World Series is a painful reminder of what could have been for SF Giants

The SF Giants can do nothing but watch as the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays square off in the World Series. Seeing the pitchers taking the mound in each game has been a painful reminder of what could have been.

The Giants are about to embark on another offseason in which they need more starting pitching. It has been a theme for several years in a row now and it is not hard to diagnose where things went wrong.

World Series shows how SF Giants have erred

The failure to bring back Kevin Gausman after the 2021 season was probably the biggest mistake of Farhan Zaidi's tenure as president of baseball operations with the Giants. Gausman had established himself as an elite arm in the rotation in San Francisco and had interest in coming back, but the Giants did not even try to sign him so he fled to Toronto.

Since leaving the Giants, he has had a collective 3.48 ERA over the last four seasons and has pitched in 31 games or more each year. The Giants have desperately needed someone consistent like that atop the rotation alongside Logan Webb.

Blake Snell is another "what-if" for the Giants. He had a masterful second half with San Francisco in 2024 but opted out of his contract and joined the hated Dodgers. His first year in LA was similar to his first year with the Giants in that he was injured and didn't pitch much in the first half and then turned things on in the second half and has been great in the playoffs even though he got roughed up in Game 1 of the World Series.

Snell is perfectly designed for the Dodgers because they can afford to pay a pitcher a ton of money who only pitches half the year, but his recent praise of Logan Webb certainly makes one wonder what a future for Snell could have looked like in San Francisco.

Finally, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was probably the one free agent the Giants felt like they had a legitimate shot at who ended up going to the Dodgers. Instead, he signed a 12-year deal with LA and just pitched a complete game in Game 2 of the World Series.

There is some alternate universe where maybe the Giants have two of these three pitchers in their rotation. Even if they just had one, there is probably a decent chance that they make the playoffs at least once over the last four seasons.

Instead, the Giants have been roughly a .500 team for four straight seasons and are looking for starting pitching yet again.