Giants offseason preview: Is there enough pitching depth if Snell walks? originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — The quote was a juicy one, so much so that it ended up being brought up often as the Giants fell out of the race in the second half.
“It’s been a long road to get our rotation to the place it’s in now, and we feel like we have the best rotation in baseball,” Farhan Zaidi said. “When you have starting pitching like that, it can get you on a roll.”
The former president of baseball operations made his share of mistakes, but he really shouldn’t regret that optimism. It was bold, but the Giants very easily could have lived up to that standard.
As the Giants hoped, Blake Snell was the most dominant pitcher in baseball after that post-deadline press conference. Logan Webb wasn’t always at his best this season, but he’s still the game’s most reliable innings-eater and should again finish high in Cy Young voting. At the time of Zaidi’s statement, Robbie Ray was a few days removed from a spectacular debut at Dodger Stadium during which he threw five no-hit innings against the team that would go on to win the pennant. The final two spots belonged to promising rookies Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong.
There were reasons to believe the Giants really could have the best rotation in baseball down the stretch, but the group ranked 13th with a 4.02 ERA after the trade deadline. The Giants never got on that roll, and that led to Buster Posey taking over a day after the final game of the season.
Posey knows better than just about anyone alive that a middle-of-the-pack rotation won’t work in San Francisco. The Giants have never been a draw for marquee hitters, but with Posey behind the plate, they rode strong pitching to three titles.
That’s the way at Oracle Park. As the first moves of the offseason quickly approach, here’s how the Giants are set up with their starting pitching, and what could be ahead:
On the 40-man:
Tristan Beck, Hayden Birdsong, Mason Black, Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks, Trevor McDonald, Robbie Ray, Landen Roupp, Blake Snell, Kai-Wei Teng, Logan Webb, Keaton Winn.
What Went Right
While the rotation ranked 18th overall in ERA (4.22), the group was second in the NL and fifth in the majors in FIP (3.84), which strips out a lot of the noise. The best thing that happened for the rotation in 2024 had nothing to do with stats, though.
The 2025-and-beyond Giants will benefit from the injuries and ineffectiveness that led to Birdsong, Roupp,…