SF Giants staff ace challenges team culture after complete game victory

Shortly after recording a complete game victory in a 2-1 win against the San Diego Padres on Monday night, Logan Webb really stepped up as a leader. The SF Giants ace challenged the team culture as well as made a call for big changes.

SF Giants staff ace challenges team culture after complete game victory

The Giants were in a really good position in the first half of the season, going 49-41 before the All-Star break. By that time, they had aspirations of reaching the playoffs.

Unfortunately, that will not be happening this season. The team has slumped to a 29-38 record in the second half of the season and will finish outside of the Wild Card picture. This includes an especially brutal September in which they have struggled to an 8-15 record in the final month of the season. It will be the second straight season in which the Giants have missed the playoffs and the sixth time in the last seven seasons.

The frustrations appear to be boiling over and there are valid concerns about the clubhouse chemisty with the latest coming from Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic.

The frustrations are coming from all angles. The players are not performing, the coaching staff is seemingly not stepping up as leaders, and the front office remained idle at the trade deadline. That last detail seems to have bothered players. There is a question as to whether there was a deal to be made, but for a team that was in the playoff picture at the end of July, it feels somewhat wrong that the front office did not reward their play by attempting to bolster the roster.

And, with respect to A.J. Pollock and Mark Mathias, it might have just been better not to make a move instead of a false attempt at trying. So, here we are at the end of the season and Logan Webb is stepping up as the vocal, team leader. Following his stellar outing, Webb indicated that "big changes" need to be made as transcribed by Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area:

The accolades are nice, but Webb wants something more and he says he is "tired of losing." This is exactly what you want to hear from the ace of the rotation. He cares about winning more than he cares about individual accomplishments. The 26-year-old pitcher also concedes that "big changes" are needed to create a winning culture.

These are alarming phrases to hear, but the points do need to be made. It is certainly not a good reflection of the organization, as a whole, if Webb, one of the more tenured players on the roster, does not believe they have a winning culture. This is something that should result in an immediate conversation with team leadership.

With all that being said, it is an even worse reflection of Giants manager Gabe Kapler and his staff. After four years, if the star player does not feel like the coaching staff, who most directly interacts with the players, has not developed a winning culture, then maybe changes do need to be made. Again, this is compounded by the Giants' second-half slide.

When you see a team struggle on the field and this is followed up with questions about leadership and culture, the dots begin to connect. I do not think Kapler is fighting for his job, but the latest news seems to suggest that he very well might be on the hot seat.