Giants 2021 Offseason Recap

I swear I promise to write more consistently about the Giants every season but then I do not. There are thousands of other Giants bloggers out there that do a good enough job without my contributions, but I'm declaring I'm back for real, and will be posting about these G-men more frequently moving forward. 

First and foremost, before I preview the Giants 2021, let me unfortunately recap how 2020 ended, because it was truly unfortunate in all the ways.

The Giants missed the playoffs, and subsequently missed playing the Dodgers in the first round for the first time since the playoffs expanded to the modern format, by one frigging game. All they needed to do was win one of their final 4 games. They lost all four, three of them by one stupid run. Ouch. Instead of being given the chance to be the underdog of all underdogs, whom this blogger believes had a legitimate chance to upset the Dodgers given how well the Gigantes played against them in 2020, they missed the playoffs for the 4th consecutive season while gifting LA their first round opponent in the Milwaukee Brewers. While the Giants actually could have been formidable in a short series with their shockingly potent offense and Gausman and Smyly looking like legit co-aces down the stretch, the Dodgers instead got to face a Brewers team that had underperformed all season on offense and was down their best starter in Corbin Burnes and down arguably their best reliever in Devin Williams. Of course, the Dodgers easily swept that series, then went on to face what should have been one of their biggest challengers in the San Diego Padres. Being this was 2020, the worst year in recorded history (don't fact check me), of course the Padres had issues of their own, mainly losing their prized trade deadline acquisition of Mike Clevinger after one inning in the NLDS. Without their acquired ace, the Padres were also swept. Finally, the Braves put up the fight that Giants fans were looking for, taking a commanding 3-1 series lead in the NLCS. Giants fans could rejoice knowing the Dodgers were to be eliminated for the 32nd consecutive season without a trophy. Except... the Braves did what Atlanta sports teams do... they choked. They lost 3 consecutive games and gifted the Dodgers opportunities left and right with poor decision making, none worse than having runners on 2nd and 3rd with zero outs and the middle of their line-up coming up in the first ining of Game 7, a chance to put a dagger in the Dodgers hopes and dreams, only to run themselves into an inexcusable double play that left them with a runner on 1st and two outs. They never had a chance after that. The Dodgers were World Series bound again, set to face off the spunky Tampa Bay Rays with all the analytic and data to upset the like-minded datacentric Dodgers. The Rays didn't seem to have the offense to conquer LA but they put up a fight. It looked like they were on track to force a Game 7 when the baseball gods must have determined that this shortened, COVID season in this hell year of 2020 would be the perfect time to give the Dodgers their first championship since 1988, and acted accordingly. They brainwashed Rays manager Kevin Cash into taking the ball from dominating starter Blake Snell for a reliever that had done nothing but give up runs in the postseason. As Giants fans, we all knew that was it. It was the equivalent of Dusty Baker taking the ball out of Russ Ortiz's hands in that mystical 2002 World Series that never happened. Giants fans know what it's like to gift a championship trophy to an LA team. They saw the signs as soon as Cash came out to the mound with Snell voicing his disbelief. The rest is history... the Dodgers won the COVID SEASON WORLD SERIES TROPHY THAT DOESN'T COUNT, WIN IT ALL IN A NORMAL SEASON, YOU LOSERS! (I'm not bitter.)

Ok, now that we've recapped that sham of a 2020 season... let's turn the page and look forward to a REAL baseball season shall we? 

The Giants had an interesting 2020. The offense was legit, their young bullpen got experience and actually got better down the stretch, minus Sam Coonrod who wore some of the biggest goat horns for SF and was partly the reason they missed the playoffs by one game and who had a key hand in helping them lose their final 4 games that got them eliminated. Eff that guy and good riddance (he's on the Phillies now, which seems appropriate). Hunter Strickland 2 will not be missed. The Trevor Gott blown games also killed, but at least Gott is a guy you can root for, and he was miscast as a closer anyways. I digress, the bullpen eventually solidified for the most part, and unearthed some potential key contributors. Caleb Baragar looked like he was ready to take over as the next Jeremy Affeldt. Sam Selman's Sliders should be a restaurant option for him if he can't cut it as a big leaguer, but Selman consistently looked impressive throwing essentially one pitch. Tyler Rogers got some heat early from Giants fans (and this blogger) but settled in and became manager Gabe Kapler's most trusted righty reliever. Those three could play a big part in the 2021 pen. The rotation was up and down. As mentioned earlier, Smyly and Gausman were legitimately pitching like frontline starters towards the end of the season. Cueto regressed. Tyler Anderson was effective. Logan Webb was having all sorts of issues. Jeff Samardzija was nowhere to be seen. It was a rotation that could keep you in ballgames though given the offense and that's really all they needed in 2020. Gausman was rewarded with the qualifying offer after the season, which keeps him in the rotation for at least one more season. Smyly meanwhile bolted for the Braves. That left the Giants rotation thin, with only Cueto, Gausman, a regressed Webb, and a recovering Tyler Beede as options.

