Giants executive Brian Sabean joined Lund & Middlekauff on Thursday afternoon, and was candid in his evaluation of the club’s current roster. Though it has been widely reported that the Giants aren’t going to “blow up” their current core, Sabean said the team is more willing than ever to shake things up.
“What we’ve learned is we were very respectful and doubled-down on our core, and for some reason they couldn’t stay on the field and for some reason they weren’t playing to their baseball cards this year,” Sabean said. “We’re more open-minded than ever — whether it’s now or especially going into the offseason — to shake things up. Guys are really playing for their place on the ’19 team in my mind right now.”
After a 98-loss campaign in 2017, the Giants kept much of their roster in place while adding multi-time All-Stars Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria. Though a foreboding lineup on paper, injuries and ineptitude saw the club almost outside of the playoff picture for the second consecutive season, for the first time since 2008-2009.
Sabean broke down the issues.
“I think we’ll be as resourceful as we can. If you put your finger on what our problem’s been we’ve got a 1960s offense. We have the damndest time scoring on the road and when we face good or power pitching we’re very inept, don’t have a nose for the RBI, strikeout too much, and you can’t do that if you don’t hit a lot of home runs. And we have not been any form of consistant. Maybe a little bit more presentable to the eye at home but we’ve got to become more dynamic. If that takes doing it with other players we’re prepared to do that.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Sabean on the offseason, start from 8:45.