Bobby Evans Was Bad for the San Francisco Giants

2014-2015

Bobby Evans stepped in as General Manager in the 2014 offseason coming off the San Francisco Giants third World Series title in five years. With 20 years in the Giants organization, Evans was Sabean’s heir apparent. He had pretty big shoes to fill, but his main objective was to keep winning rings.

Despite three championship runs in the previous five seasons, Bobby Evans did not inherit a perfect situation. The biggest problems Evans faced were the 22nd ranked farm system and many of his core players were all entering or in arbitration years.

Bobby Evans didn’t waste much time and went to work making mistakes from the very beginning. He went out and signed a few minor leaguers with some major league experience in order to add depth to the 40-man roster and have Triple-A/organizational/emergency call-up pieces. Then he made his first mistake.

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Dec 20 2014- The Giants traded Luis Castillo and Kendry Flores to the Miami Marlins for Casey McGehee

I’m willing to give Bobby Evans the benefit of the doubt here and say that this deal was only bad in hindsight. Luis Castillo and Kendry Flores were never top 30 prospects at any point in their minor league careers, but Casey McGehee was really bad. On top of that, Casey McGehee was never that good. Bobby Evans had to find an everyday third baseman to replace Pablo Sandoval who left due to free agency, but McGehee was not the answer and Matt Duffy seemed to be a suitable replacement.

This trade was symptomatic of the Bobby Evans regime. He traded away organizational depth for pieces he perceived would get the Giants over the hump. Inevitably, these moves didn’t work out, but many times they also blocked younger players from getting important playing time.

Furthermore, it was also poor talent evaluation on both ends. Luis Castillo was not a highly touted prospect, but performed well at every level of the minor leagues and today is projected to be a mid-rotation arm for the Cincinnati Reds. Casey McGehee was coming off what some thought was a bounce back season in Miami, but skeptics would call that “bounce back season” a fluke. Turns out that it was a fluke.

Although this wasn’t a great deal, it didn’t hamstring the Giants and they went into the 2015 season in pretty good shape. The Giants had a solid 2015 campaign, but as the 2015 season passed its halfway point, they found themselves losing ground in the NL Wild Card race and after a solid July they decided to make a move to bolster their strong rotation and make a push for the wildcard.

July 30 2015– The Giants trade Adam Duvall and Keury Mella for Mike Leake

I liked this trade. The Giants did have to trade some good prospects for a rental, but Leake was having a great season and the Giants rotation needed some help. Mike Leake got to San Francisco and instead of pitching great, he pitched okay and instead of going to the playoffs the Giants did not.

Once again the Giants traded a couple of players that in this case were more than organizational depth pieces for another player that couldn’t get them over the hump. Adam Duvall has since been an all-star who pretty much only hits home runs and Keury Mella is currently the Reds 11th best prospect according to MLB.com. Also, Matt Duffy ended up overtaking McGehee at third base and McGehee was eventually released.

Another interesting note is early in the season the Giants released Jonathan Loaisiga who is currently the Yankees No. 2 prospect.

2015-2016 

The San Francisco Giants entered the 2016 season with the 20th ranked farm system thanks to a pretty decent 2015 draft, and a willingness to increase payroll. They were ready to spend and they needed to address their starting rotation and their outfield depth. Sound familiar?

Then as the market started to play out, they quickly learned that free agent hitters had no interest in coming to San Francisco and if they were to acquire free agent hitters, they’d have to grossly overpay.

Instead, Bobby Evans decided to assemble a shutdown rotation. So he went out and signed Jeff Samardzija to a 5 year $90 million contract with a limited no trade clause (8 teams per year). Whoops!

I think some Giants fans were fine with signing Samardzija, but it seemed like a high price to pay and a lot of years for someone coming off of his worst professional season. It wasn’t only his worst, but it was a league worst. Evans was hoping and probably praying that Samardzija’s 2015 season was an anomaly and he would regain form in 2016 and make Evans look like a genius.

