After a flashy offseason, the 2024 San Francisco Giants have yet to really hit their stride. Though they are far from buried in the National League standings, their 25-26 record has to be considered a disappointment. Any hopes of competing with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the division are basically kaput and now, they're in a dogfight with San Diego and Arizona for a potential Wild Card spot.
While many of the players on the Giants' roster have been rounding into form as of late (see: Matt Chapman, Patrick Bailey, and anyone under the age of 25), there have been a number of supposed key contributors that haven't carried their weight. Some, like Jorge Soler, are probably owed a little bit more grace before the fan base jumps down their throat, but others have essentially worn out their welcome.
This, then, is a place to air Giants fans' grievances. If any of the following four players had performed up to snuff to this point in the season, it's highly probable San Francisco would be over .500. It's still only May, but the few games these four already cost the Giants could end up being the difference at season's end between a deep October run and having to sit on the couch.
Wilmer Flores
On an awful 2023 Giants offense, Wilmer Flores was undeniably a star. He led the team with 23 homers, a .863 OPS, and 206 total bases. But now that the Giants have a lot more depth around him, it seems the roster crunch has begun to affect his performance at the plate and if the Giants were to start the playoffs tomorrow, it's likely he wouldn't be in the Game 1 lineup.
In 121 at-bats, Flores has a putrid .215/.290/.289 slash line, with his worst numbers coming against left-handed starting pitchers. Since the Giants are such a platoon-oriented team, lefty starters are the pitchers Flores needs to be dominating in order to keep his place on the totem pole. With LaMonte Wade Jr. and Matt Chapman surging of late, essentially freezing Flores out of time at the corners, he's going to be scratching and clawing for DH and pinch-hit opportunities.
Blake Snell
Patience is always a virtue when dealing with starting pitchers coming to a new team, but Giants fans can't help their frustration with Blake Snell. They had to watch the talented lefty dice up their lineup for three seasons on the San Diego Padres, only to come to San Francisco and post an 11.40 ERA in his first four starts, none of which have reached the five-inning mark.
It's still early, of course, but Snell has somehow managed to be the least valuable player on the team from a bWAR standpoint (-0.8), in spite of not being available for the majority of the season to this point. After joining the team late thanks to his late-March signing date, he dealt with an adductor strain and missed three more trips through the rotation. His paternity list stint now shouldn't cost him any starts moving forward, but he's still got a ton to prove to Giants fans, who have yet to benefit from his illustrious overall career output.
Tom Murphy
This one has to be put in context. Tom Murphy was slated to be the Giants' backup catcher this season and S.F. already has a pretty terrific starting catcher in second-year phenom Patrick Bailey. But there was one thing Tom Murphy was supposed to do and it was hit. His bat was supposedly so good the Giants were comfortable shipping former No. 2 overall pick Joey Bart to Pittsburgh for Austin Strickland, a 21-year-old pitcher in High-A.
Unfortunately, Murphy hasn't been able to hit whatsoever, putting up a .446 OPS and -0.5 bWAR before landing on the 60-day IL with a knee injury. The team is so desperate they resigned Curt Casali, an old friend who played 118 games for the Giants between 2021-22. And the real kicker is that Bart has seemingly found new life in Pittsburgh, posting a 151 OPS+ in 69 at-bats, including a revenge grand slam against the Giants on Thursday.
Austin Slater
The longest-tenured Giant at this point is somehow platoon outfielder Austin Slater, who has been around since 2017. He's seen great times, like his 2020-22 stretch where he posted a .781 OPS in 285 games. But injuries curtailed his 2023, then his performance fell off a cliff in the new season. His whole game is supposed to be hitting left-handed pitching and against lefties this season, he's 4-for-33 without an extra-base hit.
And while there's nothing wrong with respecting seniority, the Giants have far too many young players jockeying for position in the organization for Slater to keep occupying a major-league roster spot. Even with the injury to Jung Hoo Lee, they have Luis Matos, Heliot Ramos, and newly acquired Ryan McKenna fighting for at-bats with Blake Sabol, who had some nice moments in 2023, stuck all the way down in AA.
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