Farhan Zaidi's Circumstances Are The Problem
He hasn't had a normal season yet as the San Francisco Giants boss
The San Francisco Giants hired Farhan Zaidi to be the “President of Baseball Operations” aka “pick the players but not actually be called the GM” in November 2018. The 2023 season starts Thursday, and in a lot of ways they feel like the same team, but just with different people than they had four-plus years ago.
This’ll get you fired in some places. It certainly has the louder parts of the fan base calling for his firing. But when Zaidi left the Dodgers to take the job, whatever it was actually titled, Dodgers fans were mad they let him walk, especially to San Francisco! That’s worth remembering.
Also, every Zaidi year has been weird. Every season- except for one- has had a serious provision that has basically prevented him from pulling a “full Zaidi,” of being Mr. Roster Manipulator For Good.
Let’s go through the situations:
2019: Bruce Bochy had to get to 2,000 career wins
Media types forget this, especially around the trade deadline. They’ll say, “Zaidi doesn’t trade much at the deadline. He didn’t trade their best piece, Madison Bumgarner, at the deadline in 2019 and rebuild.”
But the media types don’t mention the biggest reason for that non-trade. Almost as soon as Zaidi was hired, the Giants announced that 2019 would be Bruce Bochy’s last year as the Giants manager. And they made a big deal about getting him to 2,000 career wins before the end of the year. You know how many career wins Bochy ended up with after 2019? Two thousand and three. They made the mark by three wins. You trade MadBum at the deadline, you’re losing at least three more games. Zaidi couldn’t trade MadBum. It’s the same reason he went and got Kevin Pillar after a week, because his starting outfield was terrible. You remember, they had Connor Joe and Michael Reed in the Opening Day lineup and dropped them both within days. Joe actually salvaged his career and became a regular for the Rockies, for what that’s worth, before being traded to the Pirates this last off-season. Reed has not been heard from since. Pillar, meanwhile, was such a spark he won the team’s Willie McCovey Award for basically saving the season. (Of course when Zaidi didn’t pick up his $10-million dollar option after the season some fans went crazy. However, Pillar has not played a full season since due to his fence-crashing style of play resulting in injuries. He went unsigned during the off-season, signed a minor-league deal with Atlanta days before camp opened in February and will only make their Opening Day roster due to injury- to others.)
Zaidi had to get Bochy 2,000 wins in 2019. It was his only directive, and he made it. By three games.
2020: It was 2020
2020 shouldn’t even count for anything, especially in MLB. It was a weird and goofy season and it only lasted 60 games and forced teams to do really extraordinary things just to field a full roster. The Giants were no exception- and they were still just one win away from making the playoffs. Remember, future Hall of Famer Buster Posey opted out so Joey Bart, really two legitimate years away from even touching the big leagues, became the starting catcher. And he was terrible. And there was no reason to expect anything less. And people are still saying “Joey Bart sucks” because of 2020. He should not be judged on 2020. Nobody should.
2021: The only vaguely normal season, and the Giants won a franchise-record 107 games
2022: Literally couldn’t change the roster because they won 107 games in 2021. And the lockout happened, too
Serious question, what the hell was Zaidi supposed to do after they won a franchise-record 107 games in 2021? If he kept the same roster and they didn’t perform like that again (which is what happened), then the fans complain he didn’t do enough to improve.
But tell me, fickle fan, what would you have said had he ditched almost the entire roster right after winning a franchise-record 107 games? You would have gone BONKERS asking how he possibly could have gotten rid of players who helped the Giants win a franchise-record 107 games!!!
That’s a zero-win game, my friends. He had no choice but to bring everybody back. You say now it was dumb idea, I guarantee had he done the other option you would have complained a lot worse.
Not only that, but the lockout lasted four months and was basically the entire 2021-to-2022 offseason, from December until March. There was no way to truly wheel or deal or do any normal offseason things that GMs…. er, “President of Baseball Ops” do to really improve their rosters. He was stuck. That was also a big reason why the roster stayed mostly intact from 2021 to 2022.
And now we are here about to start the 2023 season. If you are going to judge Zaidi seriously on his future with the Giants- because his 5-year contract officially expires after this season even though he’s probably already agreed to an extension- make it based solely on what happens this season, and nothing before.
