Odd offseason strategy haunts SF Giants as 2025 standout hits walk-off grand slam

The SF Giants offense has been anemic to start the regular season. The team scored one run across three games as they were swept by the New York Yankees at home to begin the year. Just to make the Giants feel worse, 2025 standout Dominic Smith hit a walk-off grand slam with the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night.

Smith quadrupling San Francisco’s offensive output thus far is really just emblematic of how poorly things have gone at the plate for the Giants. It’s about as tough of a start as one could dream up, but the good news is that it’s over and the Giants can try to start the season, for real this time, on Monday against the San Diego Padres.

SF Giants offense can't do anything as Dom Smith hits grand slam

The Smith homer, while slightly annoying, was truly an amazing moment for the former Giants first baseman. Smith revealed after the game that he lost his mother to cancer a few weeks ago so for him to come up with such a huge swing of the bat is really special.

Smith was a really good Giant last year so he is going to have a lot of people in San Francisco pulling for him. The Giants brought him in after the struggles of LaMonte Wade Jr. and he stepped up in a huge way. He was the team’s most reliable hitter at times and his defense at first base was superb.

There was chatter about potentially bringing him back in the offseason, but once the Giants signed Luis Arraez that essentially shut the door on a reunion with Smith.

However, one can’t help but think that the team’s offseason strategy seems a little bit odd. The Giants signed Arraez to be their everyday second baseman which has forced Casey Schmitt to play out of position at first base with Rafael Devers dealing with a hamstring issue. Looking back, maybe the Giants should have signed Smith and he could have taken the place of Jerar Encarnacion on the roster.

It would not have been easy to make Smith fit on the roster given the Giants probably already have too many guys who can play first base, but with how solid of a player he was last year it's easy to wonder if they could have configured the roster slightly differently.

It’s too late now, though. Smith is doing cool things in Atlanta alongside Mike Yastrzemski so at least we know which National League team we can root for in the playoffs if the Giants don’t make it.