Grading Zaidi, Putila and the San Francisco Giants front office at the season’s midway point
Acquired or traded
The team of Zaidi and Putila have made deals with other teams that brought four major leaguers to the Bay Area for at least part of 2023. None of those four, however, has produced more than a casual impact on the team’s status.
In fact, only one remains in a Giants uniform at the halfway point.
That one is backup catcher Blake Sabol, who came to San Francisco from Cincinnati last December for a player to be named later who turned out to be pitcher Jake Wong. Sabol has seen duty in 62 games for the Giants, producing a .246 batting average and average defensive numbers.
The other three acquisitions — Isan Diaz, Matt Beaty and Cal Stevenson — have all spent much of 2023 waiting for the phone to ring, coming up to the big club when it has, then returning to Triple-A. The exception is Beaty, a journeyman the Giants used for four games then dumped in early June. He’s now employed by the Kansas City Royals.
Zaidi and Putila have moved three players out of the Giants system, and again none were big names. Wong has seen very occasional service with the Reds, while pitchers Gregory Santos and Sam Long went to the White Sox (for a minor leaguer) and Oakland (for cash) respectively. Santos is 2-0 with a 2.36 ERA in 36 relief appearances for the South Side guys; Long has been in 23 games with the A’s.
Free agency
This is the area where Zaidi and Putila set out to make their mark during the offseason. They have not to date been successful.
The Giants front office signed, re-signed or extended eight players in free negotiations. The problem is that six of those eight have produced negative value for Zaidi and Putila.
Take Sean Manaea … please.
Manaea is a left-hander teams fall in love with for his potential; he did, after all, throw a no-hitter. His track record, however, argues against the two-year, $25 million contract given him by Zaidi and Putila.
With the Giants, Manaea has flopped both as a starter and reliever. He’s sitting on a 5.68 ERA in 18 appearances, six of them starts, covering 52 innings. That works out to a -1.3 WAA.
Ross Stripling used to be a Dodgers product who found his way to San Francisco after the Blue Jays gave up on him. In 10 appearances, five of them starts, Stripling has gone the way of Manaea: He’s 0-2 with a 6.88 ERA and -0.9 WAA.
Five seasons ago, you’d have predicted Manaea and Stripling would both be All-Stars. Now they’re both undermining the same team.
And so it has gone for Zaidi-Putila signees. Whether it’s Michael Conforto, Mitch Haniger, Taylor Rogers or Roberto Perez, the on-field results turn up negative.
The sole exception has been outfield returnee Joc Pederson, who opted to stay home when offered $19.7 million to do so. In his second season with the Giants, Pederson is hitting .260 with eight homers and producing a +0.3 WAA. But that doesn’t begin to balance out the harm done by the others.
Zaidi and Putila let a full dozen members of the Giants cast of 2022 walk away over the winter (some were pushed out) and those results have been more positive. The departures include Gary Sanchez, Darin Ruf, Evan Longoria and Brandon Belt.
Farm system
To recast the Giants in their image, Zaidi and Putila have made extensive use of the team’s farm system. Nine rookies have done at least some time with the team in 2023, and most are still there.
By common consensus, the most promising is catcher Patrick Bailey. Although he’s played just 33 games since debuting in mid-May, Bailey is batting .322 with good power. He’s also producing extraordinary fielding numbers for a first-year catcher: seven Defensive Runs Saved and a 40 percent success rate throwing out potential base stealers.
That works out to a +1.2 WAA in less than two months. If Bailey keeps that up, the Giants will be comparing him to Buster Posey.
The rest of the Class of 2023 is less glamorous but functional.
The two most useful pieces have been relievers Ryan Walker and Tristan Beck, both at +0.4 WAA. Walker has a 1.80 ERA in 16 appearances, Beck is at 3.38 in 17 games.
Most of the rest are experiencing the usual rookie pains. Casey Schmitt is a backup infielder, Keaton Winn, and Sean Hjelle have done bullpen time, in Hjelle’s case with difficulty. None are running up especially positive numbers, and that fact brings the cumulative WAA of the rookie class (despite Bailey’s contributions) to a dead-even 0.0.
Overall
The aggressive approach to free agent spending employed by Zaidi and Putila has, at least in the short run, backfired. The nine free agents brought in, re-signed or extended have collectively cost San Francisco more than three games in the standings.
Here’s the first-half report card on the Giants front office. Note that grades for players departing the organization are based on the reverse of those players’ WAAs with their new teams.
Mode WAA Grade
Acquired -0.7 C
Traded +1.1 D
Signed -3.3 F
FA Lost -0.8 C
Rookies 0.0 C
Overall -4.2 F
Since the end of the 2022 postseason, Zaidi and Putila have made 36 personnel moves affecting the team’s 2023 big league roster. Those moves have not, as group, panned out. Only 15 of them brought short-term gain to the Giants; 21 of the 36 have so far turned out to be costly.
With that in mind, it’s fascinating that the Giants are actually playing better, not worse, than they did in 2022. The answer lies in the overwhelmingly upbeat showing made by the team’s returning cast.
In 2023, the Giants have used 20 players who were already on board prior to Putila’s arrival, effectively making them holdovers from the previous administrative team. Those 20 include the guys most fans think of when they consider the 2023 Giants: Logan Webb, Joc Pedersen, Mike Yastrzemski, Brandon Crawford, Lamonte Wade Jr., Thairo Estrada, and Alex Cobb.
Collectively those 20 have been worth +7.6 WAA to San Francisco’s cause. They — not anything done by Zaidi and Putila — are the reason for the team’s turnaround.
If anything, in fact, Zaidi and Putila have been working against, rather than with, the grain of improvement in 2023.
Staying in the division and grading the Padres front office. dark. Next