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MLB division previews and predictions: NL West

By Jack McKenney

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 30: Mookie Betts #50 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates his solo homerun as he runs the bases, to trail 4-2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates, during the fifth inning at Dodger Stadium on May 30, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 30: Mookie Betts #50 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates his solo homerun as he runs the bases, to trail 4-2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates, during the fifth inning at Dodger Stadium on May 30, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – SEPTEMBER 10: Camilo Doval #75 of the San Francisco Giants and Joey Bart #21 of the San Francisco Giants celebrate after securing the 5-2 win against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on September 10, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – SEPTEMBER 10: Camilo Doval #75 of the San Francisco Giants and Joey Bart #21 of the San Francisco Giants celebrate after securing the 5-2 win against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on September 10, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images) /

NL West preview: 3. San Francisco Giants

It was a relatively disappointing season for the Giants in 2022, a season in which they struggled mightily against their top divisional counterparts. The Giants had a combined 12-28 record against the Padres and Dodgers last year, serving as a plausible reason for why San Francisco was unable to clinch a postseason berth. The Giants will look to improve against their top divisional counterparts in 2023, adding arms and bats in free agency to bolster their overall roster talent.

Michael Conforto and Mitch Haniger will join Joc Pederson in the outfield, two new additions the Giants hope can be impact players. Conforto held out last season after not receiving a desirable contract, while also recovering from shoulder surgery. Conforto will start in right field, likely batting third in this unorthodox Giants lineup. Pederson will likely leadoff this year, coming off a career high 144 wRC+ slash in 2022. After blasting 39 homers in 2021, Haniger experienced a season full of injuries and inconsistencies in 2022. Haniger will start the season on the IL, hoping to return sometime in April.

Perhaps the biggest dagger of San Francisco’s offseason was the inability to secure a deal with shortstop Carlos Correa. The two-time All-Star was believed to be headed to Bay on a 10-year deal, only for the contract to fall through after concerns with Correa’s physical. It now looks as if longtime Giant Brandon Crawford will get the nod at shortstop, coming off a tough offensive season in 2022. Former number 2 overall pick Joey Bart had his fair share of struggles last season, with San Francisco having trouble filling the void for Buster Posey. 2023 marks a prove-it year for the 26-year-old, who will need to show this team he’s a worthy investment as a starting catcher moving forward. Similar to Tampa Bay, the Giants love to platoon players to boost overall offensive production. Lamonte Wade Jr, Mike Yastremski, Austin Slater, JD Davis, and Wilmer Flores are a few of the many names we can expect to see feature in this platoon. A franchise heavily driven by analytics, the Giants will use this group to give them every possible advantage against their opponents offensively.

After losing Carlos Rodón to free agency, the Giants will hope the new names brought in the rotation can help compensate for Rodon’s elite numbers. Ross Stripling was the biggest addition to the rotation, a righty starter coming off a strong 2022 campaign in Toronto. Similar to Logan Webb and Alex Cobb, Stripling had a low ERA thanks to his low-velocity sinker. Stripling’s sinker induced a 43.8 percent groundball rate, helping him get back to the 3 ERA mark he had seen in past seasons. Bringing in Sean Manaea was an interesting move, considering how bad he was against the Dodgers last season. Over 17 innings of work, Manaea gave up an astounding 23 earned runs. Perhaps San Francisco is thinking outside the box, looking at his ERA mark excluding starts against L.A. Manaea could turn out to be a worthy signing, as long he stays away from facing the Dodgers. Logan Webb will get the nod on opening day, coming off another great season. Webb posted a 2.90 ERA (3.03 FIP) over 192 innings, mainly thanks to his incredible 56.7 ground ball percentage. Alex Cobb will join Webb at the top of this rotation, another right-handed starter who relies heavily on his sinker. Cobb was extremely unlucky last year. He had 3.73 ERA (2.70 FIP) over 150 innings. Analytically speaking, his ERA should have been a point lower. In many aspects, this bullpen and starting rotation are heavily intertwined. Aside from their top arms, San Francisco usually doesn’t have their other starters go deep into games. For this reason, we can expect to see guys like Alex Wood and Jakob Junis to open games, pitching a few innings and then paving the way for this dynamic bullpen. This talented bullpen is full of electric arms, led by Dominican flamethrower Camilo Doval. Brothers Taylor and Tyler Rogers will now pitch together on the same staff, with San Francisco signing Taylor to a three-year deal this offseason. The Rogers brothers, along with Doval and John Brebbia, are the marquee names in the bullpen that should get a lot of work this season.

If we factor out the 12-28 record against San Diego and Los Angeles, the Giants had a 69-53 record against all other teams. In other words, they were an incredible 16 games over .500 against the rest of the league.The path to the playoffs is rather simple for San Francisco. If this team can improve their play against their top counterparts, the Giants can easily secure themselves a playoff spot in October.

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