What Giants need to do to catch Dodgers.
Dodgers’ title drought is over after 32 seasons and the Giants have a lot of ground to make up
Ten years after the San Francisco Giants opened the 2010s by hoisting a World Series trophy, the Los Angeles Dodgers ended a 32year title drought by kicking off the 2020s with a title of their own.
The Dodgers were the best team in baseball from start to finish and put years of October misery behind them with a hardearned championship in a shortened season in which the coronavirus pandemic changed the way we view sports.
For the fourth consecutive year, the Giants missed the playoffs as they came within one victory of meeting the topseeded Dodgers in the new-to-2020 wildcard round. The Dodgers’ success coupled with the Giants’ failure has given us added perspective on the rivalry and how it will evolve from here.
With the 2020 season now complete, here are 10 thoughts on the state of the Giants-Dodgers rivalry.
1. The Dodgers’ title drought taunting ends now
As the Dodgers dominated the National League West and continued to fall flat in the postseason in recent years, Giants fans often took to social media to taunt their counterparts down south. “Three in five” has an incredible ring to it, but now that the Dodgers have finally produced a World Series title, it’s time for Giants fans to become more realistic about the state of the rivalry.
The Giants have played the Dodgers closely in head-to-head matchups throughout their run of eight straight division titles, but the standings at the end of the season have rarely reflected that. While Los Angeles has beat up on the rest of the league, the Giants extended their streak of losing seasons to four this year. The Giants have a long way to go to close the gap in this rivalry and the organization’s top decision-makers decided nearly two years ago that the best way to do that was to poach Farhan Zaidi away from the Dodgers.
Zaidi helped build the Dodgers into an incredible juggernaut and Giants fans are now left to hope a model that worked in Los Angeles will lead to success in San Francisco.
2. The Clayton Kershaw taunting has also run its course
What Clayton Kershaw accomplished this postseason isn’t in the same realm of achievements as what Giants fans watched Madison Bumgarner do en route to the 2014 World Series title, but the “Playoff Kershaw” jokes probably need to be retired.
Kershaw is the greatest regular-season pitcher of his generation, but the knock on his résumé has been postseason failures. The left-hander rectified that this October by posting a 4-1 record in five starts and picking up two World Series victories over the Tampa Bay Rays. Kershaw’s numbers look better because he tossed eight shutout innings against a bad Brewers offense in the wild card round, but when it came time to show up in the World Series, Kershaw answered the call.
The GIFs of a frustrated Kershaw in the dugout from postseasons of the past will remain funny for Giants fans, but they lose some of their luster because the Dodgers starter played such an important role in helping his team secure a ring.
It’s OK for Giants fans to acknowledge Kershaw’s greatness, just as it’s still OK to consider Madison Bumgarner the greatest playoff pitcher of his era.
3. The Giants need their own versions of Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager
Superstar Mookie Betts was the Dodgers’ best player this season and the final piece to the championship puzzle the organization has been attempting to solve for so long, but we’ll get to Betts in a moment.
One of the most important ways the Giants can start to close the gap is to find their own versions of Bellinger, a homegrown center fielder with an MVP under his belt, and Seager, one of the game’s most dynamic two-way shortstops.
Is it realistic for the Giants to count on one of their top prospects enjoying the same kind of success Bellinger found at the beginning of his career? Probably not. Have the Giants increased their chances of having a top-25 player patrolling center field by loading up their farm system with highly touted prospects such as Heliot Ramos, Hunter Bishop and Alexander Canario? Absolutely.
The Giants are optimistic at least one member from the trio of outfield prospects will emerge as a perennial All-Star candidate, which would be a remarkable feat considering the organization hasn’t produced a homegrown All- Star in the outfield since Chili Davis in 1984.
Their hopes of producing an elite shortstop appear realistic because of the way 19-year- old Dominican Republic native Marco Luciano has developed. Luciano’s ceiling is incredibly high and the Giants are adamant the twitchy power-hitter has the skill set to stick at shortstop into the future.
Bellinger and Seager provide the Dodg
ers tremendous value because they came through the farm system at two of the most important positions on the diamond, giving the team long-term answers. Finding similar contributors is one of the greatest challenges Zaidi faces.
4. The Mookie Betts answer can wait … right?
Betts is a top-five player in the sport and on the surface, it’s difficult to envision any franchise following in the Red Sox footsteps and trading their best player for payroll flexibility.
Pull back the curtains, however, and you’ll see that baseball is a business, billionaire owners often make puzzling decisions, and yes, other teams are eventually going to make the same mistake Boston did.
Will Cleveland give up Francisco Lindor? Will Oakland trade Matt Chapman? Are Kris Bryant’s days in a Cubs uniform numbered? There are more possibilities to acquire a franchise cornerstone than Giants fans might realize and while those opportunities may not present themselves immediately, it’s not unrealistic to think Zaidi could land an elite player through a trade.
The Giants don’t need their version of Betts right away, but some time within the next two-to-three years, the era of upgrading the roster through the waiver wire and minor league trades will come to an end and the franchise will once again be ready to make a big splash.
It’s up to Zaidi to find the right time to make a deal and the right player to acquire.
5. The Giants’ biggest challenge is matching the Dodgers’ pitching
Walker Buehler might be the best biggame pitcher in baseball. Julio Urías closed out the World Series in dominant fashion. Rookie Dustin May throws 100 miles per hour. Rookie Tony Gonsolin might end up being better than Dustin May.
The Dodgers have an embarrassment of riches and their scouting and player development staffs deserve a ton of credit for making the 2020 World Series title possible. What Los Angeles has done with drafting and developing position players such as Bellinger, Seager and catcher Will Smith is nothing short of incredible, but their pitching is just as impressive.
