2020 record - 29-31, 3rd place in NL West
Key Addition - Tommy La Stella
Tommy La Stella signed a 3 year $18.75m contract as a free agent after spending last season across The Bay with the Oakland A's.
La Stella has been remarkably consistent across his whole 7 year career in the Major Leagues; having never finished a season with an average below .250. But he has struggled with a number of different injuries and has played in over 100 games in a season only once. In 2020, he appeared in less than half of Oakland's games which is somewhat concerning. Only adding to that concern is news that he had to exit a recent spring training game after being hit by a pitch.
Hopefully he can stay healthy and start a lot of games for the Giants because he made some excellent improvements at the plate last season. In 2020, La Stella struck out in only 4.5% of his plate appearances. That is an absolutely tiny number - especially in today's game. He was still able to maintain a very good batting average of .289 too.
Giants fans shouldn't expect many home runs from La Stella; he has only once hit more than 10 home runs in a season. But what he lacks in power, he makes up with contact. We're hopeful that he can play 110+ games this season and predict that he finishes 2021 with a .275 average and around 10 home runs.
Just missed out - Anthony DeSclafani, Jake McGee, Alex Wood
Key Departure - Drew Smyly
San Francisco lost quite a few players to free agency this offseason but their biggest loss was probably Drew Smyly. He pitched really well through 26.1 innings and 5 starts last season, but he missed significant time due to injury.
He finished 2020 with a 3.42 ERA and it was in his return to the mound in September when he put up some of the best numbers of his season. His final game of the year, against the Padres when he struck out 10 while allowing just 3 hits, was one of his best.
Smyly signed a 1 year $11m contract with the Braves after becoming a free agent this winter and it was likely his performances in September that helped him earn a large part of that contract.
His exit leaves some question marks in the Giants rotation. Aaron Sanchez, Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood have been brought in but there is some uncertainty there. A
Sanchez hasn't pitched since August 2019 after undergoing shoulder surgery and his numbers this spring haven't been pretty. He has a 7.94 ERA and a 1.941 WHIP this spring training, although that is over a very small sample size of just 2 games and 5.2 innings.
DeSclafani had the worst year of his career in Cincinnati last season where he was moved into their bullpen by the end of the season. He finished the year with a career high walk percentage of 10.1% and 7.22 ERA over 33.2 innings.
Alex Wood pitched just 12.2 innings in 2020 for the Dodgers and there are question marks regarding his ability to stay healthy. He has a ton of ability though and has the potential to put up some really good numbers - he's only 3 seasons removed from when he pitched over 150 innings with a career best 2.72 ERA. But it's a big "if" as to whether he can be healthy enough to pitch every fifth day.
San Francisco will need at least a couple of these players to perform well this season if they are to build on their 29-31 record from last year.
Notable rookie cards - Joey Bart, Chadwick Tromp
The Giants have 2 rookie representatives in the 2021 Topps Series 1 set.
Joey Bart is the number 2 Giants prospect and 23rd overall according to MLB Pipeline. He has been heralded as a potential replacement for Buster Posey behind the plate ever since he was drafted with the 2nd overall pick in 2018.
Giants fans finally got to see him in action at the big league level last year after Posey opted out of the season because of COVID concerns. Bart made a solid first impression by hitting .233 with 7 extra base hits in 33 games. But it has been this spring training where he has really made an impact.
Bart has hit .423 with a couple of home runs this spring, which would seem to indicate that he is ready for a full time catching position in the Major Leagues. But we think that he will probably have to wait a little longer for that chance because of Posey's return. The Giants seem to understandably prefer him to play every day at AAA Sacramento than be a bench bat behind Posey in San Francisco.
We think Bart gets called up again around August this year.
Chadwick Tromp is the 2nd Giants catcher with a rookie card in 2021 after he appeared in 24 games for San Francisco last year. He hit .213 with 4 home runs and struggled with his strike out and walk numbers. Tromp walked in just 1.6% of his plate appearances while striking out 31.3% of the time.
