The San Francisco Giants played to a disappointing 80-82 record in the 2024 season under first-year manager Bob Melvin.
Just three years removed from a 107-55 2021 campaign, the talks of that season being a fluke have only gotten stronger with each passing year that the team does not come close to that record, and they have finished .500 or better only once since.
This year, the lion’s share of the struggles came within the Giants’ own division, seeing them play to a 26-26 record against divisional opponents, with 10 of those wins coming against the Colorado Rockies who finished the year with the worst record in the National League.
San Francisco received an ample amount of production from the usual suspects in their pitching staff, with Blake Snell pitching to a 3.12 ERA across 104 innings in his 20 starts, and Logan Webb carrying a 3.47 ERA across 204 2/3 innings in his 33 starts.
Jeff Young of Around the Foghorn says that the youth of the Giants’ pitching staff needs to take another step forward in 2025 for the team to become more competitive.
“Much of the improvement [for next season],” writes Young, “will likely need to come from both [Kyle] Harrison and [Hayden] Birdsong.”
Harrison made his Major League debut for San Francisco on August 22nd, 2023.
He has made 31 starts since debuting across two seasons, but a full year’s worth of starts.
Harrison has pitched to a 4.47 ERA across 159 innings in those starts with 153 strikeouts and an 88 ERA+.
Birdsong debuted for the Giants on June 26th, 2024.
He has only made 16 Major League starts since debuting, so it is still a small sample size, though it is nearly big enough to make an assessment.
Birdsong carries a 4.75 ERA across 72 innings in those 16 starts with 88 strikeouts and an 81 ERA+.
Both young pitchers look to play a big role in San Francisco’s future as pieces of their starting rotation, but they will both need to take a step forward in their development over the offseason and improve their performances to help the team return to relevancy and playoff contention.
Should both of these young arms take that needed step forward, and the team somehow convince Snell to not opt-out or sign the veteran in free agency, the improved pitching staff would go a long way to putting the team back in playoff contention.
They will still need to perform better in division play, something that does not look to be getting any easier with the Los Angeles Dodgers now in the World Series.
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