The Giants can keep trying to delude themselves, but the evidence is undeniable: this roster isn’t good enough.
After another series loss, this time to the Dodgers, the Giants sit at least 5 games back of the final Wild Card spot in the National League with 58 games to play.
That might not sound insurmountable to an outsider, but anyone who has watched the 2024 San Francisco Giants knows it is.
Let me put this a bit more simply:
The Giants would need to win 36 of their final 58 games to reach 85 wins on the season (an extremely conservative estimate of what it will take to make the playoffs).
This team has come out of the All-Star game with a 2-5 record. They have languished below .500 for all but 10 days this season and have been above that mark for only five days of the entire campaign.
Does anyone in their right mind — fans, media, players, the front office — think this team will win better than 60 percent of its remaining games?
And is anyone in their right mind in the Giants’ front office?
It’s time for the Giants to start seriously working the phones before next week’s trade deadline.
I know there are still optimists out there. I can see that Blake Snell looks like his old self again and that Robbie Ray made a sweet return to the rotation in L.A.
All that helped the Giants achieve is one win in four games against a Dodgers team that doesn’t look like the juggernaut we once thought them to be.
A team can only do so much when they pick up players on waivers and start them in left field the next day. (Sorry, Derek Hill, but you and I both know you’re not the solution to this team’s problems.)
After the Giants spent some serious money — albeit on second-tier free agents — this offseason, there was reason for optimism in San Francisco. The Giants, on paper, looked like a 90-win team this season.
At this point, they’ll be lucky to crack 80.
You don’t need talking heads to tell you that’s bad. You need the Talking Heads:
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.
And with the trade deadline less than a week away, the Giants need to make a call on the remainder of the season:
Do they acknowledge their failings, take advantage of a great seller’s market, and try to set up this organization for future success, or do they push whatever chips remain into the middle of the table and try to buy their way out of the hole?
The answer should be obvious: take the L and capitalize. Trade anyone that’s not bolted down, which is just about everyone on the team.
But even if Farhan Zaidi and the Giants go the other way, I’d have to show some respect. Would buying at the deadline be a dumb, brazen, foolhardy move? Absolutely. But at least it would show the team is all-in on making the playoffs. Things could be worse than having a team try too hard.
Like, for instance, if a team with no playoff hopes a team closer to the bottom of the standings than the last Wild Card spot — stood pat at the trade deadline.
What’s that colloquial definition of insanity again?
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The Giants doubling down on this roster at the deadline would be the only move that would be downright unforgivable.
This team isn’t going to turn the corner. Better days might be ahead, but they’re not nearly better enough.
Again, I hate to do this to someone I haven’t met, but the Giants are starting Derek Hill in left field — how can that be part of anyone’s plan to make the playoffs?
The clock is ticking. The trade deadline is 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Giants have doddled enough this season. It’s earned the team nothing.
So it’s time for the front office to make a call: Are they in or out?
With this team, anything less than a total commitment will not do.