2020 - San Francisco suffers their fourth losing season in a row. Prior to that,

early in the previous decade, the Giants had had a lot of success, winning three

World Series (in even numbered years 2010, 2012, 2014). They were sort of odd

titles as the Jints seemed to overachieve to win each of those titles. Anyway, at

this point, all of that is a distant memory.

□   Since 2012, Larry Baer had been the lead owner of a consortium that has

owned the Giants since 1992. San Francisco was not a deep pockets team

during all of those years, but held their own pretty well due to the excellent

management of GM Brian Sabean. After Sabean stepped down in 2014, the

the Giants fortunes on the field slid down right with him.

□  Farhan Zaidi has been President of Baseball Operations since 2019, He had

previously been an executive in the successful Oakland A's and Los Angeles

Dodgers organizations, so he has worked both on a shoestring and with an

abundance of resources. It's closer to the shoestring in San Francisco.

It's unfair to expect Farhan to match Sabean's successes in San Francisco.

However, the expectation is that the Giants will be a lot better than they have

shown since Sabean left.

□ Gabe Kapler is San Francisco's manager. He took over from the highly respected

Bruce Bochy in '20. Time will tell if Kapler can make a difference.

□ 2021 - The Giants go nuts. They come out of nowhere to win a whopping 107

games to nose out an exceptional Dodgers team that had won the Division the

previous eight seasons and won 106 in '21. The Dodgers would get revenge on

San Francisco in the playoffs, beating the Jints in the NLDS.

□ 2021 - San Francisco with virtually the same team has one of those magical

once in a lifetime type seasons. They  had scored 5 runs per game in '20 and, with

essentially the same lineup, score 5 runs a game again.

However, the pitching staff, which gave up an ugly 5 runs per game in '30, cut that

down to an outstanding 3.6 runs per game in '21. And that was all the difference.

Kevin Gausman and Logan Webb upped their games considerably and

newcomers Alex Wood, Anthony DeSclafani and Jake McGee all had big years.

On top of that, the rest of the staff (Jarliin Garcia, Jose Alvarez, Tyler Rogers,

and Zack Litell) also pitched quite well.

2022 - C Buster Posey, 33, retires. Has a good shot at making the Hall of Fame

Joey Bart, 25, takes his place

2022 - The team's top starter Kevin Gausman, 30, leaves to the Blue Jays

as a free agent.

2022 - The magic over, San Francisco gives up a hundred more runs than in '21

and scores a hundred less runs than in '21. And voila, you've got mediocrity

at 81-81. The starting lineup gets old and the pitching staff returns to earth.

2023 - 1B Brandon Belt, 34, a twelve year career veteran with the Giants with an

.812 OPS, leaves for Toronto as a free agent. LaMonte Wade takes his place.

2023 - LHP Carlos Rodon, 29, leaves to the Yankees as a Free Agent

2023 - The Giants were a mediocre 81-81 team in '22 just a year removed from a

107 win season. That 107 was a mirage. They had a team full of players

who are in their prime, or a little past, and are decent players, but not

close to being stars. San Francisco slipped a bit further going 79-83 in '23.

Offense:

□ C Patrick Bailey, 24, '20 1st round pick, 7 48 .233

□ 1B LaMonte Wade, 29, '21 Trade with Twins, 17 45 .256

□ 2B Thairo Estrada, 27, '21 Trade with Yankees, 14 49 .271

□ SS Brandon Crawford, 36, '08 4th round pick, 7 38 .194

□ 3B JD Davis, 30, '22 Trade with Mets, 18 69 .248

□ OF Mike Yastrzemski, 32,  '19 Trade with Baltimore, 15 43 .233

□ OF Mitch Haniger, 32, '23 Trade with Seattle, 6 28 .209

□ OF Michael Conforto, 30, '23 FA from Mets, 15 58 .239

□ OF Joc Pederson, 31, '22 FA from Braves, 15 51 .235

□ IF Wilmer Flores, 31, '20 FA from Arizona, 23 60 .284

□ IF Blake Sabol, 25, '23 Trade from Reds, 23 60 .284

□ CF Luis Matos, 21, '18 IFA, 2 14 .250

Pitching:

□ RHP Logan Webb, 26,  '14 draft 4th round pick, 11-13 3.25

□ RHP Alex Cobb, 35,  '22 FA from Anaheim, 7-7 3.87

□ LHP Sean Manaea, 31, '23 FA from San Diego, 7-6 4.44

□ LHP Alex Wood, 32, '21 FA from Dodgers, 5-5 4.33

□  RHP Anthony DeSclafani, 33, '21 FA from Reds, 4-8 4.88

□ RHP Tyler Rogers 32, '13 draft 10th Round pick, 4-5 3.04

□ LHP Taylor Rogers, 32,  '23 FA from Milwaukee, 6-4 3.83

□ RHP Ryan Walker 27, '18 31st Round pick, 5-3 3.23

□ RHP Jakob Junis 30, '22 FA from KC, 4-3 3.87

□ RHP Tristan Beck 27, '18 Trade from Atlanta, 35-3 3.92

□ Closer Camilo Doval, 25, '16 IFA, 6-6 2.93 39 saves

2024 - Conventional wisdom says time to re-tool. However, the Giants are

going for it. They got rid of starters DeSclafani, Stripling, Cobb and Manea.

And they now have a potential excellent starting rotation. Logan Webb has

ace potential. Kyle Harrison is a primo prospect. And Free Agent addition

Blake Snell gives the Giants a potentially formidable Big-3. Robbie Ray

was picked up from Seattle. He is recovering from TJ surgery and should

be ready by mid season. Losing Tristan Beck to an aneurism was a blow,

but he may also be back by mid season. Closer Camilo Doval is solid,

he had 39 saves last year and the Rogers boys, Tyler and Taylor provide

some solid bullpen depth.

Zaidi is also retooling the offense.  Pederson, Davis and Crawford were

let go to free agency. In their place are free agent OF Jung Hoo Lee, an

on base machine from South Korea; young SS prospect Marco Luciano;

veteran 3B Matt Chapman and veteran DH Jorge Soler. Also, veteran

SS Nick Ahmed was picked up from Arizona in case Luciano is not ready.

The newcomers join a solid group: C Patrick Bailey; 1B Lamonte Wade;

2B Thairo Estrada; OF Michael Conforto and OF Mike Yastrzemski.

All in all, if all goes well, the Giants may be in a position to contend for

a wild card. Beating out the Dodgers for the Division seems hopeless.

2025 - The Giants have been stuck in .500 mediocrity for three years

after their fantastic 107 win season in 2021. The mediocrity cost

President Farhan Zaidi and GM Pete Putila their jobs. Zach Minasian is now

in the hot seat. The Giants also lost the offseason as both ace lefty

Blake Snell and hard hitting outfielder Michael Conforto bolted in free

agency to the hated Dodgers. SF did sign SS Willy Adames from the

Brewers to mitigate the losses a bit.

It's a tough division and the Giants look like the fourth best team in the

group. Another .500 season seems like a reasonable expectation for them.

2025 Pitching:

Losing Snell hurts, but he only won five games last year due to injury.

Robby Ray comes back from injury and should give the Giants a lot more

productivity than that. Logan Webb, 28, is an ace. He went 13-10 last year.

Ryan Walker (10-4 1.91) is the ace of the Giants pen.There's also enough

other pitching talent around like the lefty-righty Rogers twins and

several hard throwing youngsters who have a chance of emerging that

the Giants will probably still be a bit better than the league average

in runs given up. An acquisition that could be significant is forty two

year old righty Justin Verlander from Houston. He has a history of

resurrection after folks have buried him.

2025 Hitting:

San Francisco has been a bit below the league average in runs scored.

They added Adames, but lost Conforto so it's something of a wash.

There are no stars on offense but there a lot of solid every day types

like C Patrick Bailey, 2B Mike FitzGerald, 3B Matt Carpenter,

DH Heliot Ramos and OF Mike Yastrzemski to make the Giants decent.

Twenty year old first baseman Bryce Eldridge could become a factor this

season. As a 19 year old last year he went 23 92 .292 with four minor

league clubs last year as he kept moving up the minor league ladder.