Good news does not come along very often these days, and when you’re getting jolted, well, it’s too typically been out of dismay than happy surprise.
Yet, “I still felt a jolt of real excitement when I heard that progress was being made,” Farhan Zaidi said Wednesday on the Giants’ “Chalk Talk @ Home.” “People who work in baseball and fans everywhere had the same feeling.”
There is no deal and there is no confirmed season, but there is a renewed hope for Major League Baseball and the Players Association reaching a pact that would get the Giants and the 29 other teams playing baseball sometime this summer. Commissioner Rob Manfred and players union head Tony Clark met Tuesday, the owners proposed their first fully prorated season Wednesday, and while it is unlikely to be accepted, it’s a step toward finding common ground between the two parties.
The offer is for a 60-game season and expanded playoffs. If a pact is indeed struck, it likely would be closer to a 65- or 70-game sample. If that sounds like it would result in some distorted standings because of baseball’s fickle nature, that’s not as negative a development to the Giants as it to, say, the Dodgers.
“We were on a call with some of our staff a few days ago as it became clear that we were going to be probably playing a significantly shortened season because of the environment,” Zaidi said on the internet series born out of the pandemic. “Somebody kind of made the point, ‘Hey, we were 19-6 in July, we were the best team in baseball last year in July, and that’s like half the season now.’ All it takes is a hot stretch.”
Indeed, the Giants went 37-23 over one hot stretch, which should win them the West if baseball is played this season. They also went 25-35 in their first 60 games, and MLB can’t expand the postseason that much.