They did not start the season well, but a couple of early trades have propelled the San Francisco Giants forward offensively. Now, the offense is trying to support their strong pitching staff, which has been the subject of several trade rumors.
It is only the first month of the season, but the San Francisco Giants have already been prominent in the rumor mill.
They have the record that would suggest it too; currently below .500 at the bottom of the National League West. But does it feel too soon to be suggesting selling the farm?
The season could not have started worse for the offense. In the first week, they had only scored five runs in a span of four games. If you compare that to the rest of the league, it was tied for fewest with the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds.
To further emphasize how poor it was, their division rival Dodgers in the same span had scored 42 times!
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But the Giants weren’t ready to throw in the towel. To start the month of April, they acquired Kevin Pillar from the Blue Jays and a few days later acquired Tyler Austin from the Twins.
Austin’s bat and Pillar’s defense quickly acted as a jolt to the stagnant offense. Pillar introduced himself to the Giant faithful with four home runs during their first homestand. Austin has had opportunities at first base and in left field and has a .375 on-base percentage.
Even more surprising has been the revival of Pablo Sandoval. Currently the best hitter on the Giants’ roster, he is sporting a .333/.333/.694 slash line with seven doubles, two home runs, and five RBI. All of this in only 36 at-bats.
In his two games against the Blue Jays Tuesday and Wednesday, Sandoval shined collecting four hits, two home runs (yes, his season total) and three runs as their designated hitter.
The additions of Pillar and Austin, plus Sandoval blossoming has helped to better solidify and protect a Giants offense whose true responsibility was to help their dominant pitching staff.
The Giants – as always – have put together a dominant staff. Currently, they hold the second-best team ERA in the league at 3.20; only behind the Tampa Bay Rays.
Given this strong start, it is easy to link how the rumors started. Headlining them all was Madison Bumgarner; World Series hero and the rotation ace. Included in that have been some of their older bullpen arms in Sam Dyson, Nick Vincent and closer Will Smith.
How much longer can a team with as dominant a pitching staff as the Giants have put up with a significantly weaker offense?
Well, Pillar and Austin’s arrival must have been a kick in the pants because part of the Pillar trade was reliever Derek Law; who had been with the team since 2016. Was the loss of a teammate and friend to a new organization correlated to how the Giants’ offense woke up?
Don’t get me wrong, the San Francisco Giants’ offense is still bad. They are still towards the bottom of the league in team average and their third-best batting average belongs to Madison Bumgarner, but they’ve averaged three runs scored per game in April, two runs more than their average in the first four of the season.
They finished March 1-3 and now are 11-14 and have just as much opportunity as any other team in their division. It seems unrealistic but it’s April so anything is possible.