Rival executives believe that SF Giants top executive needs to make playoffs to keep job

After leading the team to just one winning season in the last five years, the pressure may be mounting for Farhan Zaidi to reach the playoffs this season. According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, rival executives believe that Zaidi is among the executives who need to make the playoffs to keep their jobs.

Rival executives believe that SF Giants top executive needs to make playoffs to keep job

Nightengale also lists A.J. Preller of the San Diego Padres and Ross Atkins of the Toronto Blue Jays who are in a similar position. We shared similar sentiments in June when we explained why it would be tough for the Giants to sell. Among those reasons is that selling is an admission that the roster is not good enough and likely a precursor to finishing with a losing record again.

Zaidi was hired in November of 2018. The Giants brought him in due in part to the desire to curb a their recent trend of having to build a roster through free agency. Not only is that a tough task, but it is a costly one. Typically, when teams sign players in free agency, the regression curve has already begun in many cases even if it is subtle.

The preferred way is to build a roster through the farm system and complement it with additions in free agency. However, the Giants have not reached that point yet. Perhaps, they are closer than they were five years ago with Heliot Ramos and Patrick Bailey establishing themselves as everyday starters.

On the pitching side, Kyle Harrison has been featured in the rotation. In recent weeks, Hayden Birdsong has received a look as well. Of course, if both Harrison and Birdsong can stick, it is a sign that the farm system is beginning to feed the rotation. Also, it helps to curb the need to sign a pitcher in free agency because even back-end starters are expensive.

With all that being said, progress has been a lot slower than many had hoped. Zaidi is in his sixth season with San Francisco and the major league team is still running in place. They currently have a 46-50 overall record, which is one of the worst records in the NL.

The good news is that the NL is on the weaker side, so all it takes is a winning streak to get back into the playoff mix. Though, this team has rarely put together a streak like that this season. Plus, the Giants have committed approximately $254.9 million against the Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) according to Cot's. That is a franchise record but the return on investment is just not acceptable.

The ownership group hoped to curb spending in free agency when they hired Zaidi and they are pretty much where they were before the hire. The big difference between how Zaidi spends and how former general manager Bobby Evans spent is that the former is not tying the team down to long-term contracts. Many of the team's contracts come off of the books within the next couple of years.

The Giants extended Zaidi in the offseason to match his contract length to that of manager Bob Melvin. The extension was unwarranted given the team's performance, but it was done to create some sense of stability within the organization.

Despite the extension, I cannot confidently say that it actually bought him more time. All it may have accomplished was to avoid having him operate in a lame-duck season.

Zaidi needs the team to do what it has not done much of during his tenure: win. If the Giants do not have a winning record, it will be the seventh time in the last eight seasons. That is just unacceptable. Zaidi was not here for those first couple of years, but if that trend continues, it could motivate change.