© Darren Yamashita | 2021 May 21
Heading into last season, the idea that the San Francisco Giants would re-sign Brandon Crawford when his contract expires in 2021 seemed like a pipe dream. Just over a year later, it’s looking like a real possibility.
Crawford, 34, is following up a career-year in the truncated 2020 season with an even better campaign in 2021, through 43 games looking like one of the best shortstops in Major League Baseball. His .851 OPS is the best of his career by a significant margin and the second highest among National League shortstops. His 11 home runs are tied for second most among all major leaguers at his position.
What seemed like almost certainly his last season in orange and black is now looking like the beginning of a career resurgence. The man in charge of deciding whether Crawford returns, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, joined KNBR on Thursday and was asked point blank about Crawford’s future. Zaidi was surprisingly candid, implying that if Crawford can keep this up for an entire season, there is little incentive to let him leave.
“He kind of quietly had a really productive season in 2020,” Zaidi said of Crawford. “You look back at his numbers and they were some of the best of his career. He, maybe as much as any time in his career or maybe more, is just a threat at the plate. He’s up there swinging with bad intentions. We just feel like he’s an extra base hit waiting to happen. So that’s been really impressive when you layer on the incredible defense and the heads up baserunning.
“For all of our guys, Craw included, for them to have good seasons this year in contract years is great for them, and the better we play as a team the more inclined we are going to be to keep this group together. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, and that’s going to be our strategy as we go through the season and go into the offseason.”
There has been much conjecture made about the Giants targeting a shortstop in this upcoming offseason, with the likes of Corey Seager, Carlos Correa, Trevor Story and Javy Baez all set to hit the open market. Zaidi downplayed those rumors, again reiterating that the incentive to add elite players is tempered if you believe you already have them.
“I feel like there’s a lot of speculation out there on who we might go get in free agency from other teams, but if we continue to play this way, I think there’s a real impetus to try and keep our players together and kind of run it back with a group that’s had success.”
Zaidi also said that despite his current feelings about what the team’s offseason philosophy will be, discussions aren’t likely to begin with players until well into the summer.
“We’re just not actively having conversations with guys right now. I think that’ll change as the summer evolves. We’ve just been so focused on getting off to a good start as a team, and I know a lot of the players on our team who are in contract years are really focused on their performance and don’t necessarily want that sort of distraction.”
Listen to the full interview below.