The San Francisco Giants Are Suffering From A Failure To Communicate

President of operations Buster Posey failed in his attempt to address the Giants’ various communication issues. (Photo by Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

The San Francisco Giants are suffering from a failure to communicate.

First was their Pride Night debacle, to which Commissioner Rob Manfred said: “Unfortunately, this year the Giants’ communication with players inadequate and not clear.”

And then there was Rafael Devers’ failure to cede first base after a ninth inning walk on Sunday. Devers refused to speak with the media after the game, but changed course two days later. Through an interpreter, the mercurial slugger said, among other things, including blaming the media for the kerfuffle: “I think it was a misunderstanding.”

For an underperforming team thirteen games under .500, and 18 games out of first place, carrying a payroll in excess of $230 million, playing under a manager who never played or coached in the big leagues prior to this year, who works for a future Hall of Fame catcher with no front office experience before taking his current job, all of this is a bad look.

The Pride Night issue took on more salience because both the team and the league failed to deal with it quickly. And then grandstanding politicians decided to get involved. For those of you not steeped in the matter, he is a quick rundown. Earlier in the month the Giants hosted a Pride Night, which makes sense insofar as San Francisco has the highest per capita gay population in the country (New York City has more gay people by sheer numbers). The players had the option of wearing caps with a rainbow “SF” logo rather than the standard orange. Losing pitcher Landen Roupp and relief pitchers JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker decided to write Bible verse “Gen 9:12-16” on their caps, and relief pitcher Sam Hentges refused to wear the rainbow cap (he apparently understood that he had the right to do so). Every other Giants player wore the hat without compunction or issue.

The aforementioned Bible verse is a passage in which God establishes the rainbow as the eternal sign of his covenant with all living creatures. These players – and others before them – feel as if the rainbow has been coopted by a minority group of people, and they are doing their level best to set the record straight. Regardless, this issue could have resolved if the Giants had issued a statement straight away either defending their players’ First Amendment right to express their views or admonishing them for violating the term of the CBA. As Manfred later pointed out, the rule states: “a player shall not write, attach, affix, embroider or otherwise display nicknames or messages on apparel or playing equipment.”

On Tuesