Are we going to see a noticeable difference in SF Giants lineups in 2025?

This offseason has stirred up a lot of debate who has, and who will, write the lineups for the SF Giants. Buster Posey put this debate to bed going forward by affirming that manager Bob Melvin will have the final say. Will we see an appreciable difference?

This whole controversy over who was writing the lineups for the Giants the last few years really began when Giants legend Will Clark said that the previous president of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, was dictating lineups to Giants managers from Bruce Bochy to Gabe Kapler to Bob Melvin.

Now, it seems like a little bit of a stretch to say that Zaidi would march down into the clubhouse every day and nail the lineup into the manager's door like Martin Luther's 95 Theses, but it is not at all far-fetched to say that the front office probably played an active role in lineup construction.

SF Giants manager Bob Melvin has final say on lineups

I think the main difference is going to be that the front office under Zaidi would probably very strongly suggest that certain players should be in the lineup and bat at a certain spot in the order, whereas the front office under Posey may be more casual in its suggestions and ultimately defer to Melvin's judgment more often than not.

Posey said as much on KNBR, noting, "I want my manager that’s using his years and years of experience to write the lineup." Posey also noted that analytics are still going to be part of the process which is totally fair. Teams should use all of the information available to them, but they should not be a prisoner to them.

Chances are we are not going to see a huge difference in how the lineups look next season. I don't think Melvin is going to be batting Patrick Bailey leadoff because of a dream he had the night before or anything like that.

But perhaps he will be more willing to ride the hot hand than last season. Just as a hypothetical, let's say the Giants opt for a platoon at second base with the right-handed hitting Casey Schmitt and left-handed hitting Brett Wisely. Say Schmitt starts the game because they are going against a left-handed starter, but is going to face a right-handed reliever later in the game. Perhaps in 2024 that is an automatic situation where Melvin would pinch hit with Wisely but in 2025 Melvin can tell that Schmitt is seeing the ball well that night even if his numbers against right-handed pitching are not as good as Wisely's so he leaves Schmitt in to face the righty.

Melvin spoke about this dynamic with Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic late in the 2024 season and had this to say on that push and pull between analytics and your gut: "If there’s a move that all the numbers say is the right thing to do, but your gut is telling you, 'Maybe not today,' and you still make that (analytics-driven) move, that’s when you really kick yourself later."

Expect to see Melvin manage more with his gut in 2025. With Posey now in charge, I expect Melvin to feel like he has more freedom to make moves based on his eyes and his gut and may not be as beholden to Zaidi's analytical approach like he was in 2024.