This was supposed to be a historical offseason for the San Francisco Giants. And it was, but for all the wrong reasons. This past month was supposed to be when the Giants announced with one fell swoop of the pen that they were once again big players in Major League Baseball. Instead, it was a December To Remember Fails Event for the Orange and Black.
The roller coaster of misery and anguish the Giants have spent the last 30 days riding has left fans feeling, well, I am not sure how fans are feeling right now, because I am not sure how I feel about the Giants right now heading into 2023.
On the one hand, the on-field product for the Giants is not worse than last year. The addition of Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto coupled with moving Joc Peterson to a full time DH role will make the outfield defense better. Brandon Crawford may be trying to finish his Giants career strong in a contract year, and David Villar and Joey Bart could take steps forward in their big league development after a full, uninterrupted offseason.
The Giants pitching rotation, while not the sexiest looking in baseball, could definitely over perform. For all the warts the Giants have right now, and we will address those soon don’t you worry, the one thing everyone can agree on is this organization does indeed possess the magic fairy dust that turns pumpkins into capable pitchers again. Add in some solid years out of the bullpen and Camilo Doval taking the next step towards being the Giants closer of the future, and at worst the Giants could be another team fighting around 500. At best, perhaps they could contend for a backdoor entry into the playoffs. And that, simply put, is not good enough.
Giants fans expected more because the front office and ownership led fans to believe that more will be coming. Which brings us to the other hand, where it feels like the trust between the Giants fan base and organization is on the brink.
President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi was brought in here to provide next gen thinking. The Giants said that they would not be underbid in their pursuit of a star free agent. Giants Chairman Greg Johnson made allusions to such pursuits during the regular season. There would be no financial restrictions. And somehow the Giants front office and ownership found a way to vomit all over themselves after making such grand promises.
There was no one single event that led to this meltdown of trust between fans and team, but a series of unfortunate ones that culminated in the worst Jon Heyman tweet ever sent in Giants history.
Whoops, sorry, not that one. THIS one:
And then the dam burst. Any sort of belief that fans had left in Farhan Zaidi and this front office had completely evaporated. And this time, the furor even turned to the Giants ownership group led by Johnson and Larry Baer. The hashtag #SellSFG popped up on Twitter. The fan base had had enough. The Giants looked defeated, embarrassed and humiliated. On top of that, fans felt left to fend for themselves, as the organization remained silent as Carlos Correa’s agent Scott Boras wrote the narrative of how things fell apart.
The Giants were in full blown chaos mode and had seemingly abandoned their post in their darkest hour. It was the Giants at rock bottom.
Until all of a sudden, it wasn’t. Suddenly, the New York Mets had the same concerns as the Giants regarding Carlos Correa’s balky ankle. Even the Minnesota Twins, who felt very excited to bring Correa back, suddenly decided that they were hesitant to throw the number of years and money that the shortstop was looking for. Suddenly, Zaidi was not the incompetent dweeb that he was just a few days earlier. In an offseason with more unseen twists and turns than Space Mountain, the Giants potentially being right to have hesitation over giving Correa a long-term deal was by far one of the most shocking.
So where does that leave things with the Giants heading into 2023?
We are heading into year five under Farhan, and whether or not he is the guy who can rebuild the Giants is still very much up for debate. He has so far failed to make any meaningful offseason acquisitions meant to bolster the team for a future beyond the next calendar year, and none of his trades, most of which were applauded at the time, have led to any sort of long term success for the Giants. The only card Farhan has up his sleeve at the moment is a farm system that, even in spite of a down year, still contains a solid collection of talented prospects who could one day make up the core of the next great Giants team.
Perhaps that is still the goal for Giants ownership. Baer said during a town hall gathering over the summer that sometimes superstars can come from within the farm system. Throughout the Giants 140-year history, its best players and most marketable stars, outside of Barry Bonds, all got their start within the Giants organization. Losing out on Aaron Judge, moving away from Correa, it all moves the Giants back to being deliciously on brand at a time when Giants fans want their team to be anything but.
The Giants commitment to the old brand is wearing thin. Even more so after promises of change. Guarantees of “Next Gen” thinking and desires for big free agent signings were left unfulfilled, and now the old brand is no longer acceptable for Giants fans.
A best-case scenario 2023 season for the Giants may not be the cure all it could have been in years past. Imagine a Giants team that overachieves in 2023 much like it did in 2021, wins 90+ games and makes a little noise in the playoffs. Then what? As good as this 2023 Giants team could be, nothing about it suggests that a successful season this year will carry into a successful 2024. We have seen already how the Giants respond to surprise seasons of success. If 2023 ends up being another redux of 2021 that leads into a 2024 that looks eerily similar to 2022… well, just Google the definition of insanity and leave it at that.
As Alex Pavlovic said on The Morning Roast last week, those in the Giants front office should be feeling their seats warming up going into the season. And unless this season presents some form of evidence that the Giants are close to a sustainable model of winning, the front office should remain on the hot seat, even if 2023 includes a winning season and a playoff appearance. For those who want to see Farhan and friends shown the door however, even a changing of front office personnel may be akin to placing a band-aid on a bullet hole.
Going into 2023, the real issues with the Giants may very well reside far above Farhan Zaidi’s pay grade. Is ownership truly the issue holding the Giants back? Consider who the Giants have been continually losing to in free agency this past month: the New York Mets and Yankees. Both teams have one singular head of ownership who makes the final calls in Steve Cohen and Hal Steinbrenner respectively. The Giants have Greg Johnson as the point man, but the final call on financial decisions comes from his father Charles (who has his own issues of popularity with the Giants fanbase). The Giants lack a singular figurehead that other successful teams have to lure in and close the deal on big name free agents like Aaron Judge or Carlos Correa. This organization does not have the kind of billionaire who will willingly toss three olives around like candy.
Perhaps it's fair to wonder not just if this current front office can build a successful team for the Giants, but if this ownership group is capable of presiding over a sustained run a success. The Giants are about to begin their 65th season of baseball in San Francisco, and only once have made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. Historically speaking, outside of 2010-14, sustained excellence has never been the theme when it comes to San Francisco Giants baseball. Hot bursts of success here and there have become an accepted norm with the Giants. And fans are right to want more.
Going into 2023, the standards for the Giants should be set higher. Perhaps in order to truly get next gen thinking, first the Giants need next gen ownership. These are the unfortunate existential issues that will be dancing in the minds of Giants fans as they enter Oracle Park this summer. Assuming they show up.
Going into 2023, the Giants future is not dark and ominous, but it is not inspiring any confidence either. And now the franchise feels stuck in a weird, inescapable limbo, floating aimlessly through a sea of nothingness and whatevers. New year, same Giants.
Happy New Years, Giants fans!
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