Kawakami: Gabe Kapler on the Giants' free-agent focus and more (2024)

It’s what every Giants fan has been waiting to hear for months if not years. It’s the start of a dream offseason, which could lead into a thrilling 2023 regular season and, of course, a run deep into the postseason.

The free-agent gates have just opened. The Giants should have a lot of money to spend and a high motivation to spend it. Aaron Judge and a few other star hitters are available on the market right now. This is it, folks!

So, of course, the Giants’ laser focus is on … fixing their defense? Uhh …

Well, at least that was the heavy hint from Gabe Kapler on my podcast this week, and I could anticipate the anguished screams from the Giants’ fan base in my ears even as I was listening to Kapler say it. OK, maybe Kapler was issuing a public feint intended to throw off other potential high-dollar suitors for Judge. Or maybe it was a way for Kapler and the Giants to brace themselves and their fans for the possibility of not landing Judge and underline the prospective value of adding several lower-profile players who might help just as much or more. Or maybe they want to sign Judge and several defensive-minded free agents?

At this point, everything is likely on the table. But Kapler’s tilt toward emphasizing how much an improved defense could change the Giants’ fortunes in 2023 is worth noting. Also: He’s right. The stats say that the Giants were solid/OK on offense last season: 11th in MLB in runs, 13th in OPS, 12th in home runs. They were horrendous in every way on defense: 27th in fielding percentage and dead last or close to last in most defensive metrics, including last in the Fielding Bible’s defensive runs saved metric.

“We were short in 2022 because in the middle of the season and maybe a little bit before the middle of the season, our defense was not good,” Kapler said. “And as a result, there was a real cascading effect with that defense not performing.

“What happened was our starting pitchers had to throw more pitches and record more outs. Which was a huge challenge. They were a really good group this year. And they got a lot of ground balls, and we weren’t able to convert those ground balls into outs. And then our relievers had to pitch more innings, and that’s going to be taxing for a group. And going back to what you said about six games being the difference between us and getting into the postseason (because the Phillies took the final wild-card spot with 87 wins to the Giants’ 81), you’re right. We were that close. As we were that close, that defense was the major factor.

“You could envision us improving the defense with the same style of offense, maybe a tick better with it, and the same kind of starting pitching and shoring up a thing here or there in our bullpen and being right where we need it to be.”

That does not sound like a manager getting ready to pencil Judge into his lineup next spring. Yeah, there are layers to this. I believe that Farhan Zaidi and the Giants’ ownership group absolutely will make every effort to sign Judge; if Judge wants to return to his Northern California roots, the Giants will have a great chance to bring him in. Judge would be perfect for the Giants. They’d be pretty good for him, I think.

But it’s hard to outbid the Yankees on anything, particularly a franchise hero who just broke the American League single-season home run record. So maybe the reality is that the Giants’ Plan B is also to spend money in other directions.

“We don’t have just one need, nor does any team around baseball at this point in the offseason have just one need,” Kapler said. “Players become free agents, that means you have to fill holes. You have to look at the aging curve and understand that there are going to be some players that might be as good as they were the year previously. You have to account for that.

“So I just don’t think there’s any one individual or one big need that solves all the problems. You have to be thinking about how to attack an offseason and attack free agency and player acquisitions from every possible angle and not just one.”

Again, the Giants were one bad week removed from being right there with Kapler’s former team, the Phillies, who got to the World Series and pushed the Astros to six games. Is this a sign that the Giants could be closer to playoff relevance than it occasionally seemed during the 2022 struggles?

“The answer to the question is yeah, we’re not that far away,” Kapler said. “And no team that performs really well over long stretches of time is that far away. Now there’s a lot of variability from year to year in how players perform. So you think you shore up the weaknesses and it doesn’t always work out that way. We’re going to do everything in our power to be in the postseason in 2023. We have the leadership in place to make that happen, we have the players who are hungry enough to make that happen. And we come to spring training with the talent to make that happen.”

Could the splash come at shortstop? Carlos Correa and Xander Bogaerts are both available and are both very good defensive players. Either one would be a very nice fit if the Giants can figure out how to do that with Brandon Crawford, who is still under contract for another year. Everything has to be considered.

“I think our front office, as they always do, are going to look under every stone to figure out a way to improve our defense and our offense collectively,” Kapler said. “I think we’re going to be looking at every free agent, and this is the right time for that. To be open to any possibility.”

I asked Kapler something I’ve also asked Zaidi recently: Given the declining attendance at Oracle Park and the high-profile competition in the Bay Area sports marketplace, do the Giants need to acquire a star this offseason? Not a star just for box-office power, but a star who helps the team win and draws people to the park while doing it?

