San Francisco Giants Receive Ominous Status Update After MLB Trade Deadline

The San Francisco Giants boss has his future up in the air after a disappointing performance at the MLB trade deadline.

Nov 8, 2023; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi speaks to the media during the MLB General Manager's Meetings at Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa. / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco Giants did not have the MLB trade deadline that some had hoped for, continuing a worrying trend for their front office.

As Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report looked around the league for one word to describe each team, they found an interesting one for the Giants. In an ominous outlook for the front office, 'pink' was used to express how he felt their future looked.

"[San Francisco] President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi learned under two Hall of Fame-level executives in Billy Beane and Andrew Friedman, but outside of a Cinderella season in 2021, hasn't been able to replicate the success of his two mentors," said Kelly. "The Giants are under .500, and still have the same lack of superstars as when he arrived in November of 2018. A year after manager Gabe Kapler was dismissed, you wonder whether Zaidi will receive a pink slip from San Francisco ownership in the coming months."

It has not been a year to write home about for the San Francisco President of Baseball Operations.

He gave a few huge contracts out in the offseason in hopes of pushing over the edge, but almost none of the signings have worked out in his favor.

The biggest addition was reigning Cy Young winner Blake Snell.

Snell began his Giants tenure about as poorly as anyone could have imagined. He started the year late because he missed Spring Training. Once he finally got on the mound, he was shelled and then placed on the injured list.

Things have finally turned a corner, though. He looked vintage in the month of July, putting forth a 0.75 ERA across 24 innings of work in four games.

Though he was finally looking like the player that San Francisco had paid $32 million for, it was a bit too late for them to be real contenders. Given that he has a player option next year and will almost certainly not be taking it, pretty much everyone wanted Zaidi to trade him away in a sellers market.

Instead, they kept him around. He threw a no-hitter, which was fun, but was it worth missing out on the prospects that he could have brought in?

Matt Chapman was a similar case of someone that was signed to a big one-year deal with player options in place after that. He didn't get traded, which wasn't too surprising, but he also hasn't had a huge impact.

Jorge Soler also got off to a pretty horrid start, but turned things around and finally started playing at a high level. Though he was the one player of the three that was under contract for the next few seasons, he was the one player they decided to ship off.

Jung Hoo Lee was a big signing that hasn't worked out because he got injured, it's a bit unfair to blame that on Zaidi.

It's just been a confusing few months for the Giants. Them switching leadership at the season's end would not be surprising at all.