2024 Team Previews: San Francisco Giants
Going through all 30 teams, looking back at 2023 and ahead to the 2024 season through a fantasy baseball lens.
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Giants Intro
I don’t really have a ton to say about the Giants. They have been one of the least interesting teams in the Majors for the last several seasons. There are multiple reasons for that, I suppose, but they haven’t been a great team and don’t have any kind of superstar players or anything like that. They’re also in California so all of their boring games pop off after I go to bed for the long journey of sleeping through my kids waking up five times and leaving my loving wife to take care of it (I’m a really good husband between like 6am and 10pm though I swear).
The reason we don’t get much interest in them for fantasy also has to do with the platooning. My God, the platooning!
Only three players saw 500 PAs for the Giants last year, and only four appeared in 125+ games. They had 15 players play 50+ games. Only Wilmer Flores reached 20 homers, and only Thairo Estrada stole more than five bags. Their 57 team steals were dead last in the league by far. They had just five hitters face both lefties and righties at least 200 times.
As for their off-season, it’s been really quiet. The only significant move they made is the signing of Jung Hoo Lee, who is coming over from the KBO and seems to be a moderately useful fantasy player at best, but we’ll get to that a little bit more below.
For now, let’s move onward with the most boring team preview of the year!
Hitters
Thairo Estrada
Age: 28
Pos: 2B/SS
Estrada is one of the few Giants hitters we have interest in, at least before they get into the free agent pool. He had another solid season in 2023:
530 PA, .271/.315/.416, 14 HR, 23 SB, 63 R, 49 RBI
So there’s nothing jumping off the page here but the 14 HR - 23 SB with a good batting average is certainly worthy of a roster spot in most leagues.
His strikeout rate came up to 23% from 17% but the batting average stayed high. He lifted the ball more, but he doesn’t hit the ball very hard so he’s not going to be a 20-homer guy ever.
There’s really not much upside for Estrada, and I think there’s plenty of downside. The ceiling seems to be like 15-17 homers and the 20-25 steals really isn’t moving the needle in the new league environment.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Andres Gimenez
JA Projection: 616 PA, 79 R, 19 HR, 74 RBI, 24 SB, .266/.322/.420, .742 OPS
Wilmer Flores
Age: 32
Pos: 1B/3B
Yes, things get really thin very fast for the Giants. Flores is coming off another year where he saw just 454 PA, hitting .284/.355/.509 with 23 homers and zero steals - so there’s not much to love here. Flores is just a very useful real-life hitter but he’s tough to roster for fantasy with the age, the lack of steals, and the lack of a true full-time job.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Yoan Moncada, Zach Neto
JA Projection: 526 PA, 67 R, 20 HR, 76 RBI, 0 SB, .264/.342/.450, .792 OPS
Patrick Bailey
Age: 24
Pos: C
Not a great performance in the Majors in Bailey’s first go-round:
353 PA, .233/.285/.359, .644 OPS, 7 HR, 1 SB, 28% K%
High strikeouts, low batting average, no steals, and not even a good supply of homers. That’s not exactly a formula for success! In the minors:
120 PA, .276/.358/.419, .777 OPS, 4 HR, 3 SB, 23% K%
Not very good stuff in the minors either! This guy has played very little in MiLB, so we don’t have much of a sample on him anywhere.
I’m not sure if the Giants will go into 2024 with Bailey as their starting catcher, but it doesn’t seem like the best idea at this point. I think for now it’s pretty easy just to leave him alone - get your catchers filled in before we get this low.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Zack Rogers
JA Projection: 367 PA, 41 R, 13 HR, 41 RBI, 4 SB, .262/.315/.439, .753 OPS
Michael Conforto
Age: 31
Pos: OF
He made his return to the Majors in 2023 and while he was nowhere near some of the heights we had seen from him early on in his career, he held his own enough to earn 470 plate appearances and hit 15 homers.
470 PA, .239/.334/.384, 15 HR, 4 SB, 22.6% K%, 11.3% BB%, 7.6% Brl%
That’s a .716 OPS, which is below the league average which takes him well out of the picture for standard leagues given the very low steals as well. It’s a shame what injuries did to Conforto’s career, but it is good that he made his way back enough to get himself a job back in the Majors. I don’t think we draft him for fantasy in 2024 though.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Lawrence Butler, Alex Verdugo
JA Projection: 514 PA, 59 R, 14 HR,H 63 RBI, 5 SB, .250/.350/.405, .755 OPS
Mike Yastrzemski
Age: 33
Pos: OF
Another pretty meh season for Yas
378 PA, 54 R, 15 HR, 43 RBI, 2 SB, .233/.328/.445, .773 OPS
He might be a guy that does play close to a full season if he can stay healthy, but I don’t think he’s really someone to draft. He’s a legitimate Major League hitter, but he is one of those guys where you just question why you would draft him. If you’re at that point in the draft, doesn’t it just make a lot more sense to draft someone with upside? In your standard leagues, the Yastrzemski/Conforto type is quite easy to replace in free agency during the year, so to use a draft pick on a player like that while players with a ton of upside are still available doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Comps/Rank-Arounds: Ramon Laureano
JA Projection: 486 PA, 56 R, 17 HR, 58 RBI, 3 SB, .232/.326/.419, .745 OPS
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