been reliable.
Outfield: B
If not for Yastrzemski’s incredible season, the Giants’ outfield would be struggling to earn a passing grade. Austin Slater’s emergence as a top of the lineup force against left-handed pitching has been critical to the Giants’ success while utility man Mauricio Dubón is starting to hit the ball harder, but the rest of the group has really struggled.
The Giants made the correct yet painful call to cut Hunter Pence on Sunday after the reunion didn’t end up working out. Pence went 5 for 52 and was easily the weaker part of a platoon with Alex Dickerson, who has dealt with surprising struggles as his .211 batting average and .685 OPS are well below expectations.
The club thought Jaylin Davis would enjoy a breakout season, but he’s been stuck at the Sacramento alternate site trying to fix holes in his swing while lefthanded hitting outfielder Steven Duggar has given the club almost nothing at the plate in his 25 plate appearances.
Infield: B
Flores, Solano, Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria all finished the first half of the season with an OPS+ above 100, giving the Giants four above-average infielders. Flores and Solano have been so consistently good at the plate that it’s been easier to ignore their shaky defense while Belt, one of the game’s streakiest hitters, played a huge role in the team’s six-game win streak by going 8 for 15 with three walks.
Even shortstop Brandon Crawford who struggled at the start of the year is inching closer to league-average production as he posted a 1.147 OPS this week thanks to six extra-base hits and six walks.
The Giants’ infield defense has cost the team enough that a B+ grade had to be lowered to a B, but like the infielder’s bats, their gloves have also been better over the last week. It feels as if the infield production could be the hardest to sustain for the Giants during the second half, but the schedule does get softer.
Catching: D+
Bart’s arrival gives so much hope for the second half that it’s hard to imagine catcher being a position of weakness for the Giants, but there’s no question the team needed more out of the position for the first four weeks of the season.
It should frustrate fans Bart wasn’t in the big leagues on Opening Day, but his bat makes an already solid lineup more complete and his handling of the pitching staff will only improve. Backup Chadwick Tromp has been a surprisingly strong framer and drawn great reviews from pitchers including veterans such as Cueto, but like recently demoted catcher Tyler Heineman, Tromp has looked mostly overmatched at the plate.
The Giants are excited about the future, but now that Bart has arrived, there’s plenty of reason to be excited about the present.