So what did Farhan do this offseason to improve the team? He did what he's been doing incrementally. Improving the team in small ways. He filled out the rotation with a bunch of guys who could be solid, could be hurt, or could be bad. We're talking proven injury prone guys like Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood and Aaron Sanchez. However, could be good, could be bad, could be injured is literally what you can say about most MLB starters these days, so why not take fliers on guys with proven track records of at least being pretty decent in the majors? It worked out last year with Smyly, Gausman, and Tyler Anderson so who's to say it can't or won't workout with DeSclafani, Wood, and Sanchez? All of those guys have had legit success in the majors previously. Sanchez was an All Star in 2016, Wood an All-Star in 2017. DeSclafani had an ERA below 4 with a substantial number of innings in 2019. So there's definite potential there. The downside is if all of these guys get hurt, the depth is lacking behind them. The rotation seems set with Gausman, Cueto, Wood, DeSclafani, and Sanchez which means Logan Webb gets pushed back to the minors for some additional seasoning. Tyler Beede should be back by the summer. Beyond those guys, the Giants start getting into their minor league prospects, guys we might see in 2021 include Sean Hjelle, Tristan Beck, and maybe even top pitching prospect Seth Corry. The interesting thing about the rotation is that all of them will be free agents after this season. That means Farhan will either have to completely rebuild the rotation from scratch or hope that Beede, Webb, and some of the other prospects above pan out and can be rotation stalwarts. It's a tall ask for both, but this is the flexibility Zaidi wanted to create, apparently. 

Aside from the rotation, Zaidi and GM Scott Harris left the offense nearly identical to the one from last season, at least the starting line-up. The one spot that will be noticeably different in 2021 will be at catcher, where Buster Posey will return and replace rookie Joey Bart. That's a big improvement given Bart looked like a rookie and had an underwhelming performance at the major league level. It was evident Bart needed more minor league time and he'll get it in 2021, because not only will Posey return, but the Giants signed backup veteran catcher Curt Casali as well, so the battery of Bart/Tromp has been replaced completely, although both those catchers will be at AAA. The other notable change will be in the infield, where left handed Tommy LaStella was signed to provide a solid hitter versus right handed pitchers. Last year, Donovan Solano and Wilmer Flores played second, with Solano getting the most reps, but his defense left a little to be desired, despite his silver slugging offensive performance. Now Kapler can choose to platoon Solano and LaStella or perhaps give Evan Longoria a much needed platoon partner at third if Solano proves he can still hit at an elite level. This will also push Flores to 1B, the position he's most capable, as a platoon mate for Brandon Belt. In short, the LaStella signing gives Kapler a variety of options on how to align his infield. The outfield will largely have the same look as it did by the time the 2020 season ended, with Dickerson and Ruf platooning in left field, Dubon logging a majority of centerfield duties, and 8th place NL MVP vote-getter (!!) Mike Yastrzemski in right. Austin Slater is still around as well, though he's not the ideal platoon mate for Dubon and he and Ruf can't both sit against lefties, so we'll see how that shakes out. The bench should be better, now that Pence (retired) and Sandoval (Braves) are no longer taking AB's there. Last year's bench was paper thin. This year's bench will have some variation of LaStella, Solano, Flores, Slater, Ruf, and Casali on it. That's not great, but it's not bad. It doesn't feature young guys in reserve roles, which is good, because you normally want veterans on the bench who know how to prepare for it.

Finally, the bullpen will feature a lot of the same arms from last season but augmented a little bit with some more stabilizing veteran arms. Last year, Tony Watson and Trevor Gott, and to a lesser extent Wandy Peralta and Jarlin Garcia were the veterans in the pen. Gone is Watson, replaced by Jake McGee, who could be a closer candidate. However, added to Gott, Garcia, and Peralta is veteran righty Matt Wisler, who sort of reminds people of Sergio Romo with his slider focused pitch throwing. Wisler from the right slanging sliders while Sam's Sliderhouse (not to be confused with Sam's Chowderhouse) can come at you from the left? Potentially! That doesn't even take into account John Brebbia, who was signed away from the Cardinals and is recovering from Tommy John surgery and could be a closer in his own right, nor does it take into account the number of non roster invitee veterans that will be competing for a spot in the bullpen. The most effective moves might have been trimming the fat in the bullpen by trading away Sam Coonrod and "Wild Thing" Shaun Anderson. All in all, this bullpen looks intriguing and could improve on its promising results from 2020. 

Zaidi hasn't stoked the fires of the fan base with a big name signing yet, that will likely happen next offseason when most of this roster comes off the books, but he has augmented a team that barely missed the playoffs and .500 ball with incremental improvements. Will it be enough to compete with the Dodgers and Padres in the NL West? Probably not even close, but this is a team that, if things break right, could compete for the last wildcard spot. 

Losses: Drew Smyly, Tyler Anderson, Sam Coonrod, Tony Watson, Shaun Anderson, Aramis Garcia, Tyler Heineman

Additions: Alex Wood, Anthony DeSclafani, Tommy LaStella, Jake McGee, Aaron Sanchez, Matt Wisler, John Brebbia, Curt Casali, LaMonte Wade Jr, Jason Vosler, and ostensibly Buster Posey

Overall offseason grade: B 

Reason for grade: Improvements across the board, however small. Would have liked to see a starting pitcher inked beyond 2021, preferably a mid-front rotation guy acquired. No shrewd trades for additional prospects.