The San Francisco Giants are wrapping up the season on a pleasant roll.
And that’s the olive on high of the two-hour-old sundae.
The Giants have been 2024’s Most Disappointing Staff. It’s one man’s opinion, and that makes it a unanimous choice.
Actually, the one competitors comes from the Rangers, however you recognize Bruce Bochy takes a siesta each season after successful a championship; the Rays, who lastly performed right down to their expertise stage; and the Cubs and Pink Sox, simply because their names are completely etched on the checklist.
En path to their third straight non-winning season after a 107-win marketing campaign had them primed to be the 2020s Staff of the Decade, the Giants have been such a catastrophe in 2024, even the issues that went proper went flawed.
However let’s begin with the issues that actually did go flawed.
Administration believed including a bunch of B-level free brokers and a reunion with an old-school supervisor who received run out of San Diego could be sufficient to extend the group win whole from the 70’s to the 90’s. The followers disagreed. The followers have been proper.
The followers believed the group’s many extremely trumped-up prospects have been able to take the group towards the highest once more. Administration disagreed. Administration was proper.
It took the primary half of the season for administration to confess its mistake. It’s taken the second half to ensure that the followers to acknowledge their miscalculation.
The consequence: a group that was projected to be a playoff contender however by no means actually was, one which severely lacked in each energy and velocity. And now there’s a brand new debate…
Let’s hearth the final supervisor. Let’s dump the supervisor. Let’s signal 37-year-old Paul Goldschmidt. Let’s give 19-year-old Bryce Eldridge an opportunity.
Ugh. Right here we go once more.
Nothing is extra disappointing than not having the ability to establish the supply of your disappointment, dooming you to expertise it once more. See: Giants, 2017-2020, and now 2022-24.
No group learns much less from historical past. Bear in mind, this was a franchise that gained three titles final decade… after which didn’t even make the playoffs the subsequent season all 3 times.
The 2024 sport plan pitched nicely on the homeowners’ assembly: Take Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, Robbie Ray, Jung Hoo Lee, Jorge Soler and Jordan Hicks, add them to a group that had been in second place as late as Sept. 3 final season, and it’s 2010 yet again.
If solely Chapman, Snell, Ray and Soler may flip again the clock like that.
Let’s discuss Chapman. Nice man. Good defensively. The followers love him.
Kinda seems like Brandon Crawford, doesn’t he? In truth, the yr after the Giants finally cut ties with their championship shortstop at age 37, they received so caught up in Chappy Mania, they added six – SIX – years and $151 million to his deal simply so the followers may watch him flip 37 earlier than uncomfortably slicing him, simply as they did with Crawford.
With all of the hoopla and the ours-until-retirement contact, you’d have thought Chapman was an MVP candidate, however, alas, he’s hitting .246 with 78 RBIs. Not horrible, however Crawford did higher than that (.298 and 90) as a shortstop in 2021, earlier than it price the Giants $32 million only for followers to have the ability to gush “however he’s good defensively” as he aged predictably the subsequent two years.
Even slicing ties with the cooked-past-well-done Crawford made the Giants look dangerous. Their much-ballyhooed alternative, Marco Luciano, was so ill-prepared this season, he not solely received moved to second base, the place he was equally fumble-handed, but additionally used as a 22-year-old DH so the followers would have much less alternative to boo him.
After which there’s Tyler Fitzgerald, the brand new inheritor obvious to Crawford’s sun shades. He’s having a surprisingly good season…
Wait, this simply in: Casey Schmitt, who is aware of Sacramento so nicely he ought to provide to be the A’s realtor, contributed a 6-for-14 spree to an incredibly encouraging 7-2 late-September run by way of Baltimore, Kansas Metropolis and Arizona. He’s now co-favorite to win the shortstop job subsequent season, pending the supply of a veteran journeyman like Nick Ahmed, who walked in off the road and beat out Luciano final spring.
After which there’s Snell. Nothing says “Welcome to the Farhan Zaidi period of Giants baseball” fairly just like the lefty’s saga.
Until you recall the earlier lefty’s saga—aka the Carlos Rodon debacle—which was mainly the Snell prequel.
You bear in mind Snell. One of the best pitcher within the Nationwide League—perhaps all of baseball—final season. The proper addition for a group that performs in a pitchers’ park and has had hassle (understatement of the century) attracting big-time expertise.
Scott Boras needed massive bucks. Oracle Park prints massive bucks. It was a match made in…
March. Simply late sufficient in order that Snell, the important thing to a Giants resurgence, would battle early, then get harm.
The excellent news: The Giants gave themselves an out in Snell’s contract after one yr. Zaidi’s logic: We’re going to make Snell show it despite the fact that he’d already confirmed it.
The dangerous information: Boras also negotiated an out in the deal, and look who has became the most effective pitcher in baseball once more. Fortunately, the Giants have him locked up…
Till Sunday.
So what you might have is a group that gained 79 video games final season, fired its supervisor, then signed a half-dozen veterans with resumes to enrich a bunch of “can’t-miss” prospects who have been deemed prepared solely based mostly on a memorable second or two final September, some at Triple-A.
And right here we’re, a weekend earlier than the top of the season, nonetheless struggling to high final yr’s win whole.
That’s disappointing. And so is that this:
Veterans Michael Conforto and Mike Yastrzemski are ending sturdy, which implies they’re prone to be retained to hit .240 once more… and preserve the Giants from mortgaging McCovey Cove so as to add Juan Soto or Paul Goldschmidt. Or perhaps each.
And who wants Gerrit Cole, Corbin Burnes, Shane Bieber or Walker Buehler (all with California ties) whenever you’ve received Kyle Harrison, Hayden Birdsong, Landen Roupp and Mason Black?
Administration: We are able to get Frankie Montas, who pitched nicely for Melvin six years in the past, with an opt-out in case we’re flawed.
Followers: Have you ever seen what former Fifteenth-round decide Tommy Romero has been doing at Sacramento? Let’s give him a shot.
Welcome to Giants baseball, the place subsequent yr’s slogan will probably be: The Bay Space’s finest… and the Bay Space’s worst.
