Welp, it happened. The Giants decided that enough was enough, and four and a half hours before they were to begin their final home series of the season against the Los Angeles Dodgers, announced that manager Gabe Kapler was dismissed from the team.
On the one hand, it was a move that probably needed to be made. The Giants were once in the thick of the playoff hunt this season. As late as August 29th, when the Giants sat at 69-63, they had a 57% chance of nabbing a playoff spot, according to Baseball Reference. They were on pace for 89 wins, which would have gotten them the second, and maybe even the first wild card spot if they could have kept it going.
They did not keep it going. They instead tumbled to a 9-1 September and fell completely out of the playoff race. Couple that with complaints over lack of accountability and a major Pusoy problem in the clubhouse (as our own Daryl The Guru Johnson so eloquently put it) it was clear the Giants had become a broken down baseball vehicle.
Gabe Kapler never lost the clubhouse because you cannot lose a clubhouse you apparently never had. His hands-off leadership style soon had the Giants operating like one of the Cruise cars shown on their jersey patches: driverless and careening off the road. That usually portends a coaching change. If anything, to shake up the culture in the clubhouse.
But firing Kapler does not feel like the shakeup that was anticipated to move this organization forward. Taylor Swift once sang, “Band-aids don’t fix bullet holes,” and it is fair to wonder if by firing Gabe Kapler, but letting Farhan Zaidi stick around, the Giants are doing exactly that. Can a manager really be fired for simply executing the plan given to him by his superior? It was not long until the word “scapegoat” began popping up on Twitter and in the media at large. Players in the clubhouse are not refuting that notion.
With Kapler moving on, the real pressure is now on Zaidi. He has one year left on his current contract and from all indications, there is no talk being had behind the scenes of adding years on to that. Which means Farhan is entering a do-or-die season as basically a lame-duck President of Baseball Operations in which he has to oversee a massive, full-scale turnaround of the Giants' organization.
Good luck with that.
The Giants are not a wholly awful team right now. Logan Webb is a legitimate ace atop the rotation, and the back end of the bullpen is fortified by the Rogers brothers and Camilo Doval. Patrick Bailey, Luis Matos, Kyle Harrison and Marco Luciano offer a core of young players to be excited about for the future. There are building blocks in place.
But the question one has to ask is this: What can Farhan Zaidi do in the space of a year to convince ownership, as well as a legion of fans who want him fired now, that he is worth bringing back in 2025 and beyond?
The answer may require a miracle. And step one of said miracle might be the hardest for Farhan, which is admitting that his current philosophical approach to the game is not working and needs to change.
“These strategies, we don't view ourselves as a front office, or as a coaching staff, as being a system organization,” Zaidi said when he met with the media Friday evening. “Whether it's platooning, or using openers, I don't think we want to rule out any of those strategies when we think it gives us the best chance to win. But again, I was sincere in my comments [on the other station this week], we have to look at everything and to the extent that, have not put our players in the best positions to succeed and haven't gotten the most out of them. That's going to be part of the assessment this offseason, which I think is not just a matter of what strategies we employ in games, but also how the roster is constituted. I kind of stand by what I said yesterday that we're going have to look at all of them.”
A lot of words there, and they sound encouraging in that Farhan is admitting that all strategies need to be looked at and assessed. The problem here is these words echo what he said in last year's end-of-season presser as well, when he described his front office as not being dogmatic on any one philosophy, especially on the pitching front. Based on how this season played out, especially on the pitching front, one can be excused for lacking confidence in Farhan's ability to assess, reassess, and change his overall approach to the game.
What would that change look like? For one, the platooning needs to go, or at minimum be reduced enough that the lineup has more everyday guys than platoon players. Sure, platooning may work for the Dodgers, but they also have several hitters in that lineup in Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Chris Taylor who you know will be in the lineup every day, and where in the lineup they will be hitting. Such hitters do not exist on the Giants.
If Farhan is going to change, it apparently will not be overnight. Hours after the announced firing of Kapler, the Giants trotted out a lineup that was full of veteran players who do not have much of a future with the Giants. No Matos, Ramos or the recently recalled Casey Schmitt. Instead, Mike Yastrzemski, Michael Conforto, Wilmer Flores and Joc Pederson were in the starting nine on Friday. The fans want to see the future of this club come to fruition. Playing guys like Yaz, Joc, Conforto and Flores, even with the amazing season he has had, does nothing to showcase what could be coming for the Giants. Sure, it was one night in the last weekend of what has now become a meaningless season, but if the goal is to showcase that change is coming, why not start right off the bat so to speak?
Then there is the issue of who next year's manager will be. Whomever the Giants do tab to be the guy, they will not be walking into the most stable situation, considering the guy hiring him will, again, have only one guaranteed year to work with.
Zaidi was pressed on that reality and brushed off any concern that might arise in hiring a manager with such a short leash to work with himself.
“Being the manager of the San Francisco Giants is, I think, one of the most attractive jobs in baseball and in professional sports,” Zaidi said. “I don't really see that as an issue, I think people know that they'd be stepping into a great situation here with a great franchise, a great ownership group, and a lot of really good young players that we've seen for the first time this year.”
