Alex Pavlovic looks back at 10 things you might not have known about the Giants' 2020 season.

You know the basics of the 2020 Giants. They were better, and much more entertaining, than expected, embracing the methods of new hitting coaches while nearly making the postseason. They fell short on that final weekend, but for the most part the shortened season was a success.
As the offseason fast approaches, let's take a look back at the 60-game season and some of what worked and didn't (shoutout to the Giants' great PR staff for digging up a lot of these stats).
Here are 10 things you might not have realized about the 2020 Giants.

The Giants have had some ugly finishing stretches in recent years. The 2016 team completely fell apart after the All-Star break, and two years later a losing team had one of the worst Septembers in MLB history.
The 2020 Giants had an ugly final weekend, but overall they were much better as the short season went on. The Giants went 8-16 in their first 24 games but finished 21-15, the sixth-best percentage in the majors over the final 36 games.
They increased their runs per game by 0.8 and decreased their runs allowed by 2.2 per game. Their OPS was .713 in the first 24 games and .834 the rest of the way. They showed a lot of development in-season, which was something this new staff was looking for.

The strangest part of the first month was the defense, which was shaky on a nightly basis and abysmal a couple of times a week. It was shocking to see from a team that spent so much time this spring and summer working on defense and positioning under the watchful eye of new bench coach Kai Correa.
The Giants made 21 errors in the first 18 games, the most in the big leagues. While some were just boneheaded mistakes, a lot of it had to do with personnel. Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria missed the first week and were eased back in, and Longoria's backups were particularly rough defensively. Brandon Crawford started the season as more of a platoon piece and that led to some issues, most notably on rundowns.
Once those three settled in as everyday players again, and Mauricio Dubon got comfortable in center field, the Giants became one of the better defensive teams in the NL, as expected. They made just 21 errors in the last 42 games, the second-fewest in the league. Overall, the Giants finished 13th in defensive runs saved per Sports Info Solutions, with Correa's shifts accounting for a lot of their gains.

Giants hitters led the majors with a .196 average with two strikes and only the Dodgers (.620) had a higher OPS than their .616 mark.
A lot of the damage came from Mike Yastrzemski, who hit .270 with eight of his 10 homers when there were two strikes. Brandon Belt had a .899 OPS with two strikes, Donovan Solano batted .271, and Wilmer Flores hit seven homers.
This was an area where you could really see the new hitting coaches making a difference. They preached looking for a pitch you could drive with two strikes, even if that meant striking out looking much more than in the past.

When you think of the way Farhan Zaidi builds a team, the first thing that comes to mind is probably all the waiver claims and minor trades that add depth. But there's another method that Zaidi and Scott Harris have used that had a much bigger impact.
The Giants used eight players in 2020 who were originally signed to minor league contracts, including everyday second baseman Donovan Solano and slugger Darin Ruf.
The others who came over on minor league deals before earning 40-man spots: Trevor Cahill, Rico Garcia, Tyler Heineman, Joey Rickard, Sam Selman and Chadwick Tromp.
Through two years, Zaidi has a pretty good hit rate on guys who come into spring training hoping to win a job.

When the Giants signed Johnny Cueto, they felt comfortable with a six-year deal in part because they saw him as a pitcher who would adjust and continue to thrive as his stuff diminished. That wasn't the case this year, Cueto's first full season back from Tommy John surgery.
Cueto has gotten more creative, throwing in new variations of his trademark shimmy, but the results weren't there. His 5.40 ERA was the highest among qualified starters in the NL and second-highest in the big leagues. A lot of the damage happened because he consistently fell behind in counts. Only Dallas Keuchel had a lower first-pitch strike percentage than Cueto's 55.6 percent.

Caleb Baragar wasn't originally invited to summer camp, but the Giants added him on July 8 and ended up being so impressed by his work in simulated games that they put him on the roster. He now might be here to stay.
Baragar brought a good fastball and aggressive approach to the mound, and he got better and better over the course of the season. He didn't allow a run in his final 16 appearances, holding hitters to a .143 average from August 16 through the end of the year.
Baragar already has earned Kapler's trust, and he'll enter next spring as an option to pitch in the late innings.

Speaking of lefty relievers, nobody had a quieter breakout season than Jarlin Garcia. He allowed just one earned run all year, and his 0.49 ERA ranked him third among big league relievers behind Milwaukee's Devin Williams (0.33) and Oakland's Jake Diekman (0.42).
It remains baffling that the Giants were able to get Garcia for free on a waiver claim February 10 when left-handed relief is such a need across the majors (the Rockies didn't have a left-handed pitcher in their bullpen, which is insane). While he doesn't strike a lot of people out, Garcia had a 3.02 ERA and 3.77 FIP for the Marlins last year.
The Giants liked that Garcia could face lefties and righties, and in his first season in San Francisco he held lefties to a .172 average and righties to .188.

A lot of Giants fans gave up on Tyler Rogers when he got off to a rough start, but by the end of the year he was about who the Giants figured he would be. Rogers may never have a shiny ERA in the big leagues because when he gets hit, he really gets hit. But he was an absolute workhorse, leading the NL with 29 appearances.
Rogers had a 4.50 ERA but a 3.26 FIP.
His worst outing of the year was the 10th inning against the Padres on July 31, when he was charged with five earned runs and had to come back to the mound because of Kapler's mistake.
But after that, Rogers had a 1.88 ERA in 24 appearances, striking out 25 and walking just four. If you take out that 10th inning and a few ill-advised pitches to Kevin Pillar in September, it's a really strong rookie season for someone who will be a big part of the mix next year.

It's too soon to know exactly what role Mauricio Dubon settles into. The rookie was supposed to be a super-utility player, but because Donovan Solano was so good at second base, Dubon ended up as the everyday center fielder. Moving forward, the Giants are probably best off with Dubon as a platoon piece, as originally planned.
While most of the attention Dubon got was because of his solid work in center or his costly mistakes on the bases, he ended the year with a .341 average against left-handed pitchers, the 11th-highest mark in the NL. That's a good trait to have in this division.
Dubon joked that he stopped carrying his infield glove around, but he should keep it nearby. The Giants played Brandon Crawford more than they expected during a short season, but over 162 games next year, you can expect Dubon to get a lot of time at short against lefties. He played just 48 innings there in 2020.

The last stat here is a simple one. Who led the Giants in games played?
That would be Wilmer Flores, Duane Kuiper's new favorite player and one of the best signings of the offseason. The Giants gave Flores a two-year $6.25 million deal in February that made him the first multi-year signing under Zaidi, and he turned in a career year.
Flores led the team with 12 homers, but also finished with 55 appearances, one more than Crawford, Dubon, Donovan Solano and Brandon Crawford. He started 21 games at DH, 14 at second, 12 at first and three at third while being used as a top pinch-hitter when he wasn't in the starting lineup. There was a lot about the 2020 season that was unexpected for the Giants, and Flores leading them in appearances is near the top of the list.