Bold predictions for 2022 season
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. >> If the Giants proved anything last season, it's that no prediction is too bold.
Gabe Kapler's club started last year as the franchise's latest band of misfits and ended it with 107 wins, more than the division rival Dodgers and their $285 million payroll — or any other team in baseball since the 2019 Astros. Few saw coming the resurgent seasons from veterans such as Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford and Buster Posey, or breakouts from LaMonte Wade Jr., Darin Ruf or Logan Webb.
So, what's in store to surprise this year? Here are some bold — or not so bold — predictions for the 2022 season.
1. THE GIANTS AREN'T GOING TO WIN 107 GAMES AGAIN >> Starting real bold here. Let's get this out of the way: There's a reason the Giants' win total last season set a franchise record. It takes the rare confluence of career years and perfectly platooned players to win 107 games (or, to win 106 games, a total disregard for salary obligations). In 127 years of baseball, only 17 teams have accomplish what the Giants did last season. It's difficult to believe there is more left in the tank than what they got from Crawford, Belt and Longoria, who are all a year older and, with the exception of Crawford, already dealing with various ailments. Oh, yeah, that Posey guy is gone, too.
2. BUT THEY ARE GOING TO PROVE THE PROJECTIONS WRONG (AGAIN) >> The computers didn't like the Giants last season, and they don't this year, either. FanGraphs gives the defending NL West champions a better chance of missing the playoffs than playing into October. Baseball Prospectus is even more bearish, projecting the Giants' lineup as the worst in baseball and giving them only 77.4 wins, closer to fourth-place Arizona (72.1) than secondplace San Diego (90.4). As surely as the Giants won't repeat their 107 wins, they also won't come close to a losing record, either.
3. GABE KAPLER AND FARHAN ZAIDI GO LESS CRAZY WITH ROSTER MOVES >> Fifty four players appeared in a game last season for the Giants, and 24 of them were eventually sent back to TripleA Sacramento — many of them more than once or twice, or in the cases of Jason Vosler and Thairo Estrada, six or seven times. The I-80 caravan was real. The newly instituted limits on options in the collective bargaining agreement might as well be called the Farhan Zaidi rule. Starting May 1, no player can be optioned more than five times for the rest of season without him passing through waivers. Internally, the Giants have already had conversations about using their bullpen more conservatively than last season, when they often would call up a bullpen arm, burn through him in a few consecutive outings, send him back to the minors to recover, and do it all over again. However, there are other constraints the Giants are facing, too. Many of the players who offered them the most roster flexibility last season, such as Estrada and Mauricio Dubon, are either out of options or no longer with the organization.
4. THE GIANTS' BIGGEST BAT ISN'T YET ON THE ROSTER >> After winning 107 games last season and losing the two biggest right-handed bats from their lineup with Buster Posey's retirement and Kris Bryant's departure in free agency, the consensus entering the offseason was that the Giants were due to make a big splash. Well, a $6 million investment in Joc Pederson isn't exactly making waves on Ocean Beach. However, Farhan Zaidi showed last season, trading two prospects for Bryant, that he is not afraid to make a blockbuster acquisition at midseason. Whether it's via Cleveland's Jose Ramirez, Pittsburgh's Bryan Reynolds or another productive bat on a team tearing it down, the middle of the Giants order will look different by September than it does on Opening Day — as long as they have enough early success to necessitate investing in an upgrade.