Tom Krasovic: Underperforming Giants allow Padres to focus on LA

Tom Krasovic, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Aug 13, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — The Los Angeles Dodgers are the opponent San Diego Padres fans focus on, and for very good reason.

Finishing ahead of Los Angeles would allow the Padres to skip the first round of the playoffs — that is, if they also outpace one of the other two National League division winners.

The Padres and Dodgers this month will play six games against each other to wrap up their season series. The Padres trailed L.A. by one game in the National League West standings as Tuesday began.

But the first opponent of interest here today, as it pertains to the Padres in their strengthening bid to win this year’s World Series, is the National League West’s other large-market franchise.

The San Francisco Giants are having yet another blah season, taking a 59-60 record into Tuesday and trailing the Padres by eight games. Giants evaluators are skeptical about a big comeback. Ahead of the Aug. 1 trade deadline, when Padres talent man A.J. Preller dealt for five big-leaguers, Giants leader Buster Posey sold off two relievers for prospects.

There’s a what-might-have-been trendline with the Giants that should cause Padres fans to exhale a little.

Almost seven years ago, Giants ownership hired Dodgers executive Farhan Zaidi to run their baseball operation. The thought was they would operate more like the Dodgers do in most seasons.

That didn’t happen. Zaidi was unable to replicate L.A.’s knack for finding and developing a large number of amateurs into good or great big-leaguers or prospects who could return good trade value.

The Giants fired Zaidi last fall. In February, he returned to the Dodgers’ front office.

Big decisions have big consequences.

Padres leaders Peter Seidler, Ron Fowler and Mike Dee made the right call when they hired Preller 11 years ago. And Seidler and Fowler stuck with Preller after he made several large errors early in his tenure.

The teams’ contrasting fortunes have produced this reality: The Padres have become the better baseball franchise. Barring drastic reversals, San Diego will cruise into its fourth postseason in six years, while the Giants will miss the postseason for the eighth time in nine years.

Look, baseball is very hard, regardless of market size. But the Giants have underperformed for some time now.

They were stout in many years under talent man Brian Sabean, who had a strong background in scouting. He trusted well-regarded scouts such as Dick Tidrow, John Barr and Pat Dobson.

Sabean hired longtime Padres manager Bruce Bochy after learning from Dobson that Bochy and second-year president Sandy Alderson were on the outs.

Together, Sabean and Bochy led the Giants to three World Series titles between 2010 and 2014. The ballpark atmosphere alongside San Francisco Bay bristled with energy, even for the four seasons after the final World Series victory. The Giants finished third or fourth in MLB attendance every season between 2011 and 2018.

But instead of the Padres contending with two large-market powerhouses, they’ve been focused on one: the Dodgers. That’s because the Giants have helped them out by resembling a cable car forever eking up one of San Francisco’s large hills.

The Giants haven’t been awful in most years. But with the exception of 2021, a 107-victory run to the West title that increasingly looks like a fluke, they’ve had only one winning season since their 87-75 finish in 2016.

They’ve devolved into just another mid-tier franchise whose average crowd sizes ranked 12th, 12th, 17th and 18th between 2021-24 and now stand eighth. The Padres, meanwhile, placed third, fifth, second and third. The Padres are second in attendance in 2025, trailing only the Dodgers.

Can San Francisco play catch-up behind Posey, the catcher on their three World Series winners?

A lot — and perhaps too much — is riding on a 20-year-old slugger, Bryce Eldridge. A 6-foot-7 first baseman with good power but high strikeout numbers, he’s in Triple-A.

The Giants want him to win the starting job next year.

Next week, the Padres and Giants will play four games in San Diego, ending their season series.

It looks like a good opportunity for the Padres to put more heat on L.A.

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