by DrLefty
The word “weird” has, weirdly, become important in this year’s presidential election, and don’t worry, I’m not going there, at least not really. Linguist John McWhorter, in an essay in the New York Times, talked about why the application of the adjective “weird” to specific political figures, speech, or action has been so effective: It suggests that [the political moment is] “a detour, a regrettable temptation that [serious people] ought to render obsolete. Calling it ‘weird’ is deft, articulate, and possibly prophetic.”
And now I segue quickly away from politics to the Giants. The 2024 Giants are weird, and we may ultimately look back on the whole Farhan Zaidi era as really weird, “a detour.” According to Alex Pavlovic on the latest Giants Talk, it’s “a coin flip” right now as to whether the Giants will replace their President of Baseball Operations when this season ends. He says it’s not that these final few games of the season are going to move the needle one way or the other–he thinks the deciders have made up their minds already what they think. But the Giants are run by a board, not just one owner, and they don’t all feel the same way about this decision. (Alex also thinks we shouldn’t expect anything to be announced before the season ends. The reason they fired former manager Gabe Kapler with a few games to go last season was to not distract from Brandon Crawford Day at the last game.)
So there’s not too much to say, yet, about the biggest decision, the elephant in the room. Let’s instead talk about what’s weird right now.
It’s Weird that Marco Luciano Hasn’t Been Playing
I said something about this yesterday morning in the comments section after Luciano didn’t touch the field in Baltimore, the Donnie Walton Series. Then Grant Brisbee dropped a whole article about it on The Athletic. Luciano did play 2B in the win against Kansas City last night, and I doubt that was due to either me or Brisbee–it was probably a combination of the Giants having been eliminated from playoff contention and the starting pitcher not being a sinker baller like Logan Webb--and we’ll see how much he plays over the final eight games.
I’ll try to summarize what I’ve read and heard about this, but if you have a chance to read Grant’s article, it’s very cogent and well argued. Regular readers have over the past couple of years accused Grant of carrying too much water for the front office, but not this time. Grant’s bewildered and thinks it’s weird the way they’ve jerked Luciano around all year and he says so quite plainly. Anyway, the explanation for the Luciano weirdness seems to come down to these points:
- He’s not playable/trustworthy as a middle infielder (he was a disaster as a shortstop and is too untested at 2B).
- He could DH and at least get those major league reps while they figure out where to put him defensively. Indeed, Zaidi said that was the plan when he traded Jorge Soler at the deadline. But then it didn’t happen. Why not? Well, it’s a combination of Grant McCray and Michael Conforto. In late July, the Giants had decided that center field was not a good fit for Heliot Ramos and called up McCray from AAA, primarily for his defense. But something surprising happened: McCray showed an intriguing combination of speed and power (five homers so far in 103 plate appearances), and the team wanted to see more. Together with Ramos’s All-Star campaign and Mike Yastrzemski’s solid second half, that pushed Conforto out of the outfield (thank goodness) and into the DH role. Why not just bench Conforto, who’s going to be a free agent within days? Well, that’s considered disrespectful to a veteran who signed with you in good faith and is about to go back on the market. If you treat someone like Conforto poorly at the end of his contract, that can affect your reputation when you go into the free agent market…especially when the player’s agent, Scott Boras, is one to keep score about that kind of thing.
- Even though Zaidi keeps trying to find a spot for Luciano (by trading Soler and then DFA’ing Thairo Estrada), manager Bob Melvin is old school and doesn’t believe you should punt September and not try to win games, out of respect for other teams who are still in contention for playoff spots. So while Zaidi’s priority may well be to audition various youngsters, Melvin’s is to put what he thinks is the best lineup on the field to win that day’s game. Thus, they’re not entirely on the same page.
- Grant didn’t get into this, but you wonder whether Luciano is also in Melvin’s or the coaches’ doghouse for a work ethic thing or an attitude thing. It obviously wasn’t a good look when he and Tyler Fitzgerald collided and dropped a pop-up, nearly costing them a game, and then were seen barking at each other in the dugout.
Whatever the reasons, the upshot of the Luciano situation is, to quote Grant: “Remarkably, though, the Giants are even more confused about what to do with Luciano than they were before the season started. And they were plenty confused about what to do with him before the season started.” They haven’t figured out where on the field he should/can play. They haven’t given him enough reps as a hitter. They’ve jerked him around with the yo-yoing, the benching, the public mixed messages. And they’ve absolutely torpedoed any trade value he might have had. I’d be hard-pressed to think how they could have mishandled this worse if they’d tried…no, wait, I can think of an example (see Bart, Joey).
