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Latest move highlights persisent trend of poor communication from SF Giants front office

Brandon Crawford is now a St. Louis Cardinal. A fact that many SF Giants fans are still coming to grips with.

By Jacob Taylor |
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Los Angeles Dodgers v San Francisco Giants / Brandon Vallance/GettyImages
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Communication is the key to success for any organization. However, SF Giants team president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has failed to communicate effectively to players time and again. Unfortunately, two more recent examples rose to the surface recently.

Latest move highlights persisent trend of poor communication from SF Giants front office

The Kevin Gausman fiasco

Kevin Gausman left the Giants after two productive years to sign a five-year $110 million contract with Toronto during the 2021 offseason. A contract that now looks like an absolute steal as Gausman has managed season ERA totals of 3.35 and 3.16 with season WAR totals of 5.7 and 5.3 during his first two seasons in Toronto.

Gausman signing elsewhere is an issue in itself but the Giants made no effort to even discuss a new deal, outlining a lack of communication that will be prevalent as we go on. On January 23rd, 2022, Gausman tweeted, "I want to set the record straight for y’all bc there has been a lot of bs out there about this. SF never made me an offer. Simple as that. Anyone or anything that says otherwise is #FakeNews".

He also went on to state "I really wanted to come back but at the same time I understand there are a lot of things that you can't control". The fact that the Giants had a top-flight pitcher who wanted to stay in SF and no offer was made shows a lack of communication and at the very least a lack of common sense.

Latest move highlights persisent trend of poor communication from SF Giants front office

The Crawford and Correa Conniption

The debacle has two facets. The most important aspect of this piece is the communication (or lack thereof) with Brandon Crawford (the franchise leader in games played at SS) about the signing of free agent shortstop Carlos Correa.

In an interview with John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, Crawford stated this about the signing "Bottom line is my feelings in all this don’t really matter, was I a little caught off guard when I found out about the agreement? Yes, definitely".

Under no circumstances should a player who has played over a decade with one team be "caught off guard" by a signing made at his position because the front office should have been upfront about the discussions from the beginning. The lack of awareness and honesty from the current front office and previous managerial regime is startling.

The second aspect of this flub was the dissolving of the Correa contract. Correa had some justifiable concerns with his physical later confirmed by the New York Mets taking a near identical path that the Giants did.

After canceling the press conference that was intended to announce Correa, the Giants communicated to Scott Boras that they were still interested in signing Correa. After which Boras never heard from the Giants again.

According to Susan Slusser of the SF Chronicle, "Scott Boras tells me that after the Giants canceled their press conference yesterday, they indicated they still wanted to negotiate about Correa. But he didn’t hear anything more from them.

Twelve hours later, the Mets deal got worked out." The lack of a follow-up or any further communication with a guy they loved enough to give a thirteen-year contract to is such poor management it is comical.

Latest move highlights persisent trend of poor communication from SF Giants front office

The J.D. Davis Disruption

Similar to the Brandon Crawford and Carlos Correa problem, the identical situation seemed to occur during the Giants acquisition of Matt Chapman earlier this month. According to Maria Guardado of MLB.com, Davis stated “I don’t really want to put my foot in my mouth because I don’t really know what the game plan is".

She went on to add that "Davis, 30, said he had not yet spoken with the Giants’ front office as of Saturday morning, though he expected those conversations to happen later in the day." Now, Davis is not owed the same reverence as Crawford. That said, there is a lack of obvious decency and care for the players that the Giants had become during Zaidi's tenure.

Davis, who has performed well for the Giants, is and was owed a consistent line of communication about any deal that may have replaced his role on the roster. Not to mention, any deal that would replace him with the same player that replaced him in college.

Brandon Crawford's Unceremonious Exit

That brings us to the final puzzle piece. Crawford's exit from his childhood team and the only team he had ever played for. Letting Crawford leave is, once again, not the issue at hand.

Rather the way these players are being treated on their way out has been appalling. This is what the veteran shortstop had to say to The Athletic's Andrew Baggerly, “The bottom line is I was not wanted back by the one person whose (opinion) matters". He further elaborated "bottom line is I wanted to come back to the Giants. That was obviously the ideal situation for me".

Once again, letting Crawford leave is not at the heart of this issue but someone of Crawford's stature in San Francisco should never feel anything but appreciation and love for what he has given this organization.

The Giants made a lot of fans in the early 2010's by being a player-friendly organization. A destination where players were happy to go and, while knowing baseball is still a business, could take comfort that they would be treated with respect and care during their tenure by the bay.

Under Zaidi, that shining and stellar reputation has faded and dulled to the point where it has become difficult to trust this front office to communicate with and treat the players with any sort of respect. The lack of care, effort, and communication from this current regime is shambolic and needs to be fixed or replaced.

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