The Giants 2025 season was one of the odder ones in my memory characterized by a great start, several strong player performances, some bitter disappointments and several brutal losing streaks. In the end they finished 81-81, another mediocre, middling, lukewarm performance that left both fans and upper management frustrated culminating in Bob Melvin being fired as field manager. The reasons behind this outcome have already been hashed and rehashed. I am not sure I have anything left to add to all the shouting but I did piece together a timeline which I think sheds some light.
After getting off to a hot start despite early struggles by Matt Chapman 3B and Willy Adames SS, the Giants stood at 41-29, 12 games over .500 on June 13 after Logan Webb RHP outdueled Yoshinobu Yamamoto RHP to beat the Dodgers. 12 games over .500 on June 13. Let that sink in. It was disappointing but unsurprising they lost the next two games in LA but they went 4-11 over the last 15 games of June including a stretch where they went 1-6 against the Marlins, White Sox and D'Backs.
They recovered a bit in early July and defeated the Dodgers at home on July 8 behind Logan Webb. They again lost the last two games of that series and spiraled to a 2-12 record over the rest of the month including a brutal home series sweep to the Mets and Pirates leading up to the trade deadline. At that point, Buster Posey had seen enough and sold impending free agents Tyler Rogers RHP and Mike Yastrzemski OF as well as Camilo Doval RHP for a shipload of prospects.
The Giants went 5-2 immediately after the trades but then went on a 7-game losing streak, part of a 2-11 stretch. They were now 7 games below .500 and all but out of it. Inexplicably they then went on an 11-1 stretch to get 3 games over .500 and back in the wild card race. They reached another high-water mark when they beat LA 5-1 in extra innings on Patrick Bailey's walk-off grand slam. For the third time after a series-opening win against the Dodgers they faceplanted and went 2-9 before a 4-game win streak to end the season got them back to .500.
So whatheheck happened? Bob Melvin didn't have answers which probably contributed to him losing his job. Buster Posey struggled for words at his end-of-season press conference. The beat writers keep asking questions but offer few answers. I don't think it was any one thing but a series of confounding factors. Matt Chapman went on the IL with a hand injury on June 9 and was clearly limited by the hand until late in the season. By the timeline, his loss seems to be a huge factor. I think the June 16 trade came as a shock to Rafael Devers who needed time to get settled into his new situation. While Devers eventually made a major contribution, the trade initially seemed to destabilize the team(although the dark clouds had already gathered). The team seemed to struggle with the pressure of winning. Three times they went on prolonged losing streaks after reaching high-water marks in series-opening games against the Dodgers. Is that on Bob Melvin or a part of the basic mental makeup of the core players? That's kind of a scary question and one which may reveal itself next season.
It was odd indeed. The fact that it happened several times is probably the reason that Melvin got fired, but I feel that most of the heavy lifting needs to be put on the players. I certainly appreciate the HR's and defense by Chapman and Adames, but after watching Giants baseball for 55 years it is hard to wrap my head around an average in the 220's being acceptable, expecially for the dollars involved.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information during the season, it s a lot of work but greatly appreciated once again.
I look forward to your comments doc. I became a Giants fan when they arrived in Frisco, mainly listening to them on the radio in the early years, became attached to the players and managers. I had a couple CROIX DE Candlestick evenings w/ dad. Boot camp I missed the world series with the Yankees and shortly there after, family life not so much raising my kids. Now I watch every game I can on TV in retirement and have that old connection with the players I had when I was a kid. I really enjoy seeing the old timers on TV when they come back for a day. These last few years have been hard watching. Hope we get a younger manager that can relate to all those young millionaire ballplayers. Looking forward to opening day on TV. Bob from Dixon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that. 2025 is the first season since I retired. Even when the games were boring and the losing streaks brutal, watching them and then writing up game wraps became a daily part of my life I looked forward to and enjoyed. I will very much miss them over the offseason. Fortunately there it still plenty to research and discuss until spring training.
Delete