Padres: Offseason update on NL West competition — San Francisco Giants

Halfway through the offseason we stop to take a look at how the San Diego Padres competition in the NL West is stacking up. Here we look at the San Francisco Giants.

The San Francisco Giants surprised a lot of people in 2019 as they finished third in the NL West with 77 wins and seven games ahead of the San Diego Padres.

Perhaps the team was just fighting for Bruce Bochy in his final season, or maybe this lineup is better than everyone thought.

I tend to believe Bochy had a lot to do with it as that roster is not very inspiring.

They got good seasons on the mound from Jeff Samardzija and Madison Bumgarner. And their bullpen was great.

But now they’ve lost Bumgarner and Will Smith, while Samardzija is in the final year of his deal and they’d trade him if they could.

The lineup has some veteran players who are getting long in the tooth like Evan Longoria, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, and Buster Posey.

Outfield and second base is currently a mess for them.

Gabe Kapler was hired as the team’s new manager early in the offseason, and as someone who covers the Atlanta Braves as well and watched a lot of Philadelphia Phillies games, good luck with that hire.

They’ve made two significant moves this offseason.

The first was trading for Zack Cozart and Will Wilson from the Angels. Cozart could battle for the job at second base, and Wilson is a very talented infielder who could be ready soon.

And then they signed Kevin Gausman to a $9 million deal for 2020.

Gausman was a very good starter for the Braves at the end of the 2018 season but was terrible to start 2019 and was eventually traded to the Reds where he became a solid part of their bullpen.

I would assume they give Gausman a shot in the rotation and hope that he can bounce back in spacious Oracle Park.

The bullpen should be solid again, and if Johnny Cueto can get healthy and effective he and Samardzija would form a nice 1-2 at the top of the rotation.

Their farm system has gotten better in recent years, but it’s still not very deep.

My personal belief for a while has been that they need to tear things down and rebuild. But it seems they’ve let their pride get in the way and aren’t ready to give up on the core that helped them win a World Series back in 2014.

But with Bumgarner officially gone, I think we finally see the Giants move on and trade off as much as they can to begin a quick rebuild.

I would be shocked if the Giants don’t finish last in the NL West in 2020. They should not pose much of a threat to the Padres next season.