Zaidi breaks down offense since Deadline
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.
CHICAGO -- When president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi met with reporters to discuss the Giants’ quiet approach to the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline, he expressed surprise at the club’s lack of offensive performance in July.
Zaidi felt confident the Giants would get back on track as they got healthier, but August -- and now September -- have largely been more of the same. Even after breaking out for four home runs in an 11-8 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Tuesday night, San Francisco still ranks last in the Majors in runs scored (176), batting average (.216), homers (43) and on-base percentage (.292) over its first 49 games of the second half.
“When I look back over the last few years, I can’t remember a stretch like this offensively, maybe even since 2019,” Zaidi said prior to Tuesday’s game. “It’s been tough, but I just think we have the personnel. It was the same group of players essentially that were a good offensive team for the first half of the season. That’s where we have confidence that we can turn it around.”
The Giants were hoping to get an internal boost after Mitch Haniger, Thairo Estrada and Mike Yastrzemski returned from the injured list, but they’ve still struggled to get consistent production outside of Wilmer Flores, who crushed his career-high 21st home run of the year on Tuesday.
San Francisco could have targeted another impact bat such as infielder Jeimer Candelario, who has posted an .812 OPS with five homers over 32 games since moving from the Nationals to the Cubs at the Trade Deadline. The Giants opted to instead roll the dice on veteran AJ Pollock, who was placed on unrestricted release waivers on Tuesday after going 0-for-6 over five games.
Zaidi said he put in “multiple” claims on players who were made available on waivers by the Angels and other non-contenders last week, but all their targets ended up being scooped up by teams with a higher claiming priority, which is based on reverse winning percentage. The Guardians claimed pitchers Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López and Matt Moore from the Angels, while the Reds claimed outfielders Harrison Bader and Hunter Renfroe from the Yankees and Angels, respectively.
Does Zaidi regret not making more meaningful additions at the Deadline?
“I think that’s a fair question,” Zaidi said. “When I look at our team right now, we still have guys getting at-bats who we want to see getting at-bats. Every day we’re kind of putting out a team that has guys that we believe in. It’s easy to express confidence and be complimentary of a team and a lineup when things are going well. I think for the players and the mindset of the clubhouse, it’s almost more important that they hear and feel and sense that confidence when things aren’t going well. That’s how we feel.”
Zaidi noted that rookie outfielders Luis Matos and Heliot Ramos are both swinging the bat well at Triple-A Sacramento and could help provide a spark once they’re eligible to be recalled from the Minors at the beginning of the Giants’ next homestand against the Rockies and Guardians. Ramos, in particular, has been on a tear with the River Cats, going 10-for-22 (.455) with three home runs and six RBIs over his last six games.
Another top prospect, shortstop Marco Luciano, is still working his way back from a hamstring injury, but he took live batting practice in Arizona on Tuesday and might be a week or 10 days away from returning to game action.
The club’s rookies have served as a breath of fresh air this season, but the Giants will still need veteran hitters such as Haniger, Yastrzemski, J.D. Davis, Joc Pederson and Brandon Crawford, to come alive and carry them down the stretch if they have any hope of catching up to the crowded National League Wild Card field.
After dropping five in a row to open September, the Giants (70-69) currently sit two games behind the Reds for the third and final NL Wild Card spot with 23 games left to play.
“When you have this many teams jockeying, you’re going to have to get really hot because one of these four teams is going to get really hot and finish the year really well,” Zaidi said. “The bar is pretty high. I think despite some of the disappointments of the last month, we know we’re still in it, and we know we can kind of turn it around.”