Ever since, we have seen a lot of puffery about claims of relevance from our northern cousins. After all, if a franchise falls off a proverbial cliff after winning three titles in five years, it is hard to feel any sympathy in a vacuum. And it is truly impossible to feel any sympathy towards the Giants, even on a good day.
That said, as usual, I was factually right, and I was also tempting fate, which I normally would not do. Back when it mattered, I was convinced the Giants would do everything short of making Shohei Ohtani mayor of San Francisco to get him to come north.
(Which is doubly funny because Max Muncy has informally held the job for going on six years. Go get it out of the ocean, indeed.)
The Giants failed, which one would think they would be used to by now, much to the delight of everyone in Los Angeles.
Still, as a former resident of San Francisco, I can attest that living there is like living in a season-one episode of Parks and Recreation: a joyless, Office clone, where the needs of the rich are met at the expense of everyone else. I missed the halcyon days, apparently.
Back then, Grant Brisbee was, as usual, in fine, if depressed, form (paywalled):
The offseason isn’t over; the offseason is already a disaster. Not because there isn’t anything the Giants can do to make the roster better. The reigning Cy Young Award winner is still available. The guy who won the Cy Young two seasons ago might be on the trade market. There’s a non-zero chance that the next Giants rotation could include three of the eight pitchers who received Cy Young votes in 2023, including the ones who finished 1-2. Sure, 100 percent minus non-zero percent is effectively a 100-percent chance that the Giants aren’t doing this. But there are still surprises left in the offseason? Question mark?
No, the offseason is already a disaster because the Dodgers won. They did it. They signed the most fascinating free agent of all time for three-quarters of a billion dollars, and then they signed the most exciting free-agent pitcher in years for the rest of the billion and change. They’ve made the roster better, yes, but that’s almost an afterthought. They’ve taken over a baseball-mad country. There might be more Dodgers hats in Tokyo next year than Giants hats, and I’m talking Yomiuri Giants hats. Feel free to add the six San Francisco Giants hats you find to the total.
[emphasis added.]
I figured that the Giants were an 80-win team, and they hit that mark square on the nose. Then life carried on, and the Giants were mediocre again and again, watching from who-cares-where when the Dodgers won the 2024 title.
Now, as the Dodgers return to the City by the Bay for the first time in 2025, the locals are acting as if the playoffs have started in July. Let us laugh at what you might have overlooked when paying attention to a non-dysfunctional organization.
Inferiority complex made manifest
Buster Posey, part owner.
Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports
In 2022, the Giants announced that the team had added Giants’ legend and probable Hall of Famer Gerald “Buster” Posey III to their ownership group. While his ownership stake was not announced, Posey’s joining the Giants felt as natural as adding coconut shavings to a dark chocolate blondie, which makes sense because I despise both ingredients.
It was widely reported how Posey and the Giants made their unsuccessful pitch to both Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. After the Ohtani signing, Posey told The Athletic about their process, and addressed the perceived elephant in the room: the damaged reputation of San Francisco as a city (paywalled):
“Something I think is noteworthy, something that unfortunately keeps popping up from players and even the players’ wives is there’s a bit of an uneasiness with the city itself, as far as the state of the city, with crime, with drugs,” Posey said. “Whether that’s all completely fair or not, perception is reality. It’s a frustrating cycle, I think, and not just with baseball. Baseball is secondary to life and the important things in life. But as far as a free-agent pursuit goes, I have seen that it does affect things.”
And yes, Posey said, [the reputation of San Francisco] affected the Ohtani pursuit.
[emphasis added.]
The level of agitation Posey’s comments caused would be the equivalent. The level of self-recrimination that arose in San Francisco was a sight to see. It was far too much to catalog here.
Cling to mediocrity
The argument has effectively been made over and over here at True Blue LA: the Giants have not been relevant since the final out of the 2014 World Series.
Now, I can hear Brisbee and similar defenders again pointing to the 2021 regular season as to why the Giants should have doubled down in their approach. Yet, that year was marked by a group of 30-something veterans collectively having career years, aided by strategic blunders by the Dodgers.
Moreover, if you had told me at the end of that season that either Gabe Kapler or Dave Roberts would be gone in short order, I would not have envisioned that it would be Kapler who would be sacked mid-season with Roberts now hailed as a regular-season marvel on a Hall of Fame trajectory.
With the energy of Gloria Swanson telling Mr. DeMille that she is ready for her closeup, the denizens of San Francisco had themselves a moment. Moreover, there seems to be a disconnect between the (if we are being generous) optimistic portion of the Giants fanbase who longs for the signing of big flashy free agents and the realist portion of the fanbase who knows the sad truth:
The Giants were not one player away.
Would Kevin Gausman really have sparked the Giants?
Would Carlos Correa really have sparked the Giants?
Would Arson Judge Aaron Judge really have sparked the Giants?
Would Shohei Ohtani really have sparked the Giants?
Would Yoshinobu Yamamoto really have sparked the Giants?
Would Shoto Imanaga really have sparked the Giants?
Now here’s the kicker — if all of the above players said yes to the Giants, then that team would be far more formidable. Heck, Carlos Correa did say yes only to be turned away by the Giants’ medical staff.
Much like a kid who peaked in high school, instead of engaging in self-reflection and therapy when life did not go according to plan, the Giants assumed everyone else was the problem, 2021 was the norm, and they continued to double down.
Then Posey did what all ultimately desperate people do: avoid the problem through retail therapy. The Giants overpaid for Willy Adames and Justin Verlander and have paid accordingly. I was going to gloat, Michael Conforto and Tanner Scott and all, but the Boston Red Sox fumbled relations with another cornerstone player, trading Rafael Devers for a figurative song, getting the Giants off the hook in the short term.
So far, Devers left his bat in Boston with a .225/.344/.363 slash line with 31 strikeouts in 22 games.
The Thrill is not Chill
The Dodgers have had a bit of a scoring drought as of late, which merits its own breakdown elsewhere. However, with all the drama that arose in Boston with getting Devers into playing a different position, one would have expected a competent organization to avoid that topic under all circumstances.
You can see where this one is going; don’t mention the war, indeed.
Giants legend Will Clark had volunteered to work with Devers at first base. Devers blew off Clark three times during his first series with the Giants. Clark gave his usual colorful explanation when word of the story broke:
“So Matt Williams and Bob Melvin want me to go out there and work with him around first base,” said Clark. “No problem. And we weren’t gonna like go through anything physical. We’re just going to walk through and say hey look if the throw’s coming from over there stand this way, if the throw’s coming from over there, stand that way. It wasn’t gonna be this big thing. And Friday, Saturday, Sunday he did not come early. At all. Period. Not at all. In fact, he didn’t even hit on the field, right?”
“I know what the f— happened,” [Clark] continued. “I said he didn’t want to go out and be at first base and be 20 feet in front of their frickin’ dugout with what went on in Boston and now he’s working with me at first base. He didn’t want to have to go through all that bullsh— through the press and the media. And so I completely understand. But Rafael Devers, next time I’m in San Francisco, your ass will be on the field at first base. Just letting you know that.”
Naturally, when this story broke, the Boston media got wind of it and made hay of it due to justifiable smugness. If the marriage goes bad within a month, then this trade cannot be Mookie Betts, version 2.0. Naturally, Clark was having none of it.
“Will Flemming, you can go f—k off, motherf—ker,” Clark said, much to the delight of Byrnes. “You want to f—king take a conversation that we’re having and then blow it out of proportion because you’re a f—king East Coast piece of s—t reporter. F—k off.”
Clark then flipped off the camera — classy as always.
Learning on the job
As a Bay Area resident, I had to deal with the unjustified preening from fans who were convinced that Posey had built a contending roster. I saw a jalopy of an 85-win team, but I had bigger fish to fry, mostly Tokyo.
Then the Giants overachieved for about a month, until they lost their ability to score runs. Posey had built a team of grinders and had eschewed analytics, not realizing or caring that one needs both for a winning team in the long run. Posey took the blame for the Giants’ implosion.
Buster Posey just said something I have not often heard from baseball bosses during a rough stretch … “If anybody deserves any blame from the top, it should be on me. It shouldn’t be on our manager or coaching staff. I’m the one who sets the roster.”
This is leadership, folks.
— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) July 1, 2025
Building a leaky ship, watching it list, and admitting what should have been apparent from the outset is not leadership. Leadership would have been not building the leaky ship in the first place. Additionally, Giants broadcaster Dave Flemming noted that Posey attributes the struggle to the team rather than its construction.
Almost on cue, the Dodgers are letting Posey and the Giants off the hook by also forgetting how to score runs with the division lead being cut in half literally over a week.
Expect Oracle Park to be rowdy as ticket prices and enthusiasm have reached levels I have not seen in quite some time. If the Dodgers manage to continue their July snooze through this series, things will get interesting indeed.
Prices for Game 2 with a Barry Bonds bobblehead are reaching almost $200 as a minimum on the secondary market. As much fun as it would be to shoot rubber bands at that hunk of plastic, I will not be in attendance for that game.
True Blue LA will be providing bonus in-person coverage for the first-half finale, as friends wanted to go see the Dodgers while they were in town. Let us hope for an uneventful series as the Dodgers try to end the first half on a high note.