Technically, there’s still a month left for the Giants. But the season is all but over.
On Tuesday night, San Francisco (61-67) suffered a 4-3 loss to the San Diego Padres to lose its sixth straight, 10th of 12 and fall 9.5 games back of the third National League Wild Card spot. Afterwards, starter Logan Webb shared some revealing thoughts to reporters, on the subject of his team’s attitude and perhaps complacency.
“I don’t think anybody in this room thought that we’d be in this spot at this point,” Webb said. “Maybe we got a little too complacent at some point or something. Just not doing little things to win baseball games. … It’s not that we weren’t trying to win, but maybe the fire wasn’t there throughout the year.”
Reporters asked Giants manager Gabe Kapler about the comments before Wednesday’s matinee, but he said he hadn’t yet heard Webb’s postgame quotes. Upon hearing the gist of Webb’s comments, Kapler came to the defense of his starter.
“My feeling on that is, ‘Great,’” Kapler said. “Logan is here to express himself and to share frustration and share disappointment. He’s a leader on our team right now, even if he hasn’t fully embraced that yet. I think he’s been concerned about stepping on toes from time to time. Maybe not feeling quite ready to take on that responsibility. But he is every bit a leader and a huge, huge important piece of our future. A voice that needs to be heard right now and going forward.”
Kapler might have given a ringing endorsement of Webb, but that doesn’t change the reality that the Giants have had a massively disappointing campaign. Perhaps you could also pin some of the blame on Kapler for not stoking the “fire” that Webb desired to see from his squad this season.
The Giants could never get out of their own way this season – whether it was a sloppy night in the field, sleepy night at the plate or an implosion by the bullpen. Farhan Zaidi was criticized for his half-stepping performance at the trade deadline, as the Giants were neither all in as buyers or sellers. Now they'll have to see if they can outbid other suitors to retain Carlos Rodon and/or Joc Pederson, two of their biggest trade chips who weren't dealt away.
Perhaps this season feels worse because of the way 2021 played out, a seemingly-miraculous 107-win season that may go down as an anomaly in Zaidi’s tenure in San Francisco. But the end is nigh for the 2022 Giants.
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