Then Bobby Evans added another huge rotation piece by signing Johnny Cueto to a 6 year $130 million contract with an AAV of $21.6 million through his age 36 season. I don’t remember the Cueto signing being particularly divisive, but I do remember some skepticism from people worried that Cueto was entering the back-end of his career and was shaky after Kansas City acquired him in the middle of the 2015 season. However, Cueto was still a great number 2 behind Bumgarner and with Matt Cain returning from an injury plagued 2015 season the rotation was looking pretty good.

They also signed Denard Span, which was fine. Who cares?

The 2016 season started great for the Giants Johnny Cueto was dominant and Jeff Samardzija pitched okay, not 5 years $90 million okay, but he pitched above average (105 ERA+/3.44 DRA/76.1 DRA-). Then after the all-star break the Giants season took a nose dive. Injuries hit the Giants and exposed their lack of depth. Matt Duffy was nagged with an achilles strain and Matt Cain continued to have arm problems. They needed to fortify their offense and solidify the back-end of their rotation. They were able to manuever and hold enough ground to snag a wild card spot and go to the playoffs. Thanks to Conner Gillaspie and Madison Bumgarner, the Giants were able to sneak past the defending National League champion new York Mets and onto the Divisional round.

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Three days before the July 31 trade deadline, Bobby Evans traded Adalberto Mejia for Eduardo Nunez. This was probably the most fair trade of Bobby Evans tenure. Nunez was a solid contributor turning in a .9 bWAR after becoming a Giant.

Then Bobby Evans struck again trading Matt Duffy with prospects Lucius Fox and Michael Santos to the Rays for Matt Moore.

Matt Moore is one of the more scrutinized Giants acquisitions because the Giants traded a beloved young player and his fat cat in the combination of Matt Duffy and Skeeter along with their MLB.com number 4 prospect Lucius Fox. Matt Moore pitched admirably in 2016 for the Giants (99 ERA+/3.86 DRA/85.4 DRA-), but he really stepped up in his game 4 NLDS start holding the eventual World Series champion Chicago Cubs to 2 runs over 8 innings before the bullpen let him down.

The man who was the losing pitcher of record that game was another deadline acquisition in Will Smith who was acquired for Andrew Susac and their number 3 MLB.com prospect Phil Bickford.

Yet another string of trades involving prospects or organizational pieces going out in exchange for players who can’t get the Giants over the hump. Although it was a disappointing end to the season, there was reason to be optimistic about Moore and the Giants heading into the 2017 season.

2016-2017

The Giants went into the 2017 season with pretty much the same roster that they ended the 2016 season with and despite trading away numerous prospects, they still managed to keep a core of young prospects that collectively were ranked the 17th best farm system or the 13th worst farm system depending on who you talk to.

They had a relatively quiet offseason, but they had a glaring issue following their NLDS loss to the Cubs. They needed to address their bullpen. Bobby Evans did what he tends to do. He threw money at it. Not only did he throw money at pitchers, but he gave them whatever they wanted. Lots of money? Sure. Too many years? Heck yeah! No trade clause? Team option? I’ll do you one better. Player option! And just like that, the Giants signed Mark Melancon to a 4 year $62 million deal with a full no trade clause, and a player option signing him from ages 32-36 at an AAV of $15. It was the final cloud forming to create the perfect storm.

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The 2017 season was a disaster from the start. Will Smith went down in spring training and needed to get Tommy John surgery. Mark Melancon was bad and then got hurt, Jarrett Parker broke his collarbone, Jeff Samardzija was bad, Matt Moore was really bad, Madison Bumgarner fell off a dang ATV, Brandon Belt got hurt, Joe Panik got hurt, and Matt Cain had reached the end of the line.

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. All of the trades Bobby Evans made ate away at the organizational depth, and once the injuries started to hit, there weren’t many major league ready prospects to fill in the holes. Even worse, the prospects they did have that may have been major league ready were blocked by healthy everyday players.

