6 takeaways from the Giants' season

This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

It was a season of unrealized expectations for the Giants, who fell short of the playoffs after delivering their first .500 finish in franchise history.

Coming off a 107-win campaign in 2021, the Giants tried to run it back with many of the same faces who fueled their stunning success. But they ultimately struggled to overcome Buster Posey’s retirement, nagging injuries to key veterans and shaky defense.

The result was an 81-81 record that left no one satisfied.

“We’re certainly in a stage as an organization where we expect to be in the playoffs every year,” president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said last week. “There’s no silver lining to missing the playoffs now.”

Defining moment
The Giants and Dodgers were neck and neck in the standings last year, but the gap between the archrivals widened significantly this season. San Francisco went only 4-15 against Los Angeles in 2022, finishing 30 games out of first place in the National League West.

The Giants remained in playoff position coming out of the All-Star break, but they faded in the NL Wild Card race after going 3-12 to start the second half, a skid that included eight consecutive losses to the Dodgers.

“We were 1-13 against them in the second half,” Zaidi said. “That’s really what ended our season and our playoff hopes, that 1-13 stretch and particularly the 0-8 coming out of the All-Star break.”

What we learned
Resurgent veterans carried the Giants in 2021, but their aging core of position players proved too brittle this year. Shortstop Brandon Crawford, who finished fourth in NL MVP voting last season, was banged up throughout the season and logged a .652 OPS, down from .895 in ‘21. First baseman Brandon Belt was also coming off a career year at the plate, but he struggled to manage a chronic right knee issue and ultimately succumbed to season-ending surgery in September. A rash of injuries also resulted in four trips to the injured list for third baseman Evan Longoria, who was limited to 89 games this year.

A major priority for the Giants will be to get younger and more athletic this offseason to try to avoid overextending the veterans who endured their share of health challenges this year.

“I think one of our lessons from this year is going to be to manage the workloads for those veteran players and not rely on them too heavily,” Zaidi said.

Best development
Thairo Estrada enjoyed a breakthrough season with the Giants, going from a complementary piece to perhaps the club’s most valuable position player this year. The 26-year-old infielder batted .260 with a .724 OPS over 140 games and set career highs in doubles (23), home runs (14), RBIs (62), walks (33) and steals (21). That added up to a 2.7 WAR, the highest among Giants position players, according to FanGraphs.

Estrada made most of his starts at second base this season, but the Giants believe he’s capable of moving around the infield and outfield and possibly taking on more of a super-utility role in 2023.

Area for improvement
The Giants were repeatedly burned by poor defense, as they ranked 28th in the Majors with -31 Outs Above Average this year. Their inability to convert enough ground balls into outs frequently undermined their talented starting rotation, which led the NL with a 3.43 FIP. With new defensive shift limits on tap for 2023, the Giants plan to target up-the-middle players with more range and athleticism this offseason to try to fix their defensive shortcomings.

On the rise
The Giants have one of the best young closers in the game in Camilo Doval, who recorded a 2.53 ERA with 27 saves in 68 appearances this season. Despite being shouldered with the heaviest workload of his career, Doval finished the year strong, firing a 104 mph pitch last month that ranked as the fastest pitch thrown by a Giants pitcher in the Statcast era. His electric arsenal also includes a nasty slider and an upper-90s sinker, helping him capture NL Reliever of the Month honors for the second straight September.

Team MVP
The Giants had a huge hole to fill at the top of their rotation after allowing All-Star right-hander Kevin Gausman to depart as a free agent last year, but they managed to replace him by signing lefty Carlos Rodón.

Rodón, 29, emerged as San Francisco’s most dominant starter this season, earning his second consecutive All-Star nod while logging a 2.88 ERA over a career-high 178 innings. He led Major League starters with a 2.25 FIP and ranked third with 237 strikeouts, making him a strong candidate to draw NL Cy Young Award votes this year. The question now is whether Rodón will be back for a second season in San Francisco, as he is expected to opt out of his deal with the Giants and re-enter free agency this offseason.