The San Francisco Giants certainly hoped for a better start to the 2023 MLB season. The Giants finished April with an 11-16 record. Only three National League teams ended the season's first month with a worse winning percentage than San Francisco.
There are signs in early May that the Giants can rebound from an ugly start. San Francisco won four games in a row before losing on May 7 and falling to 15-18. The Giants have posted separate five-game and four-game winning steaks over the last few weeks. Will San Francisco be able to put together a long stretch of winning baseball and play meaningful October baseball?
Let's take a look at two overreactions for the Giants' 2023 season.
The San Francisco Giants can't recover from a disastrous offseason
The Giants' 2022-2023 offseason was an utter disappointment. After going 81-81 and missing the playoffs, San Francisco was poised to add a superstar in free agency. First, Aaron Judge rejected the Giants after it appeared that San Francisco might've convinced the New York Yankees' star to come back home. Then, it was the Giants who turned down Carlos Correa. The star shortstop was ready to play in San Francisco until the team backed out of the contract because of concerning medical information.
Instead of Judge or Correa, the Giants settled for outfielders Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto. Both players have All-Star appearances on their resumes, but you wouldn't know it from the way they've started the 2023 season. Coforto is hititng .175/.298/.309. Haniger is better by comparison, but his .222/.256/.417 splits are underwhelming.
The Giants' offseason starting pitching additions have been even worse. Ross Stripling has begun his two-year, $25 million contract with a 6.66 ERA in 25.2 innings. Sean Manaea's 7.33 ERA is among the worst in baseball.
Is it an overreaction to call the Giants' offseason moves disastrous? The two pitchers are bound to put up better numbers. The same is probably true for Conforto, who missed all of last season. Haniger is finding his footing after starting 2023 on the injured list.
Given the expectations going into the winter and the way things seem to be going in 2023, the offseason certainly looks like it will be a massive failure for San Francisco.
The San Francisco Giants have no chance to win the NL West
Can any MLB team be ruled out of the divisional race with 80% of the regular season left to be played? Even with around 130 games remaining, a poor start can make it extremely difficult for a team to be in first place come October.
Fortunately for the Giants, the NL West hasn't played like one of the toughest divisions in baseball. If San Francisco were in the AL East, it would trail the Tampa Bay Rays by 12 games. Making up that kind of ground would be a monumental task. Instead, the Los Angeles Dodgers are only five games in front of the Giants atop the NL West. A five-game lead is nothing with five months of baseball left on the schedule.
However, the Giants' five-game deficit feels even greater. San Francisco sits in fourth place in the division. That means the Giants have to move past the Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres. There's a good chance that at least one of those teams will get hot and play like one of MLB's best teams through the end of the summer.
The Dodgers have already started to get on a roll, going 11-3 after a 10-11 start. Considering Los Angeles won 111 last season and put together a .670 winning percentage from 2019-2022, the Dodgers could easily flirt with 100 victories in 2023. The Padres have a top-three payroll and as much talent as any team in the sport. San Diego can go on a run at a moment's notice.
To say that the Giants have no chance to win the NL West would have to be considered an overreaction. But San Francisco probably had to be much better than 15-18 through 33 games to be anything more than a long shot in the division, no matter how much the top of the NL West has underperformed.
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