The Giants were a much more entertaining team last season. Much of that was due to a surprisingly productive offense that finally figured out how to score runs in the ballpark at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. Much of it was due to resurgences from old standbys like Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford. Mostly, it was because they remained in contention for the postseason until the final day of the regular season.
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And that’s because of a change that they did not control: the expanded postseason.
It was the playoff expansion that allowed the Giants to remain compelling to the end of last year’s pandemic-shortened, 60-game season. There was also the novelty of a designated hitter, which wasn’t nearly as onerous in practice as it might have seemed in concept. While the DH wasn’t a highly productive spot for the Giants (their .181 average was third worst in the majors and their .596 OPS was fourth worst), it allowed manager Gabe Kapler the lineup flexibility to keep all his complementary hitters involved and sharp.
Maybe you liked the changes. Maybe you didn’t. For the Giants, anyway, they appeared to be a win-win.
So why are the players not agreeing to carry those changes over into 2021?
Take it away, Giants union rep Austin Slater:
“As soon as the players decide, ‘Hey, (the DH) is a good thing for baseball,’ the league is like, ‘No, no, no, we’ll only do it now if you let us expand the playoffs,'” he said. “That just didn’t feel like a fair trade. They’re offering expanded playoffs and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue (they would generate) just for a DH.”
It doesn’t matter whether it benefits both sides or makes the game better. A bargaining chip is a bargaining chip. And with the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire after this season, both the league and the union are operating with heels dug especially deep in the sand.
The other major issue for players with expanded playoffs: they have no clear notion of how much they will benefit from them or whether they will receive what they judge to be a fair slice of the revenue pie.
“We’re still trying to figure out how the breakdown is, the split, not only with revenue … but also how it affects competition,” Slater said. “Does it create disincentives for teams at the top from spending? Does it incentivize teams in the middle to spend more? These are things the union is trying to figure out. But as it was presented right now, it was ‘DH for expanded playoffs,’ which in the players’ union’s mind, is not a fair trade.”
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The stalemate is unfortunate for a team like the Giants, who might be the club most negatively impacted if the postseason returns to a five-team format with three division winners and two wild cards in each league. Such is life in the NL West, where the Dodgers and Padres are both forecasted to win 95-plus games.
Forget the Dodgers signing Trevor Bauer or the Padres trading for Blake Snell and Yu Darvish. The return to a standard playoff system will do more to hamper the Giants’ playoff aspirations than any blockbuster trade or signing over winter. In a sense, you could argue that Slater, in supporting the union’s position, is voting against his self-interest. In the short term, anyway.
That goes for the DH, too. No Giants player benefited more from the ability to stay in the lineup as the designated hitter last season than Slater, whose strained flexor in his right elbow prevented him from making throws from the outfield. The elbow injury along with a strained groin derailed what might have been a breakout year: Slater not only hit .347/.458/.653 in his first 19 games, but his four home runs and six stolen bases conjured visions of a future 30/30 season — a statistical benchmark no Giant has reached since Barry Bonds in 1997.
“When we first started camp (last year), we saw him as a platoon bat for us and he was so good that we continued to give him opportunities against right-handed pitching,” Kapler said. “They were great at-bats. They didn’t always end with something great happening, but often times he worked good at-bats and looked dangerous against righties.”
Slater missed two weeks and wasn’t as productive upon his return — he hit .188 over his final 12 games — but at least the ability to DH prevented the strained elbow from being a season-ending injury.
The elbow rehab was stubborn at times over the winter, and when Slater hit a plateau, he opted for a platelet-rich plasma injection that required him to take six weeks off and start all over again. But he said the injection appears to have done the trick and he is throwing without pain this spring.
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The Giants will try to keep him healthy by asking less of him in the field. He won’t be asked to take grounders at first base or the middle infield.
“I’ve been pretty consistent that we want to create as many options and as much versatility as possible,” Kapler said. “But we’ve already made the decision … that he’s going to be an outfielder for us.”
That includes time in center field, where the Giants have Steven Duggar, converted infielder Mauricio Dubón and a bunch of candidates who are better suited to a corner: Mike Yastrzemski, Jaylin Davis, Lamonte Wade Jr. and Luis Alexander Basabe.
“I’ve played center field in the past so it’s not completely foreign to me,” Slater said. “Of all the positions, center might be one of the easiest to pick up. You don’t deal with the slice or different angles off the bat. You’re pretty much straight on. But it means you’ve got to be better with your routes and breaks.”
Keeping up to date on the zigs and zags of labor negotiations is part of Slater’s daily duties as well. It’s been a heck of a time for the Stanford alum to serve as the team’s union rep: keeping up to speed on the reams and reams of COVID-19 protocols, monitoring the constantly evolving talks that shaped last year’s impromptu season and getting updated on the looming CBA discussions.
The Giants held their annual spring meeting with the union earlier in the week — over Zoom and not in the clubhouse, where it typically would be held — and most of their time was spent laying the groundwork for what players will prioritize in CBA discussions. Slater said that Giants players are talking about the comments made by ousted Seattle CEO Kevin Mather, who acknowledged in a meeting with a local Rotary Club that the Mariners have coerced players to sign long-term contracts by threatening to manipulate their service time.
“It’s come up in discussions,” Slater said. “It’s something that everyone who’s been around baseball has known has been happening. It’s not really a surprise. But I do think it’s a little surprising to hear someone in his position come out and say that.”
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Mostly, though, the questions that Slater is fielding from teammates this spring involve day-to-day matters like COVID-19 protocols or meal money.
“Hopefully negotiations on the next CBA start happening after spring training and these protocols are ironed out,” Slater said. “But the protocols are also a moving target as the year goes on and vaccinations and things like that start to play into the mix.”
In addition to making sure nobody in the Giants clubhouse gets weary of the restrictions and breaks protocols, Slater is assisting with the league and union’s efforts to inform players about vaccination. He said the general reception within the clubhouse toward the vaccine is positive, which is among the reasons Slater is confident that they will be able to pull off an ambitious, 162-game schedule. He also said that some Giants players contracted COVID-19 over the offseason and have antibodies as a result.
“It’s case by case how each player feels about (the vaccine),” Slater said. “It’s a decision they need to make individually and with their family. All you can do is provide information and point them in the right direction when they have questions. Hopefully that’s enough for people to make the decision.”
Slater laughed and said there are times his eyes will glaze over during a two- or three-hour Zoom meeting as union officials go over the same issues. But it’s a job he still enjoys.
“I love this sport, I love the guys in the clubhouse,” he said. “And I want to make sure we’re well represented and we’re making good business choices for the players, not only now but in the future.”
And yes, while it’s faint, there’s still a chance that expanded playoffs and the DH could be in the Giants’ immediate future. Slater doesn’t envision anything changing if the league sticks to its current stance to trade one for the other.
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“But it’s been the m.o. of the league to last till the last second to propose a deal,” said Slater, citing MLB’s efforts in early February to try to delay the start of spring training by a month. “Does the league come out with a proposal now and give us time to process and talk among players and see if this is a good thing or not? Or do they wait till a week before the season and (say), ‘Hey, let’s try to figure this out.’
“But last year during the summer camp, they figured out expanded playoffs. So I’m not going to rule it out.”
(Photo: Gregory Bull / Associated Press)