The San Francisco Giants have had an extremely disappointing season after a huge offseason where expectations were set to make the playoffs. Unfortunately, they fell very short in an open National League. The Giants now need to sit back and evaluate what went wrong. Recently a report came out from John Shea, that Farhan Zaidi’s and Bob Melvin’s contracts are only guaranteed through 2025 not what was previously believed to be through 2026. Now the possibility of firing Zaidi becomes much easier and is a real question for ownership going into this next offseason. I will try to come up with my answer on whether or not the Giants should bring back Zaidi.
Should Farhan Zaidi Be Brought Back By the San Francisco Giants?
Under Zaidi, the Giants have had one winning season and it was the most historic season in franchise history. They won 107 games and won the NL West. Eventually, they were knocked out of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS. It was a hopeful season where the fans expected sustained greatness for at least a few more seasons, but it turned out to be an outlier. Over Zaidi’s six years, the Giants have had a losing record in four. They failed to build off the 100-win season finishing last in the NL West the next season. The Giants haven’t seen multiple winning seasons throughout Zaidi’s six seasons. Why hasn’t this team been able to find sustained success? It’s because of Zaidi’s inability to attract big free agents to San Francisco. He hasn’t been able to bring in the big names that provide continually great performances, but instead brings in a squad of platoon players.
Free Agency
Zaidi’s best offseason came this past year when he was able to bring sign Matt Chapman and extend him, Blake Snell, Jordan Hicks, Jorge Soler, and Jung Hoo Lee. Lee was the first six-year contract that Farhan had handed out to a free agent in his tenure. Outside of this past year, the Giants haven’t ever been able to rope in a big fish. Zaidi has been tremendous at finding guys that have been overlooked like Kevin Gausman or Carlos Rodon, but those are usually short-term rentals. They’ve also missed badly on players like Soler, Michael Conforto, Mitch Haniger, and many other deals that turned out to be huge negatives. Zaidi’s front office has failed to consistently use the offseason to improve this team to become a playoff contender.
The Giants have famously missed on big free agents such as Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. They haven’t been able to attract a superstar to come to San Francisco at the top of their prime in many years. This starts to become a problem when your homegrown talent gets old like Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford. Also if your farm system continually ranks amongst the lowest in the MLB its hard to replace older talent without free agency. It’s especially hard to rebuild talent when you’re unable to sell players at the deadline and have them walk away for nothing.
Trade Deadline
Zaidi’s best trade came in 2021 when he was able to acquire star player Kris Bryant from the Chicago Cubs. It helped the team accomplish a historic season but that was it. Bryant was a half-season rental. The Giants throughout Zaidi’s tenure have constantly been in the middle of buying or selling at the trade deadline. They haven’t been able to sell to get prospects for the future or buy now to go for a playoff push. Instead, they make marginal moves that slightly worsen the team. For example, they traded Soler back to the Atlanta Braves for prospects moving off one of their better hitters this season. This pointed in the direction of the team selling to gain prospects. But instead, they decided to not make any significant trades for prospects nor buy players to improve the team for a playoff push. They let their playoff hopes fizzle and accomplished nothing to improve the team.
Another example of his inability to buy or sell was when Rodon was with the team having an all-star season. Rodon was most likely going to opt out in the offseason and sign elsewhere for big money, so the Giants could have traded him to get prospects and improve the farm. Zaidi decided to keep Rodon on the team and he ended up walking in the offseason for nothing. The problem with Zaidi is his inability to gain value from these players he has no plan of re-signing. The Giants have this same dilemma coming up with Snell who has been unbelievably good in the second half of the season boasting a 1.76 earned run average. Since the Giants didn’t sell him at the deadline there’s a chance they lose Snell for nothing this offseason if they can’t agree to an extension.
One more season
After saying all this and criticizing Zaidi to the maximum, I believe the Giants should give him another shot in 2025. The 2024 offseason saw him stray away from his main criticisms and bring in really strong players on longer contracts. This next offseason is a chance for Zaidi to redeem himself and bring in some strong additions to improve the team and push for the playoffs. This offseason is headlined by players like Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, and Anthony Santander. If Zaidi can rope in one of these big fishes and re-sign Snell the Giants could be a playoff team next season. But if the Giants fail to make the playoffs for the sixth time under his tenure they should walk away from Zaidi and look to find someone who can return this Giants franchise back to the glory days.
Main Image: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
