In 2021, Buster Posey and the Giants led all of baseball with an astonishing 107-55 record. It was an unbelievable year.
Oh boy, how times have changed.
Posey doesn’t play for the Giants anymore (he retired after the 2021 season). The former catcher no longer concerns himself with what pitcher he’ll face tonight or which guy in the Giants rotation he’ll catch. Nowadays, Posey has a lot more on his mind as the newly appointed president of baseball operations.
2025 will mark Posey’s first season in charge and the San Francisco legend will hope the team can steer their ship beyond the murky waters of .500 mediocrity, that have held them so stubbornly for the past three years.
2024 Retrospective
The 2024 season resulted in a disappointing 80-82 record and a 4th place finish in the NL West.
Preseason expectations were high when Blake Snell, Matt Chapman and Korean superstar Jung Hoo Lee joined the club. Unfortunately, Lee was lost for the entire year after just 37 games and Snell’s late addition meant he had next-to-no spring training and stumbled out of the gate. The two-time Cy Young winner lost half the season trying to find his groove. At least Chapman was an undisputed success story and quickly established himself as the Giants’ leader on and off the field.
As the campaign progressed and the team showed fewer signs of securing an elusive Wild Card place, the lethargy set in. The Giants limped to the finish line and missed out on a postseason place once again.
For a more in-depth recap, or if you just enjoy re-living past trauma, check out my 2024 season review.
Adames addition heralds new era in SF
San Francisco’s quest to find the heir to Brandon Crawford took many turns (remember the Carlos Correa fiasco?) but they finally landed their shortstop of the future, Willy Adames. It’s a statement signing from Posey; the Giants finally land a star player at a premium position.
The 29-year-old Adames was superb in 2024 with the Brewers, batting .251/.331/.462 (BA/OBP/SLG) with 32 home runs, 112 RBI and 21 stolen bases, all career highs. His 4.8 fWAR (per Fangraphs) helped earn him a 10th place finish in NL MVP voting and a handsome seven-year, $182 million contract from the Giants (the largest deal in franchise history). Adames slots perfectly into the left side of the infield alongside Chapman (at third base) and should be a fixture there for the rest of the decade.
Another headline-making move saw Justin Verlander join the Giants on a one-year, $15 million deal. Verlander, a three-time Cy Young winner, 2011 AL MVP, and surefire Hall-of-Famer is now 42-years-old and fans are pondering what he has left in the tank. Honestly, if the veteran pitcher can provide even a hundred competent innings this season, it will be beneficial. His mentorship and guidance to the young guys in the rotation could be worth the $15 million alone.
Notable departures from the 2024 roster include Snell and Michael Conforto, who both decided to defect to the enemy Dodgers. I hope they discover they look terrible in blue. Another move of note is the trade of reliever Taylor Rogers to the Reds, bringing an end to the Rogers twins experiment.
Is Eldridge on the edge of a 2025 debut?
Arguably the most exciting position player prospect since Posey, the eagerly awaited Giants debut of Bryce Eldridge will be a hot topic all season long.
Eldridge, San Francisco’s number one ranked prospect, is just 20-years-old but already has fans salivating about his future in the orange and black. Invited to a big-league camp for the first time this spring, the towering first baseman has made a large impression on fans and teammates alike.
Despite the buzz beginning to build about when we might see Eldridge on the 40-man roster, the Giants faithful will have to wait a little longer to see him step to the plate at Oracle Park. Eldridge’s career is still very much in it’s infancy; he spent the majority of 2024 in A-ball (where he dominated), before getting late-season opportunities at Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento.
Across 116 games and four levels of the minor-leagues (his first year as a full-time professional), Eldridge batted .292/.374/.516 with 23 home runs for an impressive .890 OPS. By all accounts Eldridge is on track for a successful career but the Giants will be cautious not to rush him to the show, even if there’s a need in the infield for Eldridge’s big bat.
That doesn’t mean we won’t see him at some point in 2025, however. If Eldridge continues to display his prodigious power, the Giants will have no choice but to call him up, be that during the middle of the summer or in September.
Until that historic day becomes reality, we will have to content ourselves with the sight of Eldridge crushing 450-foot bombs through the Arizona atmosphere.
Reasons for Optimism
- Rotation could be a huge strength: Led by the workhorse Logan Webb, the Giants rotation could be a dominant force this season. Verlander and Robbie Ray have it in them to recapture some of their Cy Young winning magic of yesteryear. Jordan Hicks showed flashes of being a very effective starting pitcher in 2024; he’ll have more stamina this year to be even better. Kyle Harrison, Hayden Birdsong and Landen Roupp round out an exciting and talented group of young hurlers.
- Jung Hoo Lee returns with something to prove: Lee captured the hearts of Giants fans in his brief stint last season, before a cruel shoulder injury cost him the entire campaign. Now fully healthy and feeling more at home in the Bay Area, Lee will be keen to show the baseball world why he was so highly sought after and why the Giants invested so much in him.
- Ryan Walker is as dominant as they come: Walker was installed as the Giants closer in early August 2024 and evolved into an unhittable monster: As the official closer, Walker pitched 19.2 innings and posted a 0.92 ERA, with 28 strikeouts and 10 saves. Hitters could only muster a measly .145 batting average against him over this span of 17 games. There’s room for even more from Walker in 2025, with a full year in the closer role ahead.
- Gold Glove defenders, everywhere: Chapman collected his fifth Gold Glove award at third base last year, establishing him as the National League’s best defender at the hot corner. Patrick Bailey took home his first Gold Glove for his supreme catching and looks set to be a repeat winner throughout his career. If Mike Yastrzemski and Adames, superb defenders in their own right, put together impressive seasons in 2025, they could soon see their names in gold as well.
- Watch Jerar Encarnación hit 30 bombs: In May 2024 the Giants picked up the 27-year-old Encarnación after he tore apart the Mexican League and the giant slugger showed serious power potential. Of the batters who saw a minimum of 400 pitches last season, Encarnación ranked fourth in average exit velocity, behind names like Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. Not bad company. Encarnación hits the ball really hard, really fast, and if things break right, the Giants might just have their first 30-homer hitter since Barry Bonds.
Season Prediction
In each of the past three years San Francisco recorded 80, 79, and 81 wins. Is it any wonder that most 2025 projections predict the Giants to finish with 81 wins again?
The Giants have been the definition of average for a while but with Posey now at the helm, there’s a newfound optimism around the club. The offseason moves have been encouraging, especially Adames, and fans hope the team can scrape together just a few more wins to vault them into Wild Card contention. Somewhere between 84-89 wins should secure them a postseason spot in the National League. That’s not an impossible goal for this group.
I predict they’ll do just that and finally get back into the postseason. A division title is beyond their reach, not with the Dodgers and Padres as they are, but a Wild Card spot is realistic. Of course, a lot needs to go right; Verlander and Ray have to stay healthy, the younger guys need to step up, and the lineup can’t afford significant slumps. If the rest of the NL takes lumps out of each other, as they often do, then the Giants could sneak in and secure their place in October.
Ash Day is the San Francisco Giants writer for Bat Flips and Nerds. Read more from him here and follow him on Instagram at @SayHey_UK
Photo credit for featured image by Suzanna Mitchell/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images.
