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2021 San Francisco Giants Predictions and Odds to Win the World Series

by Chris Vasile - 3/1/2021

San Francisco Giants second baseman Donovan Solano

The San Francisco Giants were one of my favorite teams to watch growing up as they played in that beautiful ballpark and they had one of the best power hitters to ever play the game donning their jersey in Barry Bonds. From 2010 to 2014, the Giants went on an epic run. They won three titles in five years and they were dominant in doing so. Since then, they’ve made the playoffs one time in six seasons and finished below .500 four times.

Last year, the Giants finished with a record of 29-31, which was good enough for third spot in the NL West. They have an extremely old team by baseball standards as just one player on their roster for this season is under the age of 30. It’ll be interesting to see if experience can trump youth this year or if the aging roster will sputter along once again.

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The Giants will open the regular season with a three-game road series at T-Mobile Park against the Seattle Mariners before hitting up Petco Park for a three-game set with the San Diego Padres. From there, the Giants open up their home schedule with three against the Rockies and three against the Reds. The overall outlook of the Giants season is expected to be bleak with a win total of just 75.5 wins. If for whatever reason you want a piece of them in the futures market, they are also +8000 to win the World Series, +6600 to win the NL and +5000 to win the NL West.

Giants 2021 Projected Lineup

For as much turnover as the Giants have had since their title-winning run of the early 2010s, the core of the team remains relatively unchanged. As of writing this, the projected lineup looks like this:

  1. Tommy La Stella
  2. Donovan Solano
  3. Mike Yastrzemski
  4. Alex Dickerson
  5. Buster Posey
  6. Brendon Belt
  7. Brandon Crawford
  8. Mauricio Dubon
  9. Pitchers Spot

One quick look at this roster is all you need to figure out why the season outlook is bleak. Besides the aforementioned core players that I’ll touch on soon, the top of the order is very untested despite each player coming into this season on the wrong side of 30. The top quartet of La Stella, Solano, Yastrzemski and Dickerson combined to hit just 28 home runs last season, with the latter two hitting 10 apiece. This outlook for this season isn’t much better with Yastrzemski expected to lead the team in home runs with just 23 while batting for a .254 average.

Behind them is where the aforementioned core group of players comes into play, and that’s Posey and the two Brandons, all of whom were around for the title-winning seasons. Posey was once regarded as one of the best catchers in the game before he suffered that gruesome leg injury that kept him out for a lengthy period of time. He opted out of last season, so a fresh Posey might just be what the doctor ordered to help the Giants out this season. As for Belt, he hit nine home runs last season and finished the season with a .309 average. Crawford ended the year with eight dingers and a .256 average. The pair of them are projected to combine for 39 home runs slashing around .250.

Giants 2021 Projected Rotation & Closer

At first glance, the Giants’ pitching staff looks like it could be good as it features well-known names like Kevin Gausman, Johnny Cueto, Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Wood and Aaron Sanchez. Each player has spent some serious time in the majors and has done some great things for their former teams. However, if you dig a little deeper, you’d have to wonder why these guys are playing for the Giants and not the teams they were with prior. The short answer is because they aren’t very good.

Gausman has been a gas can for as long as I can remember. Last year he started 10 games for the Giants and posted a 3-3 record with a 3.62 ERA. That was his lowest ERA since 2016 and it was the first time he finished with a .500 record (or better) since 2014, when he finished 7-7. Having him as your No. 1 pitcher is essentially like setting yourself up to fail.

Behind him isn’t better. Cueto, DeSclafani and Wood all posted ERAs north of 5.40 last season, with the latter of the two checking in at 7.22 and 6.39, respectively. How on earth are you supposed to win ball games with pitchers that can’t get anyone out?

The Giants bullpen doesn’t exactly strike fear into the eyes of opposing hitters.

Giants 2021 Predictions

FanGraphs projects the Giants to finish this season with a 77-85 record, which places them in third spot in the NL West just ahead of the Diamondbacks. Based on how the division is shaping out this year and the teams in it, it seems like a two-horse race for the division between the Dodgers and Padres. If the Giants can finish third, which is what’s projected, it’ll be a good year and hopefully one that they can build off when the eventual rebuild happens next season and the years beyond.

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