A lot of Bobby Evans minor league acquisitions were players who had brief stints in the majors, but offered no real upside. In other words, the back-end of the 40-man roster was filled with low-floor/low-ceiling non prospects. His transaction record was a real “who’s who” of former highly regarded prospects and 1 tool players that would never really be impact players in the majors.

The 2017 season was a lost season, but on the bright side the Giants had the offseason to get healthy and they still had their championship core in place despite the fact that they were getting older and had a lot of deep playoff runs adding miles to their bodies.

2017-2018

The 2018 season was a make or break season for Bobby Evans. Bobby Evans broke.

People were wondering if the Giants were going to start to rebuild and sell off their tradable commodities for young prospects to help replenish their minor league system. It seemed like that was what they might do when they ended up trading Eduardo Nunez to the Red Sox for Shaun Anderson (Giants current number 3 prospect) before the 2017 trade deadline.  Instead, Bobby Evans decided to push all of his chips on the table. This was not a good idea.

Dec 20 2017- The Giants trade Christian Arroyo (MLB.com No. 1 prospect), Matt Krook (No. 20 prospect) Stephen Woods, and Denard Span to the Rays for Evan Longoria.

The Giants needed a third baseman after trading Nunez and Christian Arroyo didn’t seem ready to step in and take on the everyday duties. Although Longoria was coming off one of the worst seasons of his career in a lot of respects (3rd lowest BA., 2nd worst ISO slugging of career, career low wRC+, career low OBP, career high GB%), he was still an upgrade at third, but was not the offensive force he once was.

Jan 15 2018- The Giants trade Kyle Crick and Bryan Reynolds (No. 4 prospect) for Andrew McCutchen.

This was another upgrade in a position of need, but McCutchen was yet another aging veteran who seemed to be on the wrong side of his prime. McCutchen was coming off of a great season by all metrics, but two questions loomed large over that offseason. 1) Were McCutchen and Longoria going to be good enough to make the Giants a World Series team? 2) Were these players worth the prospect capital?

I just want to say this; I love Kyle Crick and Bryan Reynolds. Kyle Crick was great in his debut in 2017 and was excellent in 2018. He’s turning out to be a great late inning option and might even be the Pittsburgh Pirates closer if it weren’t for Felipe Rivero. Bryan Reynolds, much like Luis Castillo is a guy who has performed well at every level. His hit tool is undervalued and I think he’s going to be a solid big leaguer soon.

Finally, they signed Austin Jackson to “solidify” their outfield and the Giants were set for the 2018 season.

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The fans were split on the Giants offseason. Many fans liked the moves and thought these moves put them back in contention for a title or at least an NL West crown. Then there were people like me, who weren’t convinced that these players put the Giants back into the National League’s elite.

Personally, I thought the Giants would be better suited to hang on to their young players and let them play. If they weren’t going to have a good 2018, I wanted them to have a productive 2018. Instead the Giants went all in. I didn’t like it, but I accepted it.

To me, the Giants 2017/2018 offseason was a lot like the Fyre Fest. There were some big names attached to it and it seemed like it was the real deal, but as things started to play out, you quickly saw that there was no way this would work out as advertised.

Did I just watch both Fyre Fest documentaries consecutively? Maybe.

The 2018 season was weird. Madison Bumgarner broke the pinkie on his throwing hand in spring training, but the Giants treaded water without their ace. The Giants were 26-30 entering June and were playing as “okay” as their record would indicate. Then in June Madison Bumgarner returned and for the first time all year the Giants had all of their roster at full strength. Then Evan Longoria broke his hand the next day. Then their closer Hunter Strickland also broke his hand by punching a door after blowing a save against the Marlins.

Despite the new injuries they went 18-10 in June, pushing their record to 44-40 and went into July just 3.5 games out of first place in the NL West. The Giants were at a crossroads. They were in no position to be buyers at the trade deadline because they had very little prospect capital remaining and the prospects that garnered the most trade value were kept off-limits. They also weren’t in a position to sell either, as they were still in the playoff picture.