Like Bart, he is slated to begin the season at AAA and will likely serve as Joey Bart's backup as Bart projects to be San Francisco's catcher in the long-term.
Tromp may get another opportunity this season though, especially if current big league back-up Curt Casali struggles.
Predicted 2021 Team MVP - Mike Yastrzemski
The grandson of Red Sox legend and Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, Mike has impressed since making it to the Major Leagues in 2019. The Orioles traded him to San Francisco that season for Tyler Herb who has yet to make his MLB debut; a trade which has the potential to be one of the more lop-sided trades in history.
If Yastrzemski had a great first year in San Francisco, he followed it up with an outstanding sophomore season. He was on track to set career bests in hits, doubles, home runs and WAR. There were plenty of other stats he we could have named here too and and he did this while hitting an excellent .297.
In 2020, Yastrzemski was able to lower his strike out percentage to below the Major League average and almost double his walk percentage from the previous year, which is an excellent sign of his development going into 2021.
All of this contributed to him receiving MVP votes at the end of last year. We think that Yastrzemski will have another very good season and will be the best player for the Giants in 2021.
We predict that he hits .260 with 25 home runs this season.
Player to watch for the future - Marco Luciano
Luciano is the top Giants prospect and the 16th overall despite having never played higher than low A Ball, which speaks volumes about his ability.
In his first professional season, Luciano hit over .300 with 25 extra base hits in 47 games between Rookie and low A-Ball which are outstanding numbers.
Luciano has the potential to become one of the best power hitting shortstops - his scouted raw power grade of 65 rates as one of the best among all minor league shortstops.
He is one of the players that we think the cancelled minor league season last year might actually help because he was able to spend time at the Giants alternate training camp. This will have allowed him to face a higher level of pitching than he has seen before and work closely with San Francisco's coaching staff.
But he's still only 19 and is likely a couple of years away from being called up to the Major Leagues. We think that he will start 2021 at A Eugene and finish the year at AA if the progress he made last season can be put into practice.
Storyline to keep an eye on - Will this be the final season for some of San Francisco's best loved players?
The Giants have 3 key veterans who could possibly be playing at Oracle Park for the last time this season.
Buster Posey is unlikely to have his $22m team option picked up for next season and Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt are in the last year of their contracts. All three were key parts of the Giant's World Series winning teams of 2012 and 2014 and are fan favourites.
Posey has expressed publicly that he has a strong desire to remain in San Francisco and the Giants would likely love to have Posey help in the development of Joey Bart. But would Posey be willing to accept a back-up role in 2022?
Shortstop Brandon Crawford looks set to join Trevor Story, Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor and a number of other top quality SS free agents at the end of this season. Crawford has been a regular for San Francisco since 2012 and has won gold gloves and a silver slugger awards. He was born less than an hour away from Oracle Park which might make him more likely to re-sign with the Giants than with another team.
Brandon Belt led the Giants in on base percentage, slugging percentage and walks last season, and there doesn't appear to be a clear favourite to potentially replace him at 1st base next season if he does leave. The Giants could make him a qualifying offer to keep him in the Bay Area for another season, but he would likely have to have a very, very good year in order for that to happen.
Of these three, we think that Posey is most likely to still be in San Francisco in 2022 but that it'll be on a much lower contract that he is currently on. Both he and the team have a lot to gain by keeping the relationship going.
Prediction for 2021 - 3rd in the NL West
We think that the Giants will have another season where they finish around .500 but that they don't seriously challenge the Dodgers or Padres at the top of the NL West.
There will likely be plenty of positives for them though - Mike Yastrzemski, Kevin Gausman, Brandon Belt and others - as they wait for some of their outstanding prospects to develop and make their mark at the big league level in 2022 and beyond.
We think that the Giants will have money burning a hole in their pockets next winter and that they'll look to bring in some big name free agents to compliment their younger players as they aim to mount a serious challenge at the top of their division.
Do you agree with our predictions? Or have we got them horribly wrong?
Let us know in the comments or on twitter.
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