Giants new young guns here without dropoff
Other teams embrace teardowns, while Giants have resisted falling to baseball’s basement
It has taken a while for the first wave of hotshot prospects drafted and developed in the Farhan Zaidi era to arrive at the big league level for the San Francisco Giants.
But the kids are getting here now, as Casey Schmitt, Patrick Bailey and Ryan Walker are already giving the Giants a needed jolt of youth, energy and winning baseball.
More prospects seem to be on the way. Left-handed starter Kyle Harrison could come up at any point now. So could outfielder Luis Matos, maybe as soon as today. Shortstop Marco Luciano, outfielder Vaun Brown and right-handed pitcher Mason Black are headlining at Double-a Richmond. Left-hander Carson Whisenhunt may fly through the minors.
This is what Zaidi has been building towards since taking over as the Giants’ president of baseball operations in the fall of 2018.
“It’s exciting to have a number of players who are kind of at the doorstep when it hasn’t really felt like that the last few years,” Zaidi told The Athletic last month. “We’ve had guys that were further away and maybe a guy here and a guy there, but now it seems like you’ve got a group of players that are going to make their debuts this year who have a chance to be here for a long time.”
Unlike the Pirates, who the Giants just faced, and the Orioles, who arrive in San Francisco this weekend, Zaidi never stopped trying to put a competitive MLB team on the field.
The Pirates are coming off back-to-back 100-loss seasons and have only had one winning season since 2015 (an 82-79 year in 2018).
Then there’s Baltimore, which bottomed out even harder than Pittsburgh. The Orioles lost 115 games in 2018, 108 in 2019 and 110 in 2021.
(Fans can also see an organization fully burning a roster to the ground right now across the Bay with the A’s. Oakland’s 1246 record has it on pace to finish 34-128 in 2023, a year after going 60-102.)
“Focusing on the future” at the expense of the major league teams at the time has some benefits, sure. Both teams have “earned” the No. 1 overall pick in the MLB Draft multiple times, and they each have built up strong farm systems.
The Pirates started this season strong, opening with a 20-8 record before tumbling through May. They’re now 28-27 after taking two of three from the Giants. Pittsburgh has developed key pieces of its future in shortstop Oneil Cruz and third baseman Ke’bryan Hayes and has catcher Henry Davis, 2021’s No. 1 pick, and others coming up soon.
Then there are the Orioles, who turned things around last season and have surged to start the year, all while still holding baseball’s top farm system. Led by catcher Adley Rutschman, a former No. 1 overall pick, the Orioles are 35-21 coming to San Francisco.