The San Francisco Giants’ haven’t done much of anything well this season.
So when it comes to the team’s offseason priorities, general manager Bobby Evans doesn’t tend to get into specifics. Evans knows the Giants need to make significant improvements if the club hopes to contend in 2018, and he’s determined to exhaust every possible idea to find ways to add to San Francisco’s core.
On Thursday afternoon, Evans joined Frandsen & Lund on KNBR, and said that one of the main ways he thinks the Giants can have a successful offseason is by adding strong defensive assets who are versatile enough to help the team in a variety of ways.
“Defense is one place to start that helps get a couple of things better,” Evans said. ” Your run prevention and your pitching will get better. Getting better defensively will also bring in some athletes that will run the bases better. We’ve got to find a ways to do a lot of things better.”
Evans was asked if he thinks adding a power hitter to the Giants’ lineup, which ranks last in Major League baseball in home runs, is in the cards. He said that though the Giants are always looking to add beef to the heart of the order, this year, there may be more opportunities for the team to do so than there have been in years past.
“We’ve never not wanted to add power, it’s just sometimes what you have to give up to get power in the sense of there’s not as many players,” Evans said. “There’s quite a few now, but there’s not as many players now that play extremely good defense. There’s more now than there has been in the past which bodes well for our priorities.”
Evans said that the lack of strong defensive options for the Giants this season might be lost on the team’s fan base, but “it’s not lost on the guys in uniform.”
He said finding players who have the range to cover AT&T Park’s unique outfield dimensions is always a priority, and he credited Hunter Pence for being able to handle the rigors of the job in right field for the past several years.
With just three games to go, the Giants don’t have much time left until the offseason begins and Evans can begin shaping the 2018 roster. He did say, however, that preliminary discussions throughout San Francisco’s front office about the team’s offseason agenda began a long time ago.
“Every loss was excruciating in this long season,” Evans said. “It’s hard to believe we’re at this point in the year where three games away from beginning our offseasan. But we’ve been thinking about our offseason and 2018 for quite some time.”
To listen to Bobby Evans’ interview with Frandsen & Lund, click the podcast link below. Evans’ comments on the Giants’ offseason priorities come during the first half of the interview.