What should we reasonably expect from the 2023 Giants?
It’s a tough question to answer in light of what has happened the last two seasons.
In 2021, no one was expecting San Francisco to make any noise. They were a long shot to even compete for a playoff spot. Then they promptly won 107 games, the most in franchise history, and got career-best seasons from a handful of veterans.
In 2022, with the team projected to be in the playoffs, they were mediocre from beginning to end, and saw their same veterans fall back to Earth as they dealt with injury issues.
So what now? The team got younger, sort of. They offloaded veterans Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria, but don’t exactly have any young prospects ready to take their place, at least not for Opening Day. They also added some talent with the likes of Michael Conforto and Mitch Haniger, but — once again — they were unable to add a star.
Most projections believe the Giants will again be at .500 like they were last year. With that in mind, Marcus Thompson of The Athletic believes any postseason for SF should be seen as a success.
“At this point, making the playoffs would be a successful season,” Thompson told F.P. & Kolsky. “I think asking more than that would be a lot. Too much.”
Even if it’s not reasonable to expect the Giants in the National League Championship Series, it will be hard for some fans to accept anything less considering what the club did just two years ago. A precedent was set that the club can have incredible success even with a roster that isn’t brimming with stars.
“It’s still going to be in people’s mind. How did that team win 107, how did they somehow manage to piece it together?” Thompson said. “Chemistry felt good, everybody played seemingly above their level and it just didn’t feel like that was a creation of salary. It was more good baseball, good defense, good pitching, good chemistry, the manager making great decisions and everything sort of clicked.
“The difficulty is if you don’t have the players it’s still hard, because you didn’t think you had the players that year and you end up losing to the Dodgers. So, I feel like that 107 it’s just hanging there. A reminder of what happens when things click right. And if they’re not winning it just feels like something’s not right, you can’t duplicate that again.
“That’s not a talent issue, that feels like something more than that.”
The Dodgers are obviously still the juggernaut they were in 2021, but now the San Diego Padres are too. That’s only going to make the mountain to climb even higher than it already is based on San Francisco’s moderate payroll.
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