San Francisco Giants: New Spring Brings Hope for Odd Year
The long offseason is over, as San Francisco Giants’ pitchers and catcher will report to Spring Training with hopes of making the odd year their a good one.
Today is the day. Baseball fans have been waiting for the return of the sport since the final out in game seven of the 2016 World Series was recorded, and that day is finally here. For the San Francisco Giants, as well as 16 other teams, pitchers and catchers will report to their Spring Training facility to open another season of hope and expectations.
It’s been less than four months since that final pitch was thrown in 2016, but it felt like so much longer. Life without baseball ends today, and another new season begins. The sound of bats hitting balls, and fastball popping in catcher’s mitt will soon ring in our ears again, signifying that the long winter is over, and will stay away for another eight-plus months.
The first workout for Giants’ hurlers and backstops comes on February 14th, and 10 days later, they’ll play their first game against the Cincinnati Reds. The Giants will attempt to shake the bad feelings from the abrupt end to their season last year, and turn an odd year into a good year.
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As they do so, many familiar faces won’t be around for the Giants this year. The bullpen’s “Core Four” will officially become nothing more than a memory, as the three pieces that remained in 2016 won’t be back for 2017. Javier Lopez, Santiago Casilla, and Sergio Romo, all key parts to three World Series victories, have left, with the former choosing retirement and the latter two signing elsewhere.
This Spring Training marks the first time since 2008 that none of the fearsome foursome will be in camp for San Francisco. That was Romo’s first year in big league camp, and he made his major league debut later that year. He would soon be joined by Jeremy Affeldt (who retired following the 2015 season), then Casilla, then Lopez.
Angel Pagan and Gregor Blanco, a pair of outfielders who figured heavily into five seasons and two championship are gone as well. Blanco will attempt to, again, surprise everyone as a non-roster player, while Pagan is still a free agent but has likely seen the last of his playing time wearing the orange and black. Jake Peavy, a pivotal acquisition to the 2014 stretch run, is also on the market.
But with old friends moving on to their next endeavors, new friends will join the fold. The most prominent new face for San Francisco is Mark Melancon, their $62 million closer investment that they swayed to the Bay in December. Before he takes the mound in the cool breeze of AT&T Park, he’ll battle the humid air in Arizona in his first taste of Giants’ action.
With jobs open in the outfield, younger Giants will get their opportunities. Mac Williamson and Jarrett Parker come into this Spring Training with more on the line than ever before. They are competing for a starting job in left field, looking to be the next homegrown Giant to pay big dividends for the team. Gorkys Hernandez will try to become the next Blanco, a player with his own past troubles in the game that can work his way into the outfield rotation and the hearts of Giants’ fans.
Prospects like Christian Arroyo, Austin Slater, Tyler Beede, and Sam Coonrod will try to prove themselves alongside their older counterparts, showing that the future in San Francisco is as bright as the Arizona sun.
Jeff Samardzija brings a new curveball to camp, a pitch he began to throw late in the 2016 season with much success. Matt Moore and Will Smith report for the first time as Giants after midseason trades last year, hoping to build off successful stretch runs.
Derek Law and Hunter Strickland come to Arizona with much bigger roles awaiting them with those more familiar Giants now departed. George Kontos is now the longest-tenured pitcher in this bullpen, entering his sixth season with the Giants. Ty Blach brings the abundant momentum he gained from his brief September call-up to camp, hoping to unseat veteran Matt Cain in the rotation.
Next: 5 Giants Players Under the Microscope Entering Spring
There will be storylines a plenty to follow as Giants young and old take the field in Arizona. For now, let us rejoice as another season of the American Pasttime begins. A new Spring always brings hope, and this Giants’ team has hopes for an odd year.