Three ways Giants can use September to build toward better future

Three ways Giants can use September to build toward better future originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — Last month, the Giants celebrated the 10-year anniversary of their last World Series title. For the players who were there for the first one, this season also marks 15 years since another important stretch of baseball.

The seeds of the 2010 title were planted a year earlier, when the Giants shook off four consecutive losing seasons to go 88-74 and finish third in the NL West. In the second half, as young players started to entrench themselves and a few of those one-run games started to turn their way, the Giants had a sense that something was building.

“What you saw was us starting to win close ballgames, not lose close ballgames,” Jeremy Affeldt said earlier this summer. “You saw momentum.”

The 2024 Giants would have to finish 20-4 to reach that 88-win mark. At this point, even getting to 78 wins looks like a stretch. After dropping two of three to the last-place Miami Marlins over the weekend, the Giants are two games under with their next 21 games coming against teams that are currently in a playoff position. Their easiest series the rest of the way is the final one against St. Louis, and even the Cardinals have now moved ahead of the Giants in the Wild Card race.

As they begin a three-game set against the red-hot Arizona Diamondbacks tonight, the Giants are 6 1/2 games back of the final playoff spot. According to FanGraphs, their odds of reaching the postseason have dropped to 0.4 percent.

It’s not ideal. It’s also time to start looking ahead.

The 2024 season has been massively disappointing, and at this point all the Giants can really do to impact the standings is play spoiler.

Here are three goals the Giants should have over their final 24 games as they try to better position themselves to avoid a similar fate next season …

Watch Those Innings

Ryan Walker capped his latest easy save by debuting a celebration suggested by Blake Snell. The right-hander mimicked turning on a shower and then getting under the water. It’s simple and creative: Game is over, time to hit the showers.

The appearance was Walker’s 67th, putting him one behind teammate Tyler Rogers for the NL lead. It was also his eighth since becoming the closer, and in those 10 innings he has 21 strikeouts and hasn’t allowed an earned run. The Giants have asked a lot of Walker and he seems to only be getting stronger. Asked about his heavy workload, a rival evaluator guessed recently that Walker might — like Rogers — just be one of those dudes that can handle it.

Still, the Giants should probably be more careful. There’s no reason for him to make 80 appearances in a season like this one, and as tempting as it has been in all these close games, he doesn’t need to make any more two-inning appearances. Walker has been absolutely dominant in the second half and should enter next season as the closer. It’s time to look long-term, even if he does look like he’s built for the workload.

The same holds true for Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong, but the Giants planned to cut them off at some point anyway. Harrison already is eight innings past his previous career-high for a season and Birdsong has thrown six more innings than he did last year, his first as a pro.

Teams generally like to add about 25-30 percent year over year, so it would benefit the 2025 Giants if the two 23-year-olds can get some additional innings in to prepare for next season. But manager Bob Melvin should be proactive, too, and give them opportunities to succeed. Both pitchers have things to work on down the stretch and they’ll only get better by doing that against big leaguers, but on some nights, it’s easy to pull the plug early. Harrison was dominant through four innings in his last start and then ran out of steam in the fifth and gave up five runs before he was pulled.

There are plenty of others who fit here, too. Erik Miller is at 61 appearances already and he’ll definitely be in the bullpen next year. Jordan Hicks is on the IL with right shoulder inflammation and there’s absolutely no reason to rush a guy who is 31 innings past his previous career-high and will be back in the rotation next April.

Call Up Luciano And Matos … Maybe?

There’s a caveat here, and it’s because there’s a question that only the inner circle of the front office can answer: Are Marco Luciano and Luis Matos in the future plans for the organization?

If they are, they should spend September in the big leagues

Neither was recalled when rosters expanded on Sunday, and the Giants would tell you there are good reasons for that. Matos has generally had a disappointing season in a hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and hit .185 in 32 big league games after his stirring Player of the Week run.

The staff does not view Luciano as a big league shortstop and his defense at second base is a work in progress; there has been concern about throwing him out there in the big leagues at a time when the Giants seem to play one-run games every night.

Here’s the thing, though: He’s not going to get those reps at Triple-A now that the front office decided to stick Thairo Estrada there for a month instead of releasing him. If the Giants think Luciano can be their second baseman next year, call him up and let him learn from his mistakes. It can’t really get any worse for a team that’s gotten a .602 OPS at second base this season.

Matos has had his ups and downs, but he also just posted a .303/.368/.535 slash line in August. He shouldn’t take at-bats from Heliot Ramos and Grant McCray, but there are a lot of other ones that are going to veterans who won’t be here next year.

If the Giants think they’re going to trade the 22-year-olds this winter, there’s probably some logic in not doing anything to harm their value as prospects. But if they’re going to be at Scottsdale Stadium next spring, they should be at Oracle Park this week. You only need to look at Ramos and Tyler Fitzgerald to see the value in letting a young hitter truly get an everyday shot.

Figure Out The Details

Here’s a stat that won’t make you feel any better about the current state of the franchise: Before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury, Jung Hoo Lee had a .310 on-base percentage.

To be fair, Lee seemed to be growing more comfortable with MLB pitching by the day, and the adjustment he was trying to make after coming over from the KBO was a difficult one. The Giants should rightfully feel good about what he can provide next season, but as they plan their future, they can’t be 100 percent confident that they have their leadoff hitter.

Is Fitzgerald a better choice? Who knows, but the Giants should keep gathering more info. Mike Yastrzemski has taken better swings of late, but Fitzgerald could use those reps atop the lineup and the staff should also keep putting up the green light for a player who is 16 for 19 on stolen base attempts.

The same holds true for Grant McCray, who had 52 stolen bases in the minors last year, and even Ramos. The Giants talk every offseason of getting more athletic. The next month is a good time to push their best athletes.

On the pitching side, some of the biggest offseason questions might revolve around Camilo Doval, an All-Star closer a year ago but now someone who often warms up in the sixth inning. If Walker is the closer, the Giants need to figure out what Doval is down the line.

Is Doval the setup man? Is he the guy who comes in with two runners on and tries to strike out the side? Is he a multi-inning weapon? There’s time to get a firmer grasp on his future role, and while there haven’t been a lot of save opportunities in general, it might be a good idea to give him one over the final couple of weeks to see if he can build a springboard to a better 2025.

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