SF Giants: Ranking the National League West's front offices by competence

The San Francisco Giants' front office led by Farhan Zaidi has understandably been under a lot of scrutiny for the entirety of the 2023 season. While the Giants' top brass has said publicly that they are planning to try and keep Zaidi around, many outside observers thought that he was on the hot seat after a rather disappointing 2022 season.

The 2023 season is almost over now and it is hard to see what has changed when it comes to evaluating this front office. They certainly tried to sign a superstar this past offseason, but failed to close the deal with the noticeable exception of Carlos Correa which was decidedly not the Giants' fault. The Giants have contended this year for the most part, but they also failed to make any moves of note at the trade deadline. There haven't been scandals or any horrendous contracts given out, but a numbers of unforced errors have cost the Giants this season.

To gain some perspective here, it is worth looking at the Giants, front office in comparison with their peers in the division. While it is easy to justify some decisions in a vacuum, seeing how other front offices do their business and where they have found success or failure can give us a better sense of how to view the Giants organization and what changes to hope for going forward.

Here are the totally scientific NL West front office rankings based on competence

To be clear, these are not quantitative rankings whatsoever. Ranking teams by W-L or WAR or whatever has some value in this discussion, but doesn't tell the whole story. There is a lot of subjectivity and incomplete information inherent to this sort of thing as we will likely never know all the reasons why moves are or are not made. However, it is worth taking a shot anyways as a quick glance as to what the Giants are up against in the NL West.

Without further delay, let's take a look at the NL West front office rankings sorted by competence.

4. The Diamondbacks are fun, but the front office is unproven so far

This is where things get significantly tougher as the Diamondbacks are one of the 2023 season's success stories. Corbin Carroll has quickly become one of the league's best young players and while the team has fallen off after their hot start to the season, they are still firmly in the wild card mix in 2023.

However, a deeper look shows a front office that has some work to do. Despite having some exciting young players on their roster, the front office failed to add much in the way of marquee talent in free agency before the season and they failed to address their biggest area of need (starting pitcher) at the trade deadline this year when they were firmly in contention.

The draft has been another area where the Diamondbacks have been hit and miss. Obviously Carroll is great and Jordan Lawlar looks like he could be a star, but Druw Jones is off to a pretty horrendous start to his pro career and their 2020 first round pick, Bryce Jarvis, has an ERA north of 5 at Triple-A this season.

If anything, this feels like an incomplete grade for the Diamondbacks. If they are aggressive this offseason to build upon their success in 2023 and hit on another prospect or two, they could easily move up the rankings. However, if they fail to take advantage of this opportunity, they will probably stick around this spot for the foreseeable future.

3. The SF Giants' front office hasn't been able to contend consistently

The Giants find themselves in the middle of the pack when it comes to the front offices in the NL West for a number of reasons. A lack of consistency in multiple areas makes it hard to have a ton of confidence that Zaidi and co. will be able to help the Giants make the leap from "kinda sorta contender" to the class of the National League.

For starters, Zaidi has yet to make a move that has made a lasting impact on the roster, The Kevin Gausman and Carlos Rodon signings were great, but they were both short-term deals and the Giants couldn't keep either of them. Despite clearly having the green light to spend from the powers that be, Zaidi has yet to use those resources to their full effect. There have also been some less than great signings with the Alex Wood deal looking less than ideal at the moment

The trade market has been a bit more kind as the moves for Mike Yastrzemski, Thairo Estrada, and JD Davis have looked particularly good. However, those are moves for guys that are above average regulars and not the sort of aggressive moves that you would like to see from a front office that wants the team to contend in the short and long-term.

The draft has been a bit of a mixed bag for the Giants here recently. Kyle Harrison and Carson Whisenhunt look like they could be awesome, Patrick Bailey definitely is awesome, and Bryce Eldridge is oozing with upside. However the Giants haven't really produced deep draft classes in recent years and Will Bednar and Reggie Crawford look like they could be misses as first round picks.

In short, the Giants' front office has been just sort of meh since Zaidi took over. They have gotten some nice breaks and have done well with short-term deals, but they haven't been consistent enough to create a sustainable contending roster year in and year out.

2. This season has sucked, but you have to admire the San Diego Padres for going for it

This will anger some Giants fans, but you have admire how the San Diego Padres have conducted themselves over the last few seasons. Despite playing in a very competitive media market and typically not being a team that rakes in the revenue, the Padres have been among the most aggressive teams in all of baseball with the moves they have made to try and bring a World Series title to San Diego.

Sure, this season has not gone well, but a chunk of that has been some horrific luck. The Padres sport a +49 run differential in 2023 which means their expected record is 73-62 which would have put them firmly as the second wild card team in 2023. Unfortunately, they have underperformed that by a full 11 games this season and it is hard to point to a specific cause for their misfortune.

Not all of the Padres moves have worked out, but signing Manny Machado gave the Padres a perennial MVP candidate. Trading for Blake Snell looks like the rare occasion where another team got the better end of a deal with the Rays as Snell could win the Cy Young this year. Even for a guy as aggressive as Preller, the trade San Diego pulled off for Juan Soto sent shock waves across baseball.

Other than not actually winning a World Series yet, one quibble that one can have with the Padres' front office in recent years is that they have all but abandoned developing talent from within. Ethan Salas looks like he could end up as a generational talent at catcher, but San Diego has dealt from their minor league ranks very aggressively and it is pretty easy to see that when one looks at their minor league ranks. That makes making roster improvements more expensive via free agency or trades as there are few prospect options that are expected to help the big league club in the near-term.

1. The Dodgers' front office is the class of the National League West

Finally, we come to the best front office in the National League West and it sadly is the Los Angeles Dodgers. Even with some high profile misses including the debacle that was Trevor Bauer, the Dodgers' front office is loaded with resources every single year and is led by smart people that know how to use them.

Even after being mostly quiet last offseason in order to get their payroll ready for their inevitable pursuit of Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers have been players for a slew of high profile free agents and trade targets. They traded for Mookie Betts and promptly signed him to a mega extension. They signed Freddie Freeman when everyone thought there was no way he would leave the Braves. Trea Turner and Manny Machado are other examples of aggressive moves the front office made to push the team over the top.

However, it more than the ability to throw money and prospects around. The Dodgers have been annoyingly good at producing homegrown talent. Will Smith is one of the better catchers in baseball. Brusdar Graterol and that fastball of his is one of the most intimidating closers in the game. Max Muncy, James Outman, and Bobby Miller are all success stories from the Dodgers' minor league ranks and that doesn't include earlier hits like Julio Urias, Corey Seager, and Clayton Kershaw that this front office doesn't get the credit for.

Despite being contenders every single year which is an accomplishment in itself, the Dodgers also continue to add young talent to their minor league pipeline despite drafting as low as they do thanks to excellent scouting and remaining aggressive on the international market. Even now, they have two of the better catching prospects in all of baseball in Dalton Rushing and Diego Cartaya, Michael Busch continues to mash at Triple-A, and Gavin Stone remains a really high upside arm with that changeup of his despite a rough 2023 season.

Aggressive, opportunistic, resource heavy and not afraid to use them, calculated, and smart. As much as it probably pains Giants fans to admit, but the Dodgers have the best front office in the division and it probably isn't close.

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