Even though you already have to give him a win. Remember last season, when the Giants traded Darin Ruf to the Mets for J.D. Davis (who immediately played 3rd base better than Evan Longoria), pitcher Thomas Szapucki (the toughest name to spell for a Giants pitcher since “Samardzija”) and two minor-league pitchers?
Ruf had a career year in 2021 for the Giants after several seasons overseas. He was part of that every-piece-fit-and-fit-great roster. He only hit 16 homers and drove in 43 runs, but every one felt big. In 2022 it was a different story. He was just not fitting in SF, but he had that clutch reputation, however temporarily, and the Mets wanted that for the stretch run. So they overpaid for him. And Ruf struggled mightily down the stretch in Queens- but so did the Mets, who ended up blowing a big division lead and getting thrown out of the playoffs in a hurry. And Ruf’s struggles continued this spring, where he had a sore wrist and just five hits in a month of games.
So the Mets DFA’d him this week. He’s 36 and you really would figure he won’t be accepting a drop to the minor leagues.
And the Mets still owe him over $3 million dollars. While J.D. Davis is going to fit fine in Zaidi’s “Mr. Utility” plan. He can play 3rd, DH, first base, outfield in a pinch, and is solid at the plate against righties and lefties.
Zaidi won that trade handily. That’s one for him.
We have not truly seen what a San Francisco Zaidi roster looks like in a normal season with normal expectations.
Not to say that there are ever normal expectations. Some fans insist if the Giants aren’t as good as the Dodgers (who you need to remember are still mostly running on a long-term roster build engineered by Zaidi) and the Padres, who apparently have a bottomless payroll (they dropped in at the last minute and offered Aaron Judge a $400-million dollar contract just because) then Zaidi should be fired.
But what was Zaidi supposed to do? There was no one move over the off-season that would have made the Giants equal to either of those teams. They DID try to bring in a big free agent, but the Carlos Correa fiasco happened (by the way they don’t look as bad as they did when that went down due to all the things that happened afterwards) and the Aaron Judge thing (which was only happening if he really wanted to play for his hometown team over the Yankees, and he didn’t). He could have re-signed Carlos Rodon to a big deal but even I didn’t think that was worth it, considering how often the Giants take pitchers in need of a rehab season and make them worthy of big deals elsewhere (Rodon, Kevin Gausman, etc).
They were never going to be equal with the Dodgers or the Padres after one off-season even if they signed every big name free agent. That’s a fact. What Zaidi is trying to do is build up a team that is sustainably that good year-after-year, like the Dodgers are now (thanks in large part, I note again, to Zaidi building them up). You don’t get there in one off-season.
You can look at the farm system not really producing a starting position player in Zaidi’s tenure, but again I point to 2020 when the entire minor league season was canceled on all levels. That’s a year that’s just gone in a player’s developmental process. It’s partially why the Giants went with Bart, their one-time top prospect, as their starting catcher when Posey opted out. It was that or lose a year of development because there were literally (note the actual proper use of that word) no other options to get him playing time. And every other prospect couldn’t do anything but play catch and take batting practice from a machine. To judge Zaidi on the lack of minor-league development is unreasonable. But who ever said fans were reasonable? Besides, weirdly, two of Zaidi’s picks in that abbreviated five-round 2020 draft are probably going to make their major league debuts this season and are considred two of the Giants best prospects overall- pitcher Kyle Harrison and third baseman Casey Schmitt, who won the team’s 2023 Barney Nugent “Best Newcomer of Spring Training” Award. Whatever that means. Seriously, are there awards for everything now? And if so, where’s mine?
Anyway, the overall expectations this year should be: finish over .500, get into the playoffs, make some noise. Of course, that should be the minimum goal every year. But before you say those are simple goals and “that’s every team’s goal,” look at the team across the Bay and tell me what kinds of goals they have. Look at the Rockies and the Diamondbacks and the Pirates and the Reds and tell me what they hope to accomplish. Over .500 and playoffs is actually pretty lofty compared to plenty of teams.
The Zaidi clock truly starts now. Let’s see how it goes.
Thoughtful, well reasoned dissertation.
Zaidi has done a solid job finding serviceable players until the farm system is rich with MLB pros. Extend his contract.
And thanks for "(note the actual proper use of that word)". Classic!
And, as a longtime Little League umpire, I can definitely speak to the fickleness of fans! LOL