After a four and a half hour flight back to the west coast on Thursday evening, the San Francisco Giants return home at a crossroads.
At 25-37 and 14.0 games back of the Colorado Rockies in the National League West, the Giants have underperformed relative to nearly every possible expectation this season.
A franchise that entered the year committed to making another postseason run finds itself in a free fall, combining long stretches of subpar play with dozens of brushes of bad luck.
But for all the struggles Bruce Bochy’s ballclub has encountered this season, the Giants are adamant they’re not ready to pack it in.
On Wednesday morning, general manager Bobby Evans joined the Murph and Mac show on KNBR, and was asked point-blank if he believes the Giants can still make the playoffs this season.
“You’re looking at a team that struggled, that put itself in a very big climb,” Evans said. “At the end of the day, I’ll let them determine that. I’ll let them determine that based on their play and performance.”
A 14.0-game deficit with 100 games left to play isn’t an impossible mountain to ascend, but it’s one that’s fraught with uncertain footing that could cause the Giants to slip at any moment along the path.
The Giants’ pursuit of the playoffs is made infinitely tougher by the presence of the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, two teams that can win 86 games if they play .500 baseball the rest of the way.
For the Giants to reach that mark, they would need to finish the final 100 games of the season 22 games over .500, and if you’ve watched any Giants’ baseball over the last two months, you know the odds of that happening are as likely as Reds’ second baseman Scooter Gennett hitting four home runs in the same game.
Still, on Tuesday, Gennett did hit four home runs in the same game. And perhaps that’s why Evans and Bochy are holding onto a sliver of hope. In baseball, anything can happen.
“We’ve got to find a way to put ourselves in much better position so that question becomes less and less of a daily conversation and more and more of how much better they’ve gotten and more on the horse they are than where they are now,” Evans said.
If the Giants are going to channel their inner Gennett and pull off the improbable –perhaps the impossible– the run needed to start awhile ago. It didn’t, and now, the Giants need to kick things into high gear.
San Francisco’s upcoming five-game homestand presents the Giants with an opportunity, as they’ll host a pair of American League Central clubs, the Twins and the Royals, at AT&T Park, which has been much kinder to the ballclub than road parks.
While the Giants are just a game below .500 at home (13-14), San Francisco salvaged a series split in Milwaukee on Thursday with an extra innings win that helped the club improve to a paltry 12-23 on the road.
The team’s road record makes the next five home games all the more critical, as they have an opportunity to shape San Francisco’s front office mentality over the next few weeks.
If the Giants find their groove, perhaps Evans and Bochy will allow a team that’s finally inching toward full health to search for its stride. If the team flounders, though, Evans said Wednesday he’s not opposed to looking at younger options.
“I don’t want to label it in any certain way at this point,” Evans said. “We’re always looking to get younger, stronger and more athletic and more durable and more competitive and stronger in all facets of our game. Defensively, offensively, bullpen, starting rotation, that’s part of it. You’re never satisfied with what we have. That wouldn’t be fair to the guys that are in the clubhouse if you got satisfied.”
Evans hasn’t used the word “sell” at this point, but the franchise hasn’t necessarily been looking to get “younger” at the trade deadline in years past. In reality, the Giants have typically found themselves among the teams shipping off prospects in exchange for proven assets.
If the Giants do reach the point where selling becomes imminent, there’s speculation around the league that if the Giants do continue to sputter, the franchise isn’t in a position to give up much anyway.
With the way contracts of key cogs like Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt are structured, the Giants aren’t in an optimal position to drop salaries in favor of prospects, should their situation come to that. However, Evans said if the team does want to pursue trade options, certain contracts aren’t going to deter the Giants’ front office from making a move.
“I think in many ways, contracts are contracts that we made that are in our best interest going forward and I think that, to second guess that right now in a trade market, if you were selling, sure that can be a disadvantage,” Evans said. “But that doesn’t necessarily frame our mindset. Our evaluation of our players and ultimately what we’ll do at the deadline will be independent of that.”
On Wednesday, Bochy told a group of reporters including The San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman and Bay Area News Group’s Andrew Baggarly that the Giants have their eye on a handful of minor league prospects.
Third baseman Jae-Gyun Hwang is hitting well at AAA, while a trio of pitchers, Tyler Beede, Kyle Crick and Joan Gregorio have forced their way onto the team’s radar. If the Giants don’t reverse their fortunes, are Evans and Bochy comfortable shopping players like Eduardo Nunez and Johnny Cueto to orchestrate a youth movement?
At this point, all indications from the franchise suggest San Francisco is in wait-and-see mode. The Giants remain hopeful the roster they built to contend for a playoff spot will begin to compete like a playoff team, and they need the upcoming homestand to serve as a turning point.
As Evans said Wednesday, the Giants’ current situation is not lost on the team’s management, but before he’s comfortable making a decision about the future, he’s ready to watch the current roster take ownership of the present.
“Some of that can come from guys playing more up to their career norms and some of that could come from a young guy adding to the offense and helping lengthen the lineup a little bit but we’re noticing the same thing. It’s not lost on us.”