San Francisco Giants: The Biggest Difference Between This Year and Last Year’s Teams

The biggest difference between the 2017 San Francisco Giants and the 2018 team is the emergence of so many players they’ve needed to step up.

The San Francisco Giants have reached the true halfway point of their season. With 81 games in the books, they sit at 42-39 and are still well within reach of a postseason, 4.5 games back of the division and two games behind a wildcard spot.

At the same point last year, they were dead and buried, festering with the stench that comes with playing bad baseball on a daily basis. After 81 games in 2017, the Giants sat 21 games under .500 at 30-51, and were 22.5 games behind the division leaders.

The Giants front office worked hard this past offseason to upgrade their squad, retooling for another run at the postseason. They upgraded in a number of areas, and overall put together a better team than they one they ended the year with last year.

The biggest difference, however, wasn’t the big name acquisitions, although those have certainly played a role in getting the team to where they are now. The major difference from this season to last has been the emergence of a number of players who have burst onto the scene and become major contributors.

Many of the same issues that plagued the Giants in 2017 have returned in 2018. They have dealt with, and are still dealing with, a number of major injuries that have shuttled big name players back and forth from the disabled list. Some of their key players aren’t having the season the team was expecting. This year, though, they’ve been able to cover for those pitfalls.

Last season, only a few players were able to come up and make big impacts. Austin Slater, Kyle Crick, and Chris Stratton were really the only guys who were given opportunities because of the various injuries and underperformances and were able to run with them. But even those youngsters didn’t start producing until it was too late for the team. Slater didn’t debut until June 2nd, and Crick followed a few weeks later on June 22nd. Stratton’s big breakout didn’t begin until the middle of August.

More from Golden Gate Sports

• Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
• 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
• Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
• 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
• 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve

This year, the Giants have had those kinds of surprises all over the field, and they’ve come at just the right time.

Alen Hanson was a minor league free agent with just about no big league success before this season, but has erupted to be one of the best surprises in the league while playing all over the diamond.

Dereck Rodriguez (another minor league signing) and Andrew Suarez have both held down spots in the rotation just a few weeks into their big league careers. Rodriguez’s emergence is particularly impressive, given how new he is to pitching and that he’d never played above Double-A before this season.

Reyes Moronta only made the opening day roster because of a glut of injuries to the pitching staff, but has become one of the most reliable arms coming out of what has been a very steady bullpen.

Gorkys Hernandez has been a journeyman, but when Austin Jackson struggled mightily on both sides of the ball in his first few months as a Giant, he was the one to step in and claim the everyday center fielder job. He’s already hit 10 home runs this year, a number he had never reached in his pro career (majors or minors), and is playing solid defense at a position where the Giants haven’t gotten solid defense in a long time. Hernandez is the epitome of breakout player.

And even players who had already established themselves are playing some of the best baseball they’ve ever played. Brandon Belt was making a case for MVP before his appendix put him on the disabled list, but has been a bit cold since returning. Still, his defense and the threat of his bat are welcome returns to the team.

Of course, there’s Brandon Crawford. The Giants’ shortstop, already once an All-Star and three times a Gold Glover, is having the best year of his career at the plate, and is also making a serious case to be in the running for the league’s Most Valuable Player.

Maybe the most surprising contributor the Giants have had this year is Pablo Sandoval Once a stalwart in the middle of the Giants’ lineup, he fell on hard times and was terrible in two-and-a-half season with the Red Sox. This year, he’s been healthy and hitting, filling in at both corner positions (plus second base and on the mound) while the Giants have been missing their usual starters. His 107 wRC+ this year puts him on pace to have his first above average season since 2014, the last in his first stint as a Giant.

Then there’s Derek Holland, who’s gone from non-roster invitee, to maybe seventh pitcher on the depth chart, to the team’s consistent starting pitcher in the absence of their top three. Will Smith has returned from Tommy John Surgery and become a dangerous weapon out of the bullpen.

Next: Giants to Encounter Good Problem

That type of production has been just what the Giants needed this year, and it’s a large part of why the Giants are still in the race halfway through a season following a 98-loss campaign. While last year’s Giants were an exercise in Murphy’s Law, this year’s have been an exercise in “next man up”. They’ve got 81 games left to go, and all these breakout players will need to keep producing to keep the good momentum flowing.