Hello there.

You remember me, hopefully. Seeing as you haven’t heard from me in almost 2 years (worst blogger ever?), I hope your 2023 was fruitful!

Things were on cruise control for most of last year, then December 2023 and all through January of this year has been an emotional and mental journey for me the likes of which I haven’t really experienced yet in my life, but I guess it comes with the territory of turning 26 in this climate.

Nevertheless, players are beginning to report to Arizona and Florida to gear up for another blissful baseball season, and I couldn’t leave you without another quick, rough assessment of what I believe is to come for my beloved Giants. So let’s start with the obvious:

Gabe Kapler is gone, alongside most of his coaching regime. We’ve seen coaches and managers play the fall guy role throughout history and throughout sports, however I do believe Kap got the short end of the proverbial stick in terms of what he was given to work with his entire Giants tenure. 2020 was a toss away, and 2021 was fun for all of us, but it took absolute career years from the old and new Giants at the time to make it happen; otherwise, in terms of the roster going into that season, they reeked of the same blandness that the 2022 and 2023 rosters also shared. Even still, Kap kept the Giants pretty competitive all 4 years here, so I give him kudos for buying into the whole scheme that was implemented during that time, as well as embracing the city for all its worth.

That being said, Bob Melvin, an old friend to the Bay Area, is now the Giants manager. Getting back to a style a large amount of the fanbase is “more comfortable” and “more familiar” with was necessary after the vitriol the previous Kapler braintrust faced from Giants fans. The platoon game isn’t one I think most of us fans are against, it just leaves so little margin for error. That spot in the lineup, particularly offensively, is just gutted as soon as the other guy is down for any amount of time, or if he begins to scuffle (see Joc Pederson’s 2023 season statistics). And as deep as the league is now, coupled with the fact that you can’t feast on bottom feeders in your division as often anymore with the schedule change, getting back to strong, everyday players both makes sense logistically and when you consider how this front office needs to begin putting in place a plan to get back in the good graces of a large chunk of their faithful.

Melvin is as savvy as they come, and I am very excited to see how he, Matt Williams and co. can flip the switch in the clubhouse for the better.

Now, the additions. Jung Ho Lee is already my favorite Giant and he hasn’t played a game yet. I think it’s just been extremely refreshing to see the nuggets here and there on social media in regards to a genuine human being that wants to be here. The inflated strikeout totals from the Giants in prior seasons will be helped greatly by Lee as well, as his bat to ball skills will make him a tough out even during his transition through the growing pains of adjusting to MLB pitching versus that of the KBO, if at all. Not to mention he was a 5-time Golden Glove winner in Korea, so you know he’ll be patrolling those Oracle Park gaps with ease. Even if he doesn’t hit the ground running in his first season as a Giant, he’s already widely popular with the fans just from his introduction press conference alone. And with a nickname like Grandson of the Wind, our “handsome” new center fielder for the foreseeable future has a backer in me for sure.

The rotational subtractions may be even stronger than the additions, if I’m honest. Dumping the dead weight (in more ways than one) of Ross Stripling, Alex Wood, and Anthony Desclafani, and even getting anything at all back for those players, deserves recognition. Wood and Disco’s 2021 seasons were both excellent, a huge part of that historical success, but the on field performance simply took the Giants out of games before they could even settle into them way too often last year. The same can be said for Stripling, who had lots of promise coming into last season off his strong 2022 in Toronto, but he lived up to just about none of it. Match that with complaining from some of these guys about being put in the bullpen when your production is that lackluster, regardless of The Opener trials, cutting that kind of energy out of the clubhouse is going to pay off for Bob Melvin getting buy in from his new roster.

Speaking of trials and experiments, Jordan Hicks is an interesting piece. In short, his stuff playing as a starter is worth a look see. And even if it doesn’t work out in the rotation, you’ve penciled in another high octane flamethrower in your bullpen to either match Camilo Doval or effectively contrast either Rogers brother in the later innings. Whether the Rogers bros split 8th inning duties while Hicks hits the 7th, or vice versa, that’s a nasty little 3-headed hydra (shoutout to the 2014-2015 Royals) in your bullpen, and its your backup scenario to boot. Trading for Robbie Ray was also a nice move by Farhan Zaidi and the front office. If the Giants hang around, they don’t need to add starting pitching as all stretch run teams do, they simply activate Ray. If they fall out of it, he can begin the building blocks to getting back to Cy Young form for 2025 in lower pressure starts. When all are healthy, Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Alex Cobb, Kyle Harrison, and one of Tristan Beck, Keaton Winn, Kai Wei Teng, or even Carson Whisenhunt if he makes a big leap, is a rotation I feel can hang with the best of them in the National League.

To end, I was sad to see Mitch Haniger go, and felt like he was all in on being a Giant and never got a true crack at it, but the health remained his Achilles heel in 2023. In terms of new backup catcher Tom Murphy, a more offensive backup to Patrick Bailey will help deepen the lineup on his off days, which I’m sure the coaching staff will monitor after Bailey admitted to running out of gas to close last season.

I’ll close with Giants Twitter’s favorite subject, free agent signings. Off the back of Judge, Correa, and now Shohei Ohtani, I do find it odd that Jung Ho Lee is, at the time of post being constructed, still the only sizable signing the Giants made this offseason. I get the Blake Snell holdup based on the asking price and the fact that he’s 31, but a former Melvin guy that is basically itching to stay on the West Coast should have more traction than it does, right? At this stage in the MLB offseason, having the reigning NL Cy Young still team-less seems odd. Times that by 10 for Matt Chapman, who played for Melvin throughout his career while in Oakland and provides everything the Giants are turning their attention towards: reliable everyday players that provide plus defense, consistent or, at least, consistent-ish offense, or both. I know JD Davis just settled for his arbitration, so maybe that wrinkles things a bit, but if the Giants lock down just one of these guys, it would certainly give their fans a little more hope for more than a stepping-stone 2024 season, especially in the case of Snell. The likes of Jordan Montgomery and Cody Bellinger are still out there as well as dark horse options for the Giants as well. But absolutely no disrespect to his past season in which he clubbed 35 homers, or the genuine sense that it does make for the team, but the Giants fanbase would take a Jorge Soler 1-2 year deal at this point to fulfill their offseason longings.

Whether they muster any more moves before Opening Day, the big sting of the offseason still stands at Shohei Ohtani choosing the Dodgers and effectively ruining our lives for the next decade. The deferred money, the fact that its the Dodgers, all of it stinks. There isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been said, one of the many joys of waiting nearly 2 years to post again.

Like many, I love Ohtani for the man, the ambassador, and of course, the player that he is. Having him join the Dodgers eliminates Giants fans’ ability to root for him in any capacity, at least for me. I am curious to see how he will endure being booed for perhaps the first time in his entire life, not only by Giants fans, but fans across the sport. Think how the league-wide perception of Kevin Durant was before he joined the 73 win Warriors. I imagine KD’s unique personality had a bit to do with it as well, which Ohtani doesn’t share, but it’s a worthy comparison at this point. But maybe the fact that he wears Dodger blue will off and I’ll wish him well in a playoff run or something.

I doubt it, though.

Thanks as always for hanging out. More to come.