Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi met with reporters via Zoom for 45 minutes on Friday. The wild card round of the postseason had already begun, but as has Zaidi’s offseason.
After winning a franchise record 107 games in 2021, the Giants finished 81-81 this year. The historic 2021 campaign remains the Giants’ only winning season since Zaidi joined the organization in 2019.
“We’re disappointed in the result of this season,” Zaidi said Friday. “We’re certainly in a stage of an organization where we expect to be in the playoffs every year. And if we’re not in the playoffs, that’s a bad outcome.”
A combination of regression from veteran players, worse defense than anticipated and unforeseen bullpen woes sunk the Giants after a hot April. Zaidi said it’s on the front office to put the team in a better position to succeed.
“Baseball really is the game of adjustments,” Zaidi said. “That’s true for individual players and that’s true for organizations and front offices as well. So it’s our responsibility now to evaluate everything that happened this year and make those adjustments.”
Here are six takeaways from Zaidi’s postmortem address.
Carlos Rodón’s Brinks truck
Carlos Rodón is going to opt out of his contract that would’ve returned him to San Francisco for one year at $22.5 million. That’s a no-brainer for him coming off a second consecutive Cy Young-level season.
“We fully anticipate Carlos to opt out and that will create an opening on our pitching staff,” Zaidi said.
With the Giants, Zaidi has never doled out a contract longer than three years to a starting pitcher. While he said there’s no hard-set rule against specific term lengths or dollar amounts, the front office’s track record speaks for itself. So does a history of big-money starting pitcher deals that sting on the back end as a pitcher ages.
Zaidi said the feedback from Rodón and his agent, Scott Boras, is that the lefty likes pitching in San Francisco. That’s consistent with Rodón’s public comments all season.
But if the Giants don’t break precedent, Rodón will surely be pitching elsewhere. And, probably, for nine figures.
“I would say there’s mutual interest, we’ll just have to see how it plays out,” Zaidi said.
Are the Giants committed to Brandon Crawford at shortstop?
The Giants will have the oldest and slowest regular shortstop in baseball next year. He also happens to be a franchise icon.
“I mean, this guy is the greatest shortstop in franchise history,” Zaidi said.
Crawford, 35, fell off after an MVP-caliber 2021. His .652 OPS was his lowest since he was a 24-year-old rookie.
The four-time Gold Glover also took a step back defensively. His 7 outs above average ranked ninth among shortstops. His -14 total zone fielding runs above average was the worst of his career. He made 16 errors, tied for his most since 2014.
But when he got healthy in the second half and the middle infield stabilized, Crawford’s glove looked spectacular. He made several highlight plays and looked as spry as ever.
Zaidi said Crawford’s defense was “clearly not an issue for us this year.” But he dodged a question about whether he’s approached Crawford about possibly moving off the position.
Shortstops Carlos Correa, Dansby Swanson, and Trea Turner could be available in free agency.
At the very least, the Giants will have to improve their shortstop depth so Crawford has a lesser workload in his 13th season.
“I wouldn’t get any more specific than saying we’re going to have to look for ways to improve the roster, to improve the defense, and the best way to improve your defense is by targeting really strong defensive players,” Zaidi said. “And really strong defensive players tend to play up the middle. I think he knows that. He wants to win. He wants us to be as good of a team as we can be. We’ve talked about it, in an offseason like this, everything’s got to be on the table.”
New GM
Scott Harris left for the top job in Detroit, leaving a vacancy high up in Zaidi’s front office.
Though he declined to comment on specific candidates, Zaidi said the baseball operations department has weighed internal and external executives and whether to spread a GM’s responsibilities out across several people.
Zaidi said he’d anticipate SF hiring a new general manager “relatively quickly.” The upcoming winter meetings in San Diego is a reasonable target.
“Being where we are, facing a big offseason, I think it’s going to be a great thing for us to have some fresh perspectives in the organization,” Zaidi said. “A new general manager could certainly bring a fresh perspective on our roster, player development and evaluation philosophies.”
One open slot in the rotation
Assuming Rodón leaves, the Giants will have a rotation of Logan Webb, Alex Cobb, Alex Wood and Anthony DeSclafani. Zaidi made it clear that San Francisco views Jakob Junis as, ideally, a swingman option who could cover multiple innings.
That leaves an opening in the rotation, one that will get filled by an MLB-caliber arm.
Zaidi aims to enter the 2023 season with five proven arms, plus Junis. The Giants will also have top pitching prospect Kyle Harrison looming. The southpaw will start at Triple-A and is expected to factor into the rotation, potentially early in the season, Zaidi said.
But Harrison will need to dominate that final level to invade an already full five-man rotation.
An incomplete list of starters who could be available via free agency: Jacob deGrom, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Adam Wainwright, Zack Greinke, Carlos Carrasco, Nathan Eovaldi, Noah Syndergaard and Rodón.
The veterans
The Giants could’ve done a better job protecting their veterans this year. Managing their work loads better could have yielded better production and prevented injuries.
That applied to Crawford at shortstop, but also Evan Longoria and Brandon Belt.
“I think one of our lessons from this year is to manage the work loads for those veteran players and not rely on them too heavily,” Zaidi said.
Longoria has a $13 million club option with a $5 million buyout, and it’s possible he and the team find middle ground between those two figures. The 15-year veteran turned 37 Friday and has expressed interest in continuing his career, preferably in San Francisco.
On a team with several capable returning third basemen, he wouldn’t have to play nearly every day.
“There’s certainly a role for Longo on our team in 2023,” Zaidi said.
Belt is rehabbing from season-ending knee surgery. Zaidi didn’t rule out a reunion, but San Francisco has first-base depth with Wilmer Flores, David Villar and J.D. Davis returning — plus possibly LaMonte Wade Jr..
If the Giants are going to get younger, rangier and more athletic — as they’ve made clear as the No. 1 priority — bringing back both Longoria and Belt is probably counterintuitive.
“Our pitching staff deserves that,” Zaidi said of improving the defense. “Certainly our starting pitchers, who were among the best in the league this year — we want to be able to provide them with a defense that saves them outs, saves them pitches so we can get even more out of them.”
The guy who hits in the Bronx
Zaidi wasn’t asked specifically about Aaron Judge, the single-season American League home run king. In September, chairman Greg Johnson referred to him as “the guy who hits in the Bronx.”
Read between the lines, though, and signs point to the Giants making a run at Judge.
“I expect us to be really active this offseason,” Zaidi said. “We do have the flexibility to be involved in every possible option on the table.”
Zaidi said that, as with most organizations, the front office has a rough payroll to consider, which can fluctuate on a case-by-case basis. Conversations with ownership would be ongoing if, say, Aaron Judge would vault the Giants’ 13th-highest payroll in baseball into one of its most expensive.
Judge, of course, would accomplish several of the organization’s objectives. He’d make them more athletic and possibly shift Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Slater into a corner — at least occasionally. He’d supply power to a lineup that slugged in 2021 and fell off in 2022. He’d play every day, a service to frustrated fans more than anything.
“Our goal is to make the playoffs,” Zaidi said. “We’re not going to judge ourselves by the offseason headlines. But obviously making headlines in the offseason could be really impactful in that goal of making the playoffs in 2023.”