Once again, the San Francisco Giants' lineup is a war between a youth movement trying to happen and a veteran unit riding out contracts. Mauricio Dubon, at 26, is the youngest projected starter in this schematic. 35-year-old Evan Longoria is the oldest.
And the odd thing is, this sort of incongruence has fed into something of an identity for the Giants. One of the biggest names to watch for SF this year will be Mike Yastrzemski, after two fantastic seasons of 2.8 WAR play. Unfortunately, Yaz is now 30, having wasted his come-up years in the minors. And that's the major flaw of this team- the major bursts of freshness from last year, like Yaz, Donovan Solano, Darin Ruf and Kevin Gausman, all came from players older than or approaching 30. Granted, they're all back for 2021, and they're all searching for similar production, but any attempts to make this team younger have failed.
The GM didn't exactly get the memo this offseason, plugging in veterans like Tommy La Stella, Anthony Desclafani, Alex Wood and Jake McGee. Meanwhile, the burgeoning up-and-comers like Joey Bart are trapped behind the wall of veterans, and are only really coming through in the bullpen. We're 11 years past the rise of the initial Giants youth movement, and now any attempt to start a new one has been thwarted by the stay over of the previous one. I don't see how Giants fans aren't more pissed about this.
It's probably all for nothing, considering that the highest the Giants will likely be looking to place is third- the Padres and Dodgers are looking to be extraordinary this year, and any chance of a second playoff team coming from the NL West is thwarted by the existence of the similarly-competitive NL East. So unless something huge happens, the Giants are only looking to top .500 to prove anything, which is a better goalpost. I'm just not sure if this is the team for it.
Coming Tonight: How the heck does an Indians backup infielder become the heart and soul of the Yankee lineup?
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