You play the cards you’re dealt. If this was a typical 162-game season with a normal playoff bracket, I wouldn’t even dream of this San Francisco Giants team making the playoffs. It just wasn’t going to be a likely scenario. However, in a 60-game season with expanded playoffs, all of the sudden, every team can dream of October baseball. That includes the Orange & Black. However, after losing 5 of 6 games, the Giants need to make some definite changes if they are to make any kind of a push towards playoff baseball in 2020. Here are the five key changes that need to be made for the Giants to get into a playoff series in 2020.
#1 Joey Bart
Joey Bart needs to be promoted soon. Although Chadwick Tromp is 7 for 22 with 2 home runs which is actually close to what we'd expect from Bart, he's not playing every day and does not have the power or defensive abilities of Bart. In addition to Tromp, the Giants rotate in Tyler Heineman, who started out the season fairly hot but now is hitting .222 with no homers.
For sustained excellence, power, better defense and just to get our future starting catcher some big league reps while there's no minor league games, the Giants need Joey Bart in the lineup. Tromp has been great and maybe a perfect backup for Bart.
San Francisco Giants top prospect Joey Bart
#2 Clean Up The Defense
I'm not going to ever recommend benching a guy like Soloano, who's hitting damn near .500 and leads the league in batting average and sits near the top in RBI, but his defense has been questionable at best. The Giants may want to consider DHing him more often.
Other than that, the Giants simply need to keep their heads in the game and make the routine plays. The errors have been costly and allowing free runs is not a formula to get into playoff baseball, especially for a team that’s already not expected to make much noise this season.
#3 The Rotation
The Rotation has been, as expected, very unstable. Jeff Samardzija has practically been throwing batting practice and in 3 starts he has a 9.88 ERA. He was just placed on the injured list, however, and will likely not be seen again this year. Shaun Anderson is some one with experience starting and, although I like him in the bullpen, I would like to see the Giants try Anderson again in the rotation. With 9 K's in 6 innings this year, he has looked decent. Anderson is just one option. At the end of the day, the Giants brass need to figure something out in order to bring more stability to this rotation.
#4 Tough Decisions Must Be Made
Hunter Pence is 1 for 29 with zero extra base hits and zero RBI. If he's not going to produce at all, I don't see how he can stay on this team. The Giants demoted Jaylin Davis and Steven Duggar, two young players who both have more to offer and could use the developement. Joey Rickard, who hit .280 for the Giants last season in 50 at bats, is in camp. Even highly touted prospect Heliot Ramos is eager to get his big league career going. Pence obviously has a longer leash than your average player would but 1 for 29 is not gonna cut it, and that goes for any other veterans who are not contributing. Tough decisions will have to be made.
#5 Gabe Kapler & The Bullpen
The bullpen has been somewhat of a bright spot this year. I'm impressed with the performances of Connor Menez, Caleb Bareger and Wandy Peralta. Trevor Got has stepped up as the closer. Tyler Rogers, besides one terrible inning where he was probably kept in too long, has been fantastic.
However, inconsistency has started to creep in and the bullpen hasn't been as sharp. Some of this can be contributed to the manager. Throwing in a guy like Andrew Triggs in a high leverage situation to make his 2020 debut did not go well. It feels like whenever the bullpen implodes, a questionable decision was made. It happened with Dany Jimenez, who has since been DFA’d, on Opening Day when he was asked to make his big league debut on Opening Day in a close game ad Dodger Stadium against the strongest lineup in baseball.
However, all in all, the bullpen has been good enough - and hopefully there's some arms still in Sacramento that can step up when The Giants need them. Dereck Rodriguez, Jarlin Garcia, and Melvin Adon are names that come to mind. I like this bullpen and if used efficiently and properly, I think it could be a huge strength for the San Francisco Giants. But this can only be possible if management uses the bullpen correctly.