When MLB announced there would be a 60-game season, the projections weren't great for the Giants. Caesar's Sportsbook gave San Francisco the fifth-lowest win total (24.5) in the league, and ZIPS' projection (25) was just slightly better than that.
Realistically, the Giants weren't going to compete. And if they did, it was going to be a major surprise.
That was before Buster Posey made the decision to opt out of the 2020 MLB season on Friday. If San Francisco was going to struggle with him, imagine what it could be like without him.
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SIGN UP HERE So, yes, it's understandable if Posey's decision removed what little realistic optimism Giants fans had for this abbreviated season. With everything currently going on in the world, it would be easy to focus on the bad.
San Francisco's present might not offer a ton of hope. But luckily for Giants fans, there is plenty of reason to be excited about the not-too-distant future.
One could argue the Giants' farm system is in as good of a spot as it has ever been. It was identified as one of the five most improved in all of baseball back in January, as president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has spearheaded a rapid turnaround. The system is loaded with high-quality prospects, and unlike previous times when pitching was the obvious strength, most of San Francisco's current top prospects are position players.
The Giants know how important pitching is as well as any team in the league. That's how they won three World Series titles in five years. Well, that plus some timely hitting. In the seasons since, though, they've struggled mightily on offense, which has resulted in multiple years of better draft position.
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Nothing is guaranteed, but it sure seems like San Francisco has capitalized on the opportunity that was created out of that offensive deficiency and directly addressed it.
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As things currently stand, the Giants have five prospects ranked within MLB Pipeline's Top 100. That's more than they've ever had since MLB.com started ranking prospects.
Catcher Joey Bart leads the way at No. 14 overall, while 18-year-old shortstop Marco Luciano is one of the fastest climbing prospects in all of baseball, currently ranked No. 35. Outfielder Heliot Ramos, a 2017 first-round pick, lands at No. 65, and he's followed by 2019 first-round pick Hunter Bishop at No. 71. Finally, Seth Corry, one of only two pitchers currently ranked among San Francisco's top 10 prospects, comes in at No. 99.
All of those prospects are projected to reach the big leagues at some point during or prior to the 2022 season.
Then there's 20-year-old outfielder Alexander Canario, the Giants' sixth-ranked prospect, who likely just missed being included in the Top 100. It's probably only a matter of time until he is, and he might have the highest offensive ceiling of any prospect not named Luciano within San Francisco's system.
Canario currently is projected to make his big league debut in 2023, as are 19-year-old third baseman Luis Toribio and 18-year-old outfielder Luis Matos -- the Giants' seventh and eighth-ranked prospects at the moment. Pipeline cites Toribio as possibly being "the best pure hitter" in the system, while Matos was singled out by Giants director of player development Kyle Haines as currently being underrated, but will be heard from down the line.
Filling out the remainder of San Francisco's top 10 prospects are ninth-ranked pitcher Sean Hjelle and 10th-ranked infielder Will Wilson. The 6-foot-11 Hjelle offers tantalizing potential, while getting Wilson -- the Los Angeles Angels' 2019 first-round pick -- at the Winter Meetings was a major steal.
Hjelle and Wilson are projected to make their big league debuts in 2021 and 2022, respectively, while San Francisco's current 11th and 12th-ranked prospects already have. If getting Wilson was a steal, acquiring 11th-ranked Mauricio Dubon was the equivalent of highway robbery. And 12th-ranked Logan Webb has been turning heads -- particularly Posey's -- in Summer Camp.
Many of those prospects, particularly the position players, likely would have been ranked much higher in previous years. But now, the Giants boast depth that most other teams envy.
And, that doesn't even include San Francisco's 2020 first-round pick, Patrick Bailey. As soon as he begins his professional career, the power-hitting catcher likely will fall somewhere between No. 5 and No. 7, inevitably nudging a great prospect out of the Giants' top 10.
So over the next one to three seasons, San Francisco is likely to experience a massive influx of highly-skilled, young talent, something that the franchise has been lacking since ... let's just say it's been a long time. That talent could form the backbone of a team that could contend, not just for one season, but possibly for the next decade. Or, it could be used to acquire a current star.
[RELATED: Posey's decision might make Giants revisit plans for Bart]
The Giants now are in a position where they can compete on a prospect level in any potential trade discussions for an already-established star. Of course, moving forward, they'll also be in far better financial position to compete for top free agents than they have been in recent years -- in which case they wouldn't have to sacrifice any prospects.
So, yes, the 2020 season likely wasn't going to be a very successful one to begin with, and Posey's absence should only exacerbate that. But the Giants' not-too-distant future could be very, very bright, and fans should focus on that whenever in need of some optimism.