How Giants are evaluating 'humbling' 2023 season

This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Shortly after the Giants were eliminated from playoff contention, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi was asked what he’d take away from his club’s disappointing 2023 campaign.

“I guess it’s not a new lesson, but the game’s humbling,” Zaidi said.

Two years after steering the Giants to a franchise-record 107 wins, Zaidi is in the midst of an offseason of self-reflection, with the organization seemingly at a crossroads after its 79-83 finish this year. Manager Gabe Kapler took the fall for the Giants’ disastrous second-half swoon, but pressure is now building for Zaidi, who will be forced to rethink his own processes and philosophies as he enters the final year of his contract.

“I know that it’s ultimately my job to put a product on the field that our organization is proud of and that our fans are proud of,” Zaidi said. “Frankly, it just hasn’t happened the last couple of years. That’s been difficult for me. It’s been difficult for a lot of people. I also feel very determined to fix it.”

Here’s a look back at the highs and lows of the 2023 Giants:

Defining moment
The Giants controlled their own destiny when they embarked on their final road trip of the year, but their playoff hopes slipped out of their grasp after they went 2-8 over 10 games at Colorado, Arizona and Los Angeles. A two-game sweep at Chase Field served as the proverbial death knell, with the D-backs using their elite speed to force critical errors and leave the Giants in the dust.

Weighed down by the Majors’ worst offense in the second half, San Francisco ended up going 25-42 after climbing a season-high 13 games over .500 on July 18. A dismal 9-18 showing in September ultimately led to Kapler’s dismissal with three games left on the schedule.

“It was hard for us as an organization to watch,” Zaidi said. “That sort of really accelerated our view that we need to make difficult decisions and think about things differently."

What we learned
While Zaidi has proved adept at building depth and acquiring complementary pieces, he hasn’t been able to land the big star that fans have been clamoring for since Buster Posey retired at the end of the 2021 season.

Zaidi has attempted to keep the Giants competitive by bringing in veterans on short-term deals and using strategies like platooning and openers to optimize matchups on a nightly basis, but he recognizes that he’ll need to create more roster stability to help fans better connect with players moving forward. That could signal a shift toward longer-term deals for high-end talent or simply giving rookies more opportunities to establish themselves as everyday players in the future.

“Whether it’s going into the market or evaluating our own players, we want to have an emphasis on continuity,” Zaidi said. “Players who are going to be here for a long time.”

Best development
Twelve rookies debuted with the Giants in 2023, giving the club a solid foundation of young talent to build around. There were plenty of growing pains, but the arrival of Patrick Bailey, Kyle Harrison, Luis Matos, Marco Luciano, Blake Sabol and others could hint at better days ahead in San Francisco.

Area for improvement
For the second consecutive winter, the Giants will be looking to shore up their defense and get more athletic. While they showed some defensive improvement this year, the Giants still led the Majors with 117 errors, with many of those miscues proving costly in big games down the stretch. San Francisco also left much to be desired in the speed department, finishing last in the Majors with 57 stolen bases.

On the rise
Bailey emerged as the most impactful member of the Giants’ rookie class and ranked second among the club’s position players with 2.8 WAR, according to FanGraphs. His production dipped as he battled fatigue toward the end of the season, but he’s already establishing himself as one of the premier defensive catchers in baseball, which could make him a Gold Glove contender for years to come.

Team MVP
Wilmer Flores tried to single-handedly carry the Giants’ moribund offense down the stretch, but the MVP nod still belongs to ace right-hander Logan Webb, who lived up to all the expectations after signing a five-year, $90 million extension in April. Despite receiving the lowest run support in the Majors, Webb consistently put the Giants on his shoulders and blossomed into a Cy Young candidate after logging a 3.25 ERA over an MLB-high 212 innings.