On the latest episode of “Baseball Bar-B-Cast,” Jomboy Media’s Jolly Olive joined Jordan Shusterman, and one of the topics of conversation was MLB’s most disappointing teams so far this season. The hosts dove into this subject by drafting their picks for most disappointing, with Olive selecting the San Francisco Giants — not the New York Mets — with the No. 1 pick.
“This team, unlike the Mets, can’t pivot and chalk this up as a transition year,” Olive said. “This team is locked. This is the team. … There is no way out for this team. There is only maybe two players on this team that could be sold at the deadline, even if they want to do that.”
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As Olive laid out, the Giants captured a lot of headlines in the offseason — by moving Jung Hoo Lee out of center, signing Luis Arraez to play second base and hiring manager Tony Vitello from the college ranks — but all of that has not worked.
“It has blown up in a catastrophic way, to the point where even the Giants cannot hang their hat on the fact that they are around the middle,” he said. Unlike the past four years, in which the Giants played .500 baseball, they’re 11 games under .500 at 22-33 with June approaching.
“They’re not getting pitching, even from the guys they’ve counted on in prior years. They’re not hitting at all. They’re not playing great defense, either. They don’t really seem to do anything well.”
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Much of these same criticisms could be leveled at the Mets, but as Olive pointed out, the Mets at least have the out of many players on short-term contracts, and that’s not the case in San Francisco.
“With the Giants, it’s [Rafael] Devers for a long time. … It’s [Willy] Adames for five more years. It’s [Matt] Chapman for four more years,” he said. “This is the team, and I don’t know what they do to fix this situation.”
Shusterman then noted that Arraez is, in fact, on a one-year deal, but he is one of the only things going right for the Giants, both offensively and defensively. “He’s probably the one you’re going to trade, which is kind of sad,” he said.
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“I also believed in Luis Arraez,” Shusterman continued. “… Did I think he was going to be a plus-10 OAA? No. Did I think he could play second base if he worked with Ron Washington and was healthy? Yeah, I did. And I also thought he could hit and could be helpful, but in this lineup, it’s like, who cares?”
Perhaps the biggest disappointment for Shusterman is the letdown of the first year of the Tony V. era in San Francisco. Hired from the University of Tennessee in October, Vitello represented a bold swing and an unprecedented move by the Giants.
“I wanted the Tony Vitello experiment to happen with an organization that would give him a chance to succeed,” he said. “… This doesn’t even feel like a fair representation of Tony Vitello in any sense because this roster and, frankly, a lot of the organization is not in a great place.”
To hear more of Olive’s and Shusterman’s thoughts on this season’s most disappointing teams and other MLB topics, listen to “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” wherever you get your podcasts.
