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The Giants won two straight games in Atlanta. Justin Verlander won for the first time all season. It was a happy flight back to San Francisco the night of July 23. A pivotal six-game homestand awaited in advance of the trade deadline.
It was a six-game homestand that would change the course of the Giants’ season and determine the immediate future.
The stretch began with the Giants a mere one game behind the Padres for the final wild-card spot. In retrospect, a sweep of the Mets would have put the Giants in a 57-49 tie with the Padres, giving Buster Posey the comfort to continue focusing on buying at the deadline.
The Giants’ best starters, Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, pitched the first two games. The Giants lost both. Now they were two games back of the Padres. There still seemed hope. In the series finale, Posey was interviewed as part of the Sunday Night Baseball telecast and clearly sounded optimistic. Matt Chapman homered during the interview, making it 1-1 in the fourth inning.
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Posey called the deadline a “balancing act” because of the mission to win now but also the ability to trade for players who’d help win in the future.
Asked what his focus in terms of adding at the deadline would be, Posey said, “We’re keeping our options open. You always have an eye on pitching, especially in our ballpark. Pitching and defense are going to win you a lot of games. Have an eye on the pitching market, but really just an open mindset. But at the same time, the main thing for us and our group is, we like the players that we have right now.
“We believe that we’ve got a good team. There’s a lot of baseball left to go. Haven’t really had the start that we wanted coming out of the [All-Star] break, but hopefully we can get on a roll here and put some wins together.”
The Giants lost 5-3. They got swept. They were 0-for-23 with runners in scoring position. They were three games back of the Padres, but most industry insiders — realizing Posey had already made a blockbuster trade for Rafael Devers — still were convinced the Giants would be buyers with one series remaining before the deadline, against the lowly Pirates, who had won only two road series all season and none in a sweep.
The Giants lost the opener. Prized prospect Carson Whisenhunt made his big-league debut, but his signature pitch, the changeup, wasn’t effective.
Before the second game, almost exactly 48 hours before Thursday’s 3 p.m. deadline, I interviewed Matt Chapman at his locker. He’s a team leader, the closest the Giants have to a captain. He has his finger on the pulse of the team. He still believed the front office would add key players to bolster the playoff hopes.
“We’ve been streaky,” he said. “Hot, cold, hot, cold, which is not always how you want to do it, but it has put us in position to still be within reach. We’re one hot streak away from being right back in the mix, and also we play a lot of the teams that are in front of us, and that’s got to give Buster and them hope.
“These next two games are really important, really big games. If we can take care of tonight and win a baseball game and go out there tomorrow and do the same thing, I think we put ourselves in a good chance to have Buster and them make a move or do something. Nobody in our position wants to stay put or sell. We want to feel like we’re trying to improve and make a run at this thing, because that’s what we’re all here for. And I don’t think Buster would’ve gone out and gotten Rafi if he didn’t feel the same way, right?”
That night, Heliot Ramos forgot about the infield-fly rule and ran the Giants out of a possible big rally. Tyler Rogers, Casey Schmitt, and Devers all combined to flub a possible double-play grounder to the right side, enabling the Pirates to break a 1-1 tie. The Giants lost 3-1.
Curiously, Posey was supposed to meet with beat reporters Monday or Tuesday, but each day, they were told he was consumed in meetings. Looking back, it was clear he had pivoted. He wasn’t about to let the media know. He had seen too many of these games since the break. Too little offense. Too little execution. Too little fundamentals. It was “time to go,” to use Posey’s words when he shuffled the roster in June. Except this time, it was about going somewhere no one had anticipated weeks or even days earlier. Posey said there was no “aha moment” where he went from buyer to seller. Instead, it was an “aha whole ball of wax” that prompted his 180.
This is Posey’s first year as president of baseball operations, and he has done a nice job of delegating and trusting his lieutenants. Zack Minasian, his GM, previously oversaw pro scouting, and the scouts in the field had a handle on valuing other teams’ prospects. Once the brain trust of Posey, Minasian, and assistant GM Jeremy Shelley concluded it was no longer time to find a starting pitcher or big bat, and instead start selling, everything changed.
In the early innings of Wednesday’s series finale against Pittsburgh, Rogers was hanging in the clubhouse with fellow reliever Ryan Walker. They usually walk to the bullpen together in the third inning. Rogers never made the trip. He was informed he’d been traded to the Mets.
The white flag was raised over Oracle Park. The Giants went on to lose 2-1, but it didn’t matter. There was no stopping the sell-off. Thursday, Camilo Doval was shipped to the Yankees, and Mike Yastrzemski to the Royals. The Giants landed eight players, seven of whom are prospects. They listened on other players, including Ray, but weren’t thrilled with the offers.
It was a quick and unexpected development. The Giants don’t traditionally sell at the deadline, and given where they were in the standings a few weeks earlier — tied for first place June 13 and nine games above .500 on July 11 — nobody saw this coming. But losing 12 of 14 can change a mind or three.
Had the Giants swept the six-game homestand, they would have been tied with the Padres on Friday at 60-49, and we’d probably be talking about all the big-leaguers the Giants acquired at the deadline. Instead, for the first time in 129 years, the Giants got swept in a homestand of six games or more. They’re six back of the Padres.
Now it’s time to play the kids. Luis Matos, Marco Luciano, and Grant McCray in the outfield. More Whisenhunt, Kai-Wei Teng, and Trevor McDonald on the mound. Blade Tidwell could make starts and Drew Gilbert, who also arrived in the Rogers trade, can take Yastrzemski’s place as a versatile outfielder. Even catcher Jesús Rodríguez, who was hitting .317 in Triple-A and acquired in the Doval deal, should see an opportunity only to put some heat on offensively challenged Patrick Bailey. Posey doesn’t want to call up Bryce Eldridge anytime soon because the first baseman needs more Triple-A time, but a September promotion isn’t off the table.
Manager Bob Melvin was splendid working with young players in Oakland, and he’ll be the guy to usher in this quasi-youth movement.
“I had the conversation with Bob after the Rogers trade and just said from my end, the expectation is for us to go out and play hard the rest of the way,” Posey said. “The expectation is we need to play better. I’ve said it from the beginning, there’s a brand of baseball that our fans expect, and that’s going to always be the goal.”
Posey was quick to say the Giants can contend next season. What he witnesses over the final two months will help determine the moves he makes over the winter.
As for the manager, “Yeah, we’ve got confidence in Bob and his staff. The goal [Friday night] is to go win a game in New York and just get back to playing better baseball. We’ve got a lot of games left to play.”
Fifty-three, in fact. After a horrendous stretch of bad baseball and ugly losses, the Giants can try to redeem themselves without the pressure of a playoff race. Who knows? They might make it interesting. It certainly can’t get any worse than the last homestand that forced the front office to punt on a season that once had so much promise.