The core of young pitchers under team control for the foreseeable future is formidable and should keep the Dodgers’ championship window open for years to come, but it should also concern the Giants. San Francisco doesn’t have nearly the quality or quantity of arms in its farm system that Los Angeles has amassed over the last several years and the Giants may need to be more reliant on free agents to patch together their future starting rotations.
There’s promising prospects and under
the-radar arms in the Giants’ organization, but it’s been a long time since the franchise watched Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain matriculate through the minor leagues and lead the team to titles.
6. The Dodgers didn’t do it all through the draft
Two of Los Angeles’ most important players, infielders Max Muncy and Justin Turner, were essentially given up on by other organizations before morphing into stars with the Dodgers. Turner never hit for power with the Orioles or Mets, and Muncy couldn’t hit enough to hang onto a roster spot with the Oakland A’s, but they’ve been catalysts for the Dodgers offense and two of the team’s most consistent performers. Their career arcs are proof that players such as Mike Yastrzemski and Alex Dickerson can play meaningful roles on successful teams and also a testament to the importance of continued player development at the major league level.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler has preached about the value of having coaches who can help major league players evolve and fans watched that happen this year as a handful of veterans enjoyed their best seasons. The Giants would love for Yastrzemski to perform as well as Turner has into his mid-30s, because it would give them one less building block to worry about moving forward.
7. Should the Giants sign Joc Pederson?
Zaidi and Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson can often be found striking up casual conversations during batting practice when the teams meet, and this winter, their talks may become more formal.
Pederson, a Palo Alto native, is finally a free agent and coming off an outstanding postseason run in which he hit .382 with a .991 OPS.
The power-hitting left-hander strikes out a lot, consistently posts a low batting average and plays the outfield where the Giants already have two solid left-handed sluggers, but it wouldn’t be a shock to see Zaidi pursue Pederson anyway. The Giants believe players perform well when they’re close to home and have targeted several local products in the last two drafts and Zaidi’s familiarity with Pederson’s abilities could help a potential free-agent pursuit.
It would be much easier to justify signing Pederson if the Giants knew the National League would keep the DH in 2021 or if they felt comfortable using Yastrzemski in center field, but sometimes, you sign a quality player and figure out how you’ll make it work at a later date.
There’s another compelling argument to add Pederson too. Bringing him to San Francisco would keep him from re-signing in Los Angeles.
8. Dodgers’ Will Smith shows why Joey Bart is such a key part of the Giants’ future
Everyone knows Zaidi loves his catchers so it’s no surprise he was the Dodgers general manager when they used a first-round pick to draft catcher Will Smith out of Louisville in 2016.
Smith’s .401 on-base percentage during the regular season helped prevent the Dodgers from having any weak spots in their lineup because even the catcher was consistently a threat to extend innings and do damage. Smith didn’t have a great postseason, but his body of work throughout his brief career shows why it’s so valuable to have an impact two-way catcher and why Joey Bart is such a pivotal part of the Giants’ rebuild.
If Bart can hit for power, bat in the middle of the order and improve his defense, the Giants will have an X-factor at a position where most teams receive minimal contributions on offense. If Bart turns into an ordinary hitter with a below-average glove, the development of 2020 firstround draft pick Patrick Bailey becomes even more important.
The Giants weren’t all that concerned with Bart’s slow start to his career for a number of factors, but they are expecting major improvements in 2021.
9. The Dodgers are proof Giants fans shouldn’t worry too much about analytics
Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash received justifiable criticism for lifting starter Blake Snell after he had thrown just 72 pitches in a dominant outing in Game 6 on Tuesday, but the decision wasn’t made solely by Cash.
The Rays have adopted an organizational philosophy in which they don’t want pitchers to face hitters three times in the same game because statistics show a massive decline in effectiveness for a pitcher the third time through an order. That philosophy has served Tampa Bay well in the past, but it was clearly a terrible decision to remove Snell on Tuesday because it allowed the Dodgers the chance to get back in the game and ultimately clinch the series.
In the aftermath of the loss, the Rays were blasted for their reliance on analytics and Giants fans took to social media to express hope that Zaidi and Kapler would never make a similar decision. It will be impossible to know unless the Giants eventually find themselves in a similar spot, but the feeling here is that Zaidi and Kapler wouldn’t make the same move with a pitcher they consider their ace.
Giants’ decisions are certainly influenced by analytics more than they were during the Bruce Bochy era, but every team is using more data to inform their processes. The Dodgers had heat maps for Rays pitchers on display in their dugout and they won Game 6 in a game filled with pitching changes after their starter only recorded five outs.
It’s possible to combine data and instinct in a way that benefits everyone and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts found a balance during this year’s postseason. The Rays didn’t, but Giants fans probably don’t have to worry about the direction the organization is headed.
10. We should hope the rivals meet in the postseason soon
The Giants and Dodgers have never met in the postseason, but fans of both teams should hope that changes soon.
The rivalry is at its best when both teams are good and while the Dodgers have started the decade with a massive advantage from a talent perspective, the Giants appear to be headed in the right direction and could be poised to challenge Los Angeles within the next few seasons.
There’s been no shortage of riveting regular-season moments between the Giants and Dodgers over the past few years, but it would be fun to see Zaidi take on his former boss, Andrew Freidman, for Kapler to manage against Roberts and for all the young Giants prospects working their way through the minors to have a chance to see how they’d fare against the Dodgers on a bigger stage.
The 2020s could be a really interesting decade for the rivalry, but only if the Giants hold up their end of the bargain and build a successful roster.