How are members of the 2023 SF Giants doing on their new teams?

The SF Giants had a busy offseason, bringing in a lot of new faces - Jung-Hoo Lee, Blake Snell, Matt Chapman, Jorge Soler, Jordan Hicks, Nick Ahmed and Tom Murphy, to name a few.  Of course, the Giants entered the offseason with a handful of pending free agents and did not re-sign any of them. How has that worked out so far?

How are members of the 2023 SF Giants doing on their new teams?

All those new additions meant that quite a few familiar names were jettisoned to make way for them.  Most people will find Brandon Crawford to be the most obvious of that group, and seeing pictures of him in Cardinal red still feels like being stuck in a nightmarish alternate dimension.  Here’s a rundown of how he and his former teammates are doing with their new clubs.

1. Brandon Crawford

Undoubtedly the greatest shortstop in San Francisco’s history, Crawford’s departure from the only team he’d ever known was an emotional one.  Making it an even tougher pill to swallow was that his replacement was another glove-first veteran in Nick Ahmed.  Zaidi’s point from moving on was essentially that it would be bad optics to bench their franchise shortstop if he continued to struggle, and sadly his struggles have continued after his move to St. Louis. 

The veteran infielder has barely played, for one, appearing in only four games thanks to youthful starter Masyn Winn's hot start.  In those four games, Crawford has gone 1-13 at the plate with two walks against five punchouts.  It's looking like this might be the end of the line for Crawford.

How are members of the 2023 SF Giants doing on their new teams?

2. Joc Pederson

Pederson has looked much more like his 2022 self than his 2023 self so far in the desert.  The knock on him (aside from his limited defensive value) is that he continues to be used sparingly against same-handed pitching, garnering just three plate appearances against lefties versus 47 against RHP so far. 

The results, however, certainly have been there at the plate for him.  He’s slashing .297/.429/.514 in his first 50 plate appearances, with his 158 wRC+ even eclipsing the strong 146 number he put up in his previous career year in 2022.  The pain for Giants fans might be lessened somewhat thanks to Michael Conforto also looking good out of the gate, but this is one that could potentially come back to haunt the Giants a bit, particularly with him mashing for a different NL West contender.

3. Mitch Haniger

This is one that might make you mad (or maybe it’s just me).  Haniger was an unmitigated disaster and essentially a waste of a roster spot in his time with the Giants, but he’s back to his old ways now that he’s back with Seattle. 

His .292/.370/.477 line has been good for a 153 wRC+ that would be a career-high if he can keep it up, and this coming from a guy who slugged 39 homers back in 2021.  To further contrast his play this year with how he was as a Giant – he’s already supplied 0.6 WAR in his 18 games so far and was worth -0.6 WAR in his entire 61 games as a Giant.  He’s back where he’s more comfortable, and it’s paying off for him in a big way.

How are members of the 2023 SF Giants doing on their new teams?

4. Joey Bart

Ever since Patrick Bailey’s emergence, Bart looked like a guy who could benefit from a change of scenery, and his move to Pittsburgh looked like it was the sparkplug he had needed.  His .400 average in a limited sample along with two homers and strong defense already accounted for 0.4 WAR, which is nearly half his career tally of 0.9.  Unfortunately, a freak injury has him now dealing with concussion symptoms and sidelined for the time being, but once he recovers, he should have plenty of leeway to prove his stellar start is no fluke.

5. J.D. Davis

Displaced after the Giants’ long courtship with Matt Chapman, Davis appeared to be the only baseball-following human on Earth who was blindsided by the move.  The divorce from Davis ended up being a messy one.  He beat the Giants in an arbitration case that won him a salary of $6.9 million, but now after having released him, the Giants are only on the hook for termination pay totaling around $1.1 million of that sum. 

There were talks of that potentially being grounds for a grievance from the MLBPA, but regardless it will probably be a point of contention in the next CBA negotiations.  Davis quickly signed a lesser $2.5 million deal with the A’s, so at least his commute to work won’t be a whole lot different.  He’s received plenty of playing time at the hot corner in Oakland but is off to a slow start, hitting .196/.255/.373 in his first 55 plate appearances wearing the green and gold.  Whether or not the off-the-field distractions have affected his play, he hasn’t done a ton to convince the Giants they made a mistake quite yet.

How are members of the 2023 SF Giants doing on their new teams?

6. Alex Wood

Another former Giant who made his way across the Bay Bridge, Wood hoped that he could be a veteran presence to anchor the young A’s team and potentially be flipped to a contender after a strong first half.  Those hopes haven’t gone according to his plan, though. 

Wood was tabbed as the Opening Day starter for the A’s against the Guardians, and it went poorly to say the least.  He gave up six earned runs in his 3.1 innings, taking the loss and not providing the bulk innings that the A’s may have been hoping for.  That’s a theme that’s pretty much continued, as he has now made four starts and totaled just 16.2 innings, barely four per start, with a bloated 8.10 ERA.

7. Ross Stripling

Yet ANOTHER former Giant that the A’s took a flyer on, Stripling was a third veteran addition that they made to hopefully not suck as much as they did last year.  While he hasn’t been great so far, he has been better than Wood at least, throwing 23.2 innings of 5.32 ERA ball in his four starts. 

His strikeout and groundball rates are down from even his modest career averages in those departments, but his .397 BABIP has been much higher than his career .295 mark, and his 3.99 FIP suggests that he’s been a good deal better than his ERA and 0-4 record would suggest.