San Francisco Giants: Keeping up with the NL West

Los Angeles Dodgers

2018 Record: 92-71

2019 Vegas Projection: 93-69

Players in for 2019: Russell Martin, A.J Pollock, Joe Kelly

Players out for 2019: Manny Machado, Yasmani Grandal, Brian Dozier, Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Kyle Farmer, Alex Wood

So the Dodgers got rid of a ton of money, all to sign A.J. Pollock instead of Bryce Harper, and their two best corner OF’ers from 2018. Got it.

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Their pitching staff is continuing to get old, Kershaw is aging and their once strong bullpen wasn’t so strong in 2018. Granted they’ll still win 90 something games, but the Dodgers’ window is beginning to close. Maybe not this year, but a lot of these moves don’t make sense, especially if you aren’t going to go get Bryce Harper.

The Dodger’s front office is likely going to rely on Verdugo, Pollock, Pederson, and Bellinger in the outfield and that doesn’t actually scare me as much. Verdugo is still unproven, and Pederson is very hit or miss. So Bellinger and Pollock out there? Can Pollock even stay healthy?

Speaking of health, Kershaw hasn’t pitched a full season in a while, and neither has Maeda or Ryu. T

he one big plus they’ll get coming back here is Corey Seager. Seager had missed almost the entirity of 2018 thanks to his Tommy John surgery. Now he’s expeted to be back in 2019, making the departure of Machado hurt much less.

With Harper still unsigned, and a few NL West suitors in for him, it’s truly difficult to say where the Giants will stand in the middle of it. Currently I’d handicap them to be between the Padres and Diamondbacks when it’s all said and done, but that might change based on what else they have planned during their revamp. Hopefully this has kept you updated with the rest of the NL West, and now back to our regularly scheduled Giants programming.