
The San Francisco Giants have found themselves in a bit of a hole to start the 2023 season.
Though they added some key players this offseason in Mitch Haniger, Michael Conforto, Ross Stripling, and Sean Manaea, they have started off 11-17 and are in a five-game hole in the NL West.
However, they are only 4.5 games back of the third National League Wild Card spot.
And despite their tough start, there is plenty of reason for them to still be optimistic about things.
On Twitter, Giants analyst Ben Kaspick noted that the hole they’ve dug themselves is one that they can climb out of, referencing their 8-16 start to the 2020 season and a surge that put them back over the .500 mark 19 games later.
#SFGiants playoff odds, according to @fangraphs.
At 11-17, they've dug themselves a hole, but it's not one they can't climb out of.
I keep going back to 2020, when they started out 8-16 but were back over .500 (22-21) just 19 games later. That team wasn't as good as this one. pic.twitter.com/RMeVp3HTy6
— Ben Kaspick (@BenKaspick) May 2, 2023
According to FanGraphs, the Giants’ playoff odds sit at 28.5%.
Kaspick reminded fans that the 2020 team that went on a surge after a bad start did not have as much talent on its roster as this year’s team does.
The Giants won 107 games the next year and captured their first NL West title since 2012.
They fell short in 2022, finishing at .500.
This year, they haven’t played their best baseball, but the standings in the NL West and the Wild Card race will show that they aren’t out of the mix just yet, especially with so much time left in the season.
San Francisco’s lineup features Conforto, Haniger, and Joc Pederson in the middle of the order.
They also have Thairo Estrada, Mike Yastrzemski, LaMonte Wade Jr., J.D. Davis, and David Villar.
There is certainly talent on the roster, and the team isn’t facing an insurmountable deficit.
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