The San Francisco Giants are headed toward missing the playoffs for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. They haven't won a playoff series since 2016 -- if you count winning the one-game Wild Card a "series" -- and haven't been past the divisional round since 2014.
Given the stature of the franchise and the top-10 payroll, this has to be pretty disappointing. Plus, the Giants added a veteran and well-respected manager this past offseason in Bob Melvin. To be sitting right now at 71-73, 7 1/2 games out of a playoff spot likely isn't acceptable to Melvin, either.
In fact, he called this the "hardest year" he's ever had as a manager.
"My first year in Seattle was really hard because I was a first-year manager," Melvin told The Athletic. "And we won 93 games. My first year in San Diego was tough because I had come from Oakland, where I'd been for 11 years, and it was a completely different deal there. And we went to the NLCS. So you get inspired by coming to a new place. Now, here it was completely different, because this is San Francisco. This is the signature team in the Bay Area. This is everything I've dreamed of coming in here. And so for it not to go well -- and my expectation was that it would go well -- makes it probably the hardest year I've had.
"Last year was hard in San Diego because of what we accomplished the year before. But this year was more personal because it's San Francisco. So in that respect, this has been a very difficult year for me. Now, it's not over. There's still a lot to accomplish with some of the younger players and the guys that we have leading into next year. But there are nights when it's very uncomfortable for me."
The Giants weren't exactly expected to be a juggernaut or anything. The Dodgers were dealing with sky-high expectations heading into the season while the Padres again had a lot of talent and the Diamondbacks were coming off an NL pennant. Most projection systems had the Giants competing with the Diamondbacks and Padres for second place, though that obviously left fourth place in play. The gambling win totals for the three heading into the season had the D-backs at 84.5 and both the Giants and Padres at 82.5.
It looks like the Padres and Diamondbacks will hit their overs while the Giants most likely come in under. That's where the disappointment factors in, especially since finishing second in this division would mean a wild-card spot.
I have no doubt that some would love to place a lot of blame on Melvin. Doing a bad job with the bullpen is always an accusation levied at managers with disappointing teams. The Giants seem to be lacking talent more than anything, though, and that's more the front office than the manager. President of baseball operations Fahan Zaidi has been there since 2018.
The Giants enter Monday's action ranking 19th in batting average, 19th in OPS, 19th in home runs and 29th in stolen bases. On the pitching side, they are 21st in ERA and 22nd in WHIP. They are 27th in defensive efficiency.
Basically, they aren't really good at anything. Sure, there have been injuries, but every team has those to some extent. I'm inclined to put a lot more blame on the Zaidi administration than on Melvin himself, even if the manager has to shoulder some of the responsibility.
Regardless, the Giants are a mediocre baseball team for the third straight season.
