SAN FRANCISCO–Shawn Estes was in the house Saturday, along well over a dozen members of the 1997 Giants’ team, in honor of the 20-year reunion of the 1997 NL West champions.
Estes played a vital role in the success of the 1997 team, who completed a rare “worst-to-first” turnaround after finishing last in the NL West in 1996. He went 19-5 with a 3.18 ERA over 32 starts and 201 innings and notched his first and only All-Star berth, one year after the Giants finished the year 68-94.
The 2017 Giants are having a year very similar to that 1996 team. And according to Estes, even though there are key differences between this year’s last place team and the 1996 squad, he believes the Giants could very well start their own turnaround next season.
“It’s a lot different scenario than we had from 1996 to 1997, kind of, I mean we ended up the 96 season with a lot of the young guys kind of like this team is right now,” Estes said. “We had some established veterans, we had Matt Williams and Barry Bonds. We had Robby Thompson, Kirt Manwaring was traded midseason that year. Mark Carreon was our first baseman to open up that season and we had a new GM.
“Brian Sabean came in that season and rolled the dice on a lot of the players. Traded away a very popular player in Matt Williams, ended up getting Jeff Kent, Julian Tavarez, Jose Vizcaino, big parts of that team. He traded away Allen Watson for J.T. Snow, he made some big trades that winter. He made some free agent signings that went unnoticed. Darryl Hamilton, traded for Mark Lewis, signed back Mark Gardner, that team was a completely different team when we came into Spring Training in 1997.”
Although a roster revamp worked for the ’97 team, Estes doesn’t believe that’s the route the Giants will take. He does believe, however, that they could make a blockbuster trade during the offseason.
“I don’t see that happening with this team right now based on the fact that you have too many big contracts that you’re not going to be able to get rid of,” Estes added. “Do I think that the Giants won’t be able to make a big splash this winter with maybe a blockbuster trade? I wouldn’t put it past them. Kind of like Brian Sabean did with Matt Williams.”
“Who that player is going to be? It’s not going to be a Buster Posey, it’s not going to be a Brandon Crawford, it’s not going to be a Madison Bumgarner. It could be a Brandon Belt, it could be a Joe Panik type of situation. But I don’t think that the team next year is going to look a whole lot different than the team you see right now.”
Estes said the 1996 Giants were a bad baseball team by the end of the year, and he believes there’s more core talent to build around with this year’s roster. Estes expressed confidence in Giants’ general manager Bobby Evans, and said he hopes that Evans can achieve some of the same success former general manager Brian Sabean experienced when he made decisions that helped ignite a quick turnaround.
“Give Bobby Evans a little while, and he’ll fill in, get some pieces that they do need. Some bullpen arms. Center field could possibly, you’ll probably see a platoon situation with Pence and Span next year. Maybe one of the young guys steps up this season and he ends up playing a little, but I don’t see Bobby Evans making a big splash or making as many moves as you saw Brian Sabean make in the winter of 1996.”