The pressure to make the correct hire will be huge as well. And who Farhan hires will be an early indication of how different things might be next year. If Kapler was seen as more of a puppet manager who simply carried out Farhan's wills and demands, hiring another such manager will not inspire much confidence. A more seasoned manager might be more accepted by the fanbase. Bob Melvin's name has been popping up as a possibility. Giants fans might even accept an inexperienced manager too, though that would depend on who that inexperienced manager is. If that manager is Buster Posey, whose name has also popped up from time to time, Giants fans will probably accept that too.
Will Farhan favor experience over youth? He was non-committal to both when I asked him about that on Friday.
“I think you just have different types of good candidates,” said Zaidi. “And sometimes, I think being as open minded as possible is the best approach because candidates can surprise you. Somebody that maybe just got in as the last guy on your list winds up being the person that gets the job. So I don't think we have any preconceived notions of that.”
On the one hand, not all that inspiring. On the other hand, this was said barely an hour after Farhan had relieved Kapler of his duty, so there had not been too much time to really think about who to hire next. I will leave it up to you on whether you want to accept that excuse or not.
Then there is the matter of the roster. If Farhan is to get an extension and not a pink slip in 2024, the roster is going to have to churn out wins. A lot of them. Enough to get them into the playoffs at minimum, though probably more. An 85-win season and a 3rd wild card spot might not be enough, especially if the Giants get swept in that Wild Card round in the playoffs.
In order for that to happen, someone in the young crop of Bailey, Matos, Ramos, Schmitt, Luciano and Tyler Fitzgerald will have to take a step forward. And not a one small step for mankind of a step, but a giant leap for mankind kind of step. Am I insinuating at least one of them will become an all-star next year? Yes, I kind of am. Is that potentially too big of an ask to make? Yes, it kind of is.
On top of that, Farhan will also have to add players to the roster, and that could be difficult to do in free agency considering that this year's free agent class is not all that great (Shohei Ohtani aside, but I have been adamant that the Giants have ZERO chance of landing Ohtani and advising fans to abandon any and all hope of him signing here) and the Giants' reputation in free agency has been compromised in the wake of the disastrous way they used their free agent pitchers this year. I also asked him about this, as adding outside talent will be imperative to him keeping his job beyond 2024, and he expressed confidence that any damage to the Giants' reputation will not hinder them this winter.
“I'm not concerned about our reputation with free agents,” Zaidi stated matter of factly. “I don't mean that to sound arrogant, or like we're out of touch. This is a great ballpark. This is a great city to play in. This is a great organization. And I know a lot of players would be excited to put this uniform on. I have conversations with agents all the time about the players they have on this team, what might be happening over the offseason. And I know we're going to get a lot of engagement from players that may be available.”
Saying it now and having it come true in November and December are two totally different situations, however. The Giants always pegged last offseason as a seminal offseason for them, with the intention of adding a megastar like Aaron Judge or Carlos Correa to a lineup that was about to get an influx of young talent from the farm system. That plan did not work out, as we all remember.
Which means Farhan may have to venture down the trade avenue. There will be names available on that market as well. Mets first baseman Pete Alonso could hit the trading block. Certain circles of Twitter seem to think Mike Trout and his gargantuan contract (over $248 million left over the next seven years) could be on the trading block, too. Would Farhan be so bold as to move high-end prospects like Kyle Harrison, Luciano or Matos to bring in a superstar hitter the Giants desperately need? He might not have a choice. But how much of the future can the Giants really sacrifice in hopes of securing a longer present with Farhan Zaidi? I would imagine most Giants fans would recoil at the notion of having to see Luciano and Harrison go elsewhere in exchange for more years of Farhan. Yet that might be the best option to beef up a lineup that is severely lacking in beef.
Even if all this happens, there's no guarantee that it translates to a better season next year. Adding beef and star power is just half the equation. Just ask the Padres about that. And if we are going to put the rat on the table, the odds of Farhan hitting the kind of homerun this offseason he needs to hit are between slim and none.
Which begs the question: why, if the task is this monumental, and the deck this stacked against Farhan, do we even bother sending him on a quest he has so little chance of completing successfully? We can agree that Kapler was fired while carrying out Farhans orders. The true rot of this organization was not coming from the managers office but from the executive offices.
There is simply no reason to force Giants fans to go through another dog and pony show next season when we all know how the ending will play out. The Giants are hurting as an organization. Fans have let it be known they are tuned out on the product by the vast number of empty seats at Oracle Park. Farhan has been given an opportunity to change and adapt once before. He responded with more of the same. He has another chance to adapt this winter. The smart money is probably on a redux of last winter. This is a front office that seems hell-bent on proving us all wrong and showing that they can reinvent a way to win baseball games in the same way that Billy Beane, Farhan's original mentor, did 20 years ago. They want so badly for the lightbulb to go off in the minds of fans and for them all to have the “oh, now I get it,” moment.
And maybe that moment exists. Perhaps Dr. Strange looked forward in time, saw 14,000,625 different outcomes to the Giants 2024 season, and saw the one way it works out with happy endings for all of us. It is possible. In theory.
We live in reality though, and the reality is, if Giants ownership truly cared about moving this organization forward and getting back to winning baseball, we would have seen a full house cleaning where Farhan and General Manager Pete Putila join Kapler in the unemployment line. But for whatever reason, the Giants ownership, led by Larry Baer and Greg Johnson, decided not to pull that trigger.
And now we get one more year of Farhan Zaidi. And it really makes no sense that we do.