Although the Giants were still in the hunt, most people (me) thought they had a nice run, but they should probably just pack it in and get rid of any assets they had and focus on getting young players more reps. But they kept going for it. The finished July at 55-54 and hadn’t traded anyone. What were they doing?

Then August rolled around and the injuries started to pile up as the Giants slipped further out of the playoff picture. The Giants couldn’t keep up with the pack and their playoff window started to close.

Evan Longoria went on to have the worst season of his career (Lowest BA., 4th worst ISO slugging, lowest wRC+, lowest OBP, lowest walk %, 2nd highest GB%, 0.4 fWAR). McCutchen like Longoria, also had the worst season of his career (career low slash line, lowest ISO slugging, second lowest wRC+, lowest fWAR, 2nd worst DRS), but McCutchen still played well above replacement level. He did not return to greatness. They waited until the very end, but finally traded Andrew McCutchen to the Yankees for Abiatal Avelino and Juan De Paula.

They were throwing in the towel and then they plummeted going 5-21 in September to close out the season. The same issues that hampered the 2017 season rang true again in 2018. The lack of organizational depth couldn’t keep them competitive and they were exposed once again. The 2018 Giants were not for real. They were sheep in wolves clothing.

Conclusion

Following the 2018 season, Bobby Evans was out as the Giants General Manager. In his four years as General Manager he took a defending World Series champion and turned them into one of the worst teams in baseball with a bleak future.

That doesn’t just apply to the major league roster, that applies to the rest of the organization. The Giants currently have the 4th worst farm system in baseball and many of their top prospects are just teenagers who are many years away from becoming major league contributors.

How bad is the Giants farm system? I’ll put it this way: Farhan Zaidi selected Michael Gerber off waivers from the Detroit Tigers, and selected Drew Ferguson and Travis Bergen in the Rule 5 draft. All three of those players immediately were placed in the Giants top 30 prospects. In other words, the cast-offs from other organizations minor league systems are near the top of the Giants minor league system.

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However, there is a lot to learn from Bobby Evans and in a lot of ways Bobby Evans is a victim of Giants ownership and the fan base’s lust for championships. It is unfortunate, but Bobby Evans and GMs like him are the reason for why the past two off-seasons have been so slow. All of his incredibly player friendly contracts stick out like sore thumbs when examining how a team can fall so far so fast. Furthermore, the blame doesn’t fall squarely on Bobby’ Evans shoulders. His scouting and analytics staff let him down in a major way, but in the end Bobby Evans was the face of the front office.

It’s more than likely that the pressure to win forced Bobby Evans to overextend himself and make moves that he thought would help the team win in the short-term without thinking about the long view of the team or the larger scope of the entire organization.

The pressure to win forced Bobby Evans to continually dip into their farm system in order to obtain players that he thought would help the Giants return to championship form. He did it time and time again, and too many times he was wrong.

Bobby Evans legacy now is not only tied to the current structure of the organization, but will be defined by the careers of Evan Longoria, Kyle Crick, Luis Castillo, Bryan Reynolds, Abiatal Avelino, and Juan DePaula. In his defense, Bobby Evans didn’t really get “burned” on any of these trades (yet), but they did not return the value he anticipated. Perhaps Juan DePaula is the real deal and becomes the Giants ace for years to come. Will that absolve Bobby Evans of the mess he created in his tenure as Giants GM? Obviously, time will tell.

Farhan Zaidi has his work cut out for him. In addition to the bad farm system, he’s also inherited a lot of bad contracts, many of which have no trade protections making them even harder to move. Farhan Zaid is a very smart man and has cleaned up messes before. Perhaps he will bring in Marie Kondo as his GM to help him Tidy Up, so the Giants can “spark joy” in its fan base again sometime soon. I should probably stop watching Netflix and go outside.