Bruce Bochy winning World Series should be wake-up call for SF Giants

​​Forgive San Francisco Giants fans if they were feeling more wistful than happy Wednesday night, on the anniversary of the Giants’ first World Series victory in the City by the Bay. The man who brought them that championship had just won it all, again, while wearing a different uniform.

Watching Bruce Bochy raise the World Series trophy in a Rangers jersey had to sting, given in the minds of a large portion of the fan base the Giants’ fall from grace over the past two seasons can be directly traced to the day he decided to step away. Never mind the fact that the Giants lost 272 games in his last three seasons, or that the rosters he had to work with were bereft of high-end talent with no help coming in the system. Nostalgia has a way of clouding things, and the Rangers winning it all surely kicked the nostalgic dopamine into overdrive.

It’s easy to think the Giants’ fortunes would be different if Bochy was still at the helm — another championship or two, organizational stability, all those things — but chances are the team would be stuck in the same spot regardless. Having the right manager makes a difference, sure, but it doesn’t matter who’s managing the team if the talent isn’t there.

And that, hopefully, is what the Giants should take from the Rangers’ success. Bochy’s win shouldn’t be a source of frustration, but rather inspiration.

Texas has spent like crazy over the past two offseasons, to the tune of nearly $1 billion in contracts, buying a revamped middle of the order and a new pitching staff in the process. They’ve hit on a number of their big-money deals (Corey Seager, Marcus Semien) and missed on some, too (Jacob deGrom). But they haven’t been afraid to spend and take risks in an effort to improve.

The Rangers lost 102 games in 2021, the same year the Giants won 107. Why have their fortunes changed so dramatically in just two years? The Rangers had the deeper farm system, yes, but the Giants’ system had improved quite a bit. Both teams developed players that helped them win games. But the Rangers spent and spent and spent some more, drastically overpaying in both money and years in some cases to get what they needed, long-term consequences be damned. The Giants have been averse to that philosophy and have consequently missed out on adding top-tier talent to supplement their roster.

Money can’t guarantee rings or even playoff appearances, of course, but it sure does send a message to the fan base that the team is trying to do everything it can to win. And when a team like the Rangers — who are worth more than $1 billion less as an organization than the Giants, according to Forbes, and have significantly less operating income — have no issues overpaying for stars, it’s fair to scrutinize the Giants’ organizational philosophy even more. 

In all honesty, Bochy winning another World Series with a big-spending club is probably the best outcome Giants fans could have hoped for. If anything was going to pressure this front office to leave its financial comfort zone and try something new, this was it. An increasingly disillusioned fan base can point to the Rangers and ask, “Why couldn’t we do this?” And the Giants’ top brass wouldn’t have a satisfactory answer. Fans are already starting to speak up with their wallets, and the Giants can’t afford to go another winter without giving them something to get excited about.

They’re already taken a step by hiring Bob Melvin, who is in the Bochy mold as an old-school manager with modern sensibilities — Bochy-lite, basically. The free agent market is thin this winter, but the top tier has a few true difference-makers, including the best player on the planet. Perhaps seeing the Rangers’ success will inspire Giants brass to stretch themselves financially to add two or three impact players to fortify the lineup and rotation. Maybe the fallout from Greg Johnson’s now-infamous “somewhat break even” line convinced them that it’s time to spend money to make money.

We’ll know for sure in a few months. For now, Giants fans can enjoy watching arguably the best manager of all time get fitted for another ring. I understand it may sting, but it shouldn’t — not for long, anyway. Instead, it may just be the push the Giants needed.