It’s Weird That Beat Writers are Feuding About Buster Posey’s Role in Extending Matt Chapman
You know a season’s really gone off the rails when the local journalists are making the news instead of writing about it. It started with Andrew Baggarly last Sunday dropping a bombshell piece, reporting that Giants’ ownership had gotten so impatient with Zaidi and Boras that Posey took charge of the Chapman negotiations and got it done. A lot of the Bay Area took that as a harbinger that Zaidi was a dead man walking, just like last year when Baggarly reported Logan Webb’s quotes that suggested Kapler had lost the clubhouse and Kapler was fired a few days later. But then Chronicle writers Susan Slusser and John Shea published a “not so fast” article that reported that Zaidi has been in and out of the hospital and that Boras refuted Baggarly’s claims. Tim Kawakami, who until very recently was Baggarly’s boss at The Athletic, weighed in that he trusts Baggs’s reporting, while Pavlovic (on Giants Talk) seemed to side more with Slusser/Shea.
What does all this mean? You could look at it two different ways. First (and this seemed to be the impetus for Baggs’s scoop), we shouldn’t assume that the Chapman extension meant that Zaidi was safe for next year. Baggs’s reporting implied that the Giants got the Chapman deal done in spite of Zaidi rather than because of him. On the other hand, if Shea/Slusser/Pavlovic are right and this deal, including ownership’s (=Posey) role in it wasn’t anything unusual, then it really tells us nothing about Zaidi’s fate. As noted above, we’ll probably have to wait a bit longer to find that out.
It’s Weird that Bryce Eldridge is in AAA
OK, maybe it’s just “interesting” and not “weird,” but work with me here. Eldridge, the Giants’ first-round pick last year, has now played for all four full-season Giants affiliates this year. I can’t remember that ever happening with a position player for the Giants. Posey himself started the 2009 season in San Jose, which was high A at the time, skipped levels to AAA, and then made his major league debut in September. But that’s not quite the same thing. The closest example I can think of is lefty reliever Dan Runzler, who rocketed through the system to make his major league debut, also in 2009. But to go from A to high A to AA to AAA in the same season, after only nine games in AA? Yeah, that’s wei–unusual, anyway. It’s also kind of a bummer for Eldridge and his family, since he’s from Virginia and he’d barely found his way to the Richmond ballpark before he was sent to Sacramento.
There’s no mystery about this, though. The Giants are (obviously) fast-tracking Eldridge and wanted him to keep getting playing time. Eugene (high A) finished up their season a week before AA Richmond did, so they promoted Eldridge to extend his season. Then, seeing that AA was no problem for him, they did it again so that Eldridge could get another extra week at AAA. He’s reportedly ticketed for the Arizona Fall League, so he’ll have little down time between the end of the AAA season (tomorrow) and the start of that league (Oct. 7).
The intriguing question is what it all means. Could Eldridge be in camp next spring competing for a spot on the major league roster? You’d think not because he’s 19 and was just in high school last year, but consider the recent example of Padres’ rookie sensation Jackson Merrill. No one expected him to make the team this spring, but he did, and now he’s a leading candidate for Rookie of the Year. Two other factors to consider: The Giants have been rolling for the past couple of years with a combination of LaMonte Wade Jr. and Wilmer Flores at 1B, and after Flores’s season ended early with knee surgery, Mark Canha, obtained at the trade deadline, slid into the Flores spot (with occasional Jerar Encarnacion sightings). Canha is 35 and a free agent, Flores had a terrible year, and Wade’s been solid but not setting the world on fire. The Giants clearly need upgrades in their lineup, and with the outfield looking full (Ramos, Yaz, Jung Hoo Lee, maybe McCray, Luis Matos, and Wade Meckler), 3B locked down by Chapman, a middle infield position held by Fitzgerald, and possibly a glove-first shortstop (maybe Lee’s buddy Ha-Seong Kim?) being added, first base would appear to be one of the few spots where they could add more pop. And Eldridge, if ready, could provide that.
The other factor is the so-called “prospect promotion incentive” that was introduced by the most recent CBA. Eldridge is already a top-100 prospect. If he’s on the Opening Day roster and ends up in the top three in Rookie of the Year or MVP voting, the Giants would earn an extra draft pick in 2026. However, if they don’t have Eldridge on the Opening Day roster and promote him later, say in May or July, they forfeit that opportunity forever. So the choice could be either the aggressive 2025 Opening Day assignment…or wait until 2026 (he could play a few games in September without losing his rookie status).
Neither of these factors should outweigh what’s best for Eldridge’s development, of course. It’s just worth noting that we shouldn’t dismiss out of hand the possibility of a faster arrival for Eldridge.
It’s Weird that the Giants are Winning Road Games Against Good Teams
The subheading says it all.
I’ll add that, the Luciano/Walton weirdness aside, I’m happy with the other “play the kids” choices they’re making. It’s awesome that Mason Black got his first major league win last night against a good Royals team and that Landen Roupp and Hayden Birdsong are getting regular starts. It’s good that they’re taking a nice, long look at McCray. I also approve of Melvin letting Camilo Doval close the game last night even though it got hairy. The Giants are much better off trying to fix Doval than burying him, and what better way than throwing him into the fire in a game that is ultimately meaningless to them?
Tonight’s Game
Giants at Royals, 2:10 p.m. at Kauffman Stadium
Landen Roupp vs. Brady Singer
We’ll see how much more weirdness we have to encounter this season. Lefty out.
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