SAN FRANCISCO — When Farhan Zaidi took a new job, he traded in the National League’s most powerful roster for one that has had home run issues for years.
The Dodgers led the league with 235 homers in 2018, distributing them evenly, with 119 at home and 116 on the road. The Giants had just 133 total homers, second-to-last in the NL.
The Dodgers had seven players hit 20 or more homers last season, and Chris Taylor bashed 17. The Giants haven’t had a 20-homer player since Brandon Crawford in 2015. Evan Longoria paced the 2018 Giants with 16 homers.
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Zaidi comes from a place where the lineup was built around the long ball. But what will he do with a team that plays at AT&T Park?
"It's a tricky one because, you know, on the one hand you want to build a roster that is kind of tailored to your home park, and on the other you've got to go on the road and play 81 games in different kinds of ballparks,” Zaidi said on this week’s Giants Insider Podcast. “This is a team that's going to have to travel to Coors Field and some other more offensive-friendly environments.
"So maybe building the pitching-and-defense team works at home, but it hurts you on the road. I think there are some subtleties to thinking about the roster that way that need to be evaluated more.”
The Giants have spent years trying to find solutions. Zaidi was hired in part for his ability to solve creatively, and he’ll have to find a better balance with a new lineup. In nine games at AT&T Park last season, the Dodgers hit nine homers, but also had a .387 on-base percentage, 24 doubles and five triples.
San Francisco Giants
“Look, more power is always good,” Zaidi said. “It's the easiest way to score runs and put runs on the board, is hit the ball out of the ballpark, but you don't want to do it at the cost of at-bat quality and some other things that can help you have good offense as well."