What to make of Greg Johnson’s comments on Giants' midseason outlook

On Wednesday night, the Giants beat the Cubs 4-3 on the back of home runs from Michael Conforto, David Villar and Luis Matos. Camilo Doval overcame an errant pickoff throw in the top of the 9th to secure the save, and the Giants improved to 39-42, officially passing the 81-game halfway point. That is right, even though it feels like the Giants were opening up the season in San Diego last week, the 2024 Giants season is already half over.

The next day, the San Francisco Chronicle published an interview that Giants beat writer Susan Slusser conducted with owner Charles Johnson about the state of the Giants at the season’s halfway point. You can read the full interview here . I pulled a few lines from Johnson that stuck out to me, of which I will add my own thoughts and takeaways.

“I think the cavalry is coming soon, with LaMonte Wade back, we’re starting to trend in the right way where we’ll have Robbie Ray back, we’ll hopefully have Kyle Harrison back, Blake Snell. I think that puts us in a much different place than where we are today. It’s hard to say, ‘Be patient,’ but this is a team that’s battling hard.”

Wade Jr. made his return to the Giants lineup Friday night, and was having an All-Star caliber season before suffering a Grade 2 hamstring strain after sliding into second base back May 28th. Getting him back in the lineup will be a plus. For Harrison, it is a matter of monitoring his workload in the second half. He has never pitched more than 113 innings in a professional season, and that was in 2022 across two levels of the minor leagues.

Ray and Snell are true wild cards in that there is no way to know how effective they will be once they truly return. Snell, last year’s National League Cy Young Award winner, has been nothing close to what Giants fans expected this year. And Ray, the 2021 American League Cy Young Award winner, has not pitched in over a year and a half as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.

And while Johnson is right to say that the Giants are battling hard (they really are, this team has zero quit in them, which is very admirable) to also preach patience, is still a lot to ask of a fanbase that has been patient for five-and-a-half years now with very little results, 2021 notwithstanding.

“ The initial signing of Blake Snell was to give us that strength in the rotation. Not having a spring training — I think that shows you how important spring training is, especially for pitchers. As we go forward, signing someone late isn’t something we’d do again, especially with a pitcher. We felt a veteran like him could be ready pretty quickly .”

The Giants and free agent pitchers have a long history of frustration, dating back to the signing of Barry Zito after the 2006 season. The deal was such a disaster (outside of that three-month stretch in 2012) that the Giants avoided giving long-term deals to pitchers, until they signed Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzjia after the 2015 season.

The Blake Snell deal is quickly hitting Barry Zito levels of disappointment. There is still time for things to turn around with Snell, and I would bet that he will turn in a solid final two months of the season. But for the Giants, this looks like another case of a lesson learned. Now, would the Giants be willing to pay a higher price for a free agent pitcher if it meant getting him to spring training on time? That is yet to be determined.

“I’d caution about any expectations by saying, “Look where we are, we probably have the biggest lift (with returning injured players) of any team out there.” We’re going to look and see what’s available, but we’re not that optimistic that the market will bear much fruit with so many teams in contention right now, and the cost of getting players and giving up a lot of young talent.”

Once again, the Giants are telling fans to temper expectations. Granted, the third Wild Card spot in each league has more teams in the “playoff race” than ever, which means there will not be very many teams looking to offload players. Even still, if the Giants are in the playoff race as the deadline approaches, the demand to make a move will be high, and a lackluster deadline like the Giants had last year (see Pollock, A.J.) will not fly with the fanbase, or in the clubhouse.

Johnson did mention the return of the Giants’ vast list of injured players as something that will provide a boost Snell, Kyle Harrison, Robbie Ray and Alex Cobb will all be in the Giants rotation by the end of July, which means no more bullpen games. And that will also help lessen the workload on Jordan Hicks, even if that involves moving him to the bullpen.

But I have never been a fan of looking at injured players returning as being the same as deadline acquisitions. Real, winning organizations are always looking for ways to get better, no matter what. I cannot imagine the Dodgers are looking at the return of Mookie Betts (currently on the injured list with a fractured left wrist), which could happen as early as the start of August, as being on par with a deadline acquisition. The Dodgers are always out there looking to add as much talent as possible. If the Giants are in the playoff race and have a chance to improve their lineup (Google Vlad Jr. really quick), the expectation should be to improve that lineup.

“Yes, he signed it right about then.”

The full question was: “ Given all the injuries, how do you evaluate the front office? And did Farhan Zaidi ever sign that contract extension we kept asking about?”

So now we know, Farhan Zaidi did sign his contract extension, and it happened last offseason, which was when these questions first popped up. Remember, Johnson announced the extension for Zaidi during the introductory press conference for Bob Melvin, but there was apparently a delay in signing it. Now though, he is locked in for the next two years after this year.

For those in the “Fire Farhan” camp, this does not mean he is a lock to stick around for those two years, but it does lessen the chance that that happens. Not just because of the extension itself however. What do I mean by that? Well take a look at the next quote.

“ It’s exciting, all these young players look like they’re ready to compete at the top level. The future looks very bright with the number of arms we have and our outfield is very solid with Luis Matos playing well, and certainly [Heliot] Ramos looks like an elite player today. All that gets me very excited for the second half, and for the next few years gives us lots of flexibility.

I think we should all be excited about seeing the youth that’s moving quickly up the system, that’s really the key to everything. We all get focused on free agents so much, but the reality is the farm system is what’s going to drive success. And I think for the first time in a long time we’re really seeing some major talent coming out of the farm system”

I have been under the impression that the Giants and Farhan Zaidi were in a “playoffs or bust” situation. Playoffs were at least the expectation. Dave Flemming said as much on The Morning Roast earlier this season. Zaidi even told Slusser that the playoffs were very much the expectation. Failing to make the playoffs would lead to consequences, maybe even firings.

That does not seem like the case anymore. Now it appears that, with the positive developments we have seen from the Giants younger players such as Matos, Ramos, Brett Wisely and Kyle Harrison, it is not crazy to think that they have saved Zaidi’s job. At least for now.

Johnson is right about the farm system driving the team’s success in the future. The Giants do need a big-time star, but I have always been under the belief that said star HAS to come from within.

The Giants’ entire history, dating back to their founding in 1883 as the New York Gothams, is built on homegrown stars. Back then it was Amos Rusie and Bill Ewing. Then came stars such as Christy Mathewson, Bill Terry, Carl Hubble and Mel Ott. Willie Mays was a star on both coasts, and the San Francisco days saw the rise of homegrown superstars in Willie McCovey, Gaylord Perry, Juan Marichel and Orlando Cepeda. They were followed by the Clarks, Jack and Will. And in more recent memory, Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey.

The one exception was Barry Bonds, who came up through the Pittsburgh Pirates system (though he was originally drafted by the Giants out of high school in 1984), but Bonds was also raised in the Giants clubhouse, so while he may not have been a homegrown star, he was, in a sense, still a homegrown star.

Is the next great Giants star in the organization right now? Ramos is poised to end the Giants 40-year drought of home-grown all-star outfielders, but is he the next GUY for the Giants? That feels like a reach right now. Could it be Bryce Eldridge? Possible, but we may not know for sure if he is for another two or three years. Will Giants fans stay patient that long?