“We’re all deeply invested in creating a product on the field that fans are excited to come out and support,” Kapler said. “I know that fans — and we are a part of that; we like really good, exciting stories, young players coming up from the minor leagues with high levels of talent. Kyle Harrison obviously comes to mind. (Marco) Luciano comes to mind. (Luis) Matos comes to mind. These guys are incredibly talented individuals, and if it all comes together for them, these are players that fans are going to be really excited about seeing.

“Think about guys that are already on our roster. Logan Webb stands out as a guy that I consider to be a star in the game. He’s a guy we are going to have to build around. He’s a frontline major-league starter with three ‘plus’ pitches, a great personality, a great backstory. Somebody that I think fans can and will continue to support, get behind and celebrate. We are going to look at adding exciting, athletic players that add to the roster. I think when all those things come together, that’s when fans really appreciate the opportunity to get behind their team.”

Here are other highlights from our conversation:

• With Correa and others possibly on the Giants’ shopping list, I asked Kapler if Crawford could possibly be moved off of the position in 2023, either to another position or even as a backup.

“Right now, Brandon Crawford is our shortstop,” Kapler said. “He’s demonstrated over the last couple years that he can still be a top-shelf defensive shortstop, produce big power like he did in ’21. And once he came back from his injury this past season, he was a good major-league shortstop and he was a productive major-league player. His injuries really set him back; it didn’t allow his body to move like he needed to move to be great. But once he came back, he was a great shortstop and a good major-league hitter again.”

• Kapler continues to emphasize that Joey Bart, who had major struggles early in 2022 but seemed steadier from about midseason on, still has many steps to take.

“Joey has a lot of work to do, but he really grew and developed in ’22,” Kapler said. “And part of the reason that’s important is because it indicates he has a chance to really grow and develop more. And if he grows and develops more, he does become that frontline starting catcher for our club. Nobody’s a finished product, so it doesn’t make sense to look back on ’22 and say he’s done enough in really his first full major-league season. He’s got a lot of work to do and a lot of growing and developing to do. But he’s on the right track and he definitely has a chance to be a frontline starting catcher.”

Where is Bart as a game-caller and defensive catcher? “He really grew in ’22 on that front,” Kapler said. “He made better relationships or he developed better relationships with our pitchers. I think he understood their arsenals better. He did a really nice job framing, blocking and throwing. And I’m going to continue to say this because I think it’s important for our players to hear and I think it’s important to look at it very openly, there’s still a lot of work to do on all of those fronts. And there’s still a slowing the game down that Joey got a lot better at in ’22 that he can continue to get better at.

“Sometimes it happens where you have a Buster Posey and a guy just arrives and he’s a star player. So that happens occasionally. It hasn’t happened with Joey. And I don’t think it’s fair to expect another Buster Posey. There are many catchers around the league that take their time developing into the frontline starting catchers that they become. Sometimes it happens in not a direct-line fashion. From a talent perspective, there is no question that Joey has all the necessary tools to get there. But he still has a lot of work to do and I’m going to keep saying that.”

• Closer Camilo Doval has been one of MLB’s slowest pitchers between deliveries, which means he could be specifically affected by the new pitch clock next season (15 seconds between pitches with the bases empty, 20 with a runner on base). Kapler said the Giants have already started working on quickening up Doval and others.

“This is an initiative that we started the day the season ended,” Kapler said. “We know the rule changes are coming, so we’re not going to be surprised by them. We’re not getting to spring training and starting speeding up the timing between pitches when we get to camp. That’s going to be happening throughout the offseason. We’re putting major emphasis on it. We’re going to be talking to Camilo and other pitchers, Yunior Marte falls into this category as well. … I think it’s an important piece to address in the offseason and not when games are on the line, even in spring training when these guys are trying to get ready for the season.”

• Which Giants hitter might be helped most by the elimination of extreme shifts in 2023? Mike Yastrzemski, Kapler said. “I could see Yaz really benefiting,” Kapler said. “He hits a lot of crisp on-the-barrel ground balls to the right side. Look, he’s a guy that’s been shifted and been hurt by the shift as much as anybody. “

(Photo: Brandon Vallance / Getty Images)

Tim Kawakami is Editor-in-Chief of The Athletic's Bay Area coverage. Previously, he was a columnist with the Mercury News for 17 years, and before that he covered various beats for the Los Angeles Times and the Philadelphia Daily News. Follow Tim on Twitter @timkawakami