The San Francisco Giants have become a notoriously tough destination for quality hitters due to their pitcher-friendly ballpark and division loaded with opponents who pitch quite well.
It’s part of a larger trend of offensive futility for the Giants.
Since 2016, only twice has the club finished a season in the top 10 in MLB in OPS, and one of those was the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.
On just three occasions have they finished in the top half of the league in team OPS. This trend reached a pivotal point the past two seasons, as San Francisco placed 25th in 2023 and 19th in 2024.
As the team struggles to produce quality offense consistently, it tracks that individual players aren’t putting together power seasons, either. But the extent to which that’s the case is fairly shocking.
Tyler Kepne of The Athletic (subscription required) went through all 30 MLB organizations and detailed a surprising statistical drought that is present for each team.
For the Giants, it’s the now infamous fact that they have not had a player hit 30 home runs in a season since Barry Bonds did it in 2024.
“The Giants just invested $182 million in a free-agent shortstop who twice enjoyed 30-homer seasons for Milwaukee,” Kepner wrote. Can he do it in the forbidding climes of San Francisco? The Giants’ home park is the majors’ stingiest for home runs, and the team’s single-season high across the past two decades is 29, by Brandon Belt in 2021. Godspeed, Willy Adames.”
Adames has crossed the 30-home run threshold twice in his career, both times as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers.
He hit 31 in 139 games in 2022, and then in 2024, he clubbed 32 in 161 games played. If he’s going to hit 30 in San Francisco, he’s going to have to put together a batted ball profile more like the one in 2022 than the one from last year.
The degree of difficulty in his 81 home games just exploded.
According to Baseball Savant, Milwaukee’s American Family Field was the sixth-most home run-friendly yard in 2024, with Oracle Park all the way down at No. 30.
The addition of Adames is a great one that will transform the team’s offense in much-needed ways, but relying upon him to be the one to snap the 30-homer drought may result in disappointment.
He can absolutely do it if he has a career-best season, but given the rarity with which he’s hit that mark in his career and the slim marigns by which he’s done so, the Giants may need to find a way to bring in an even more fearsome slugger to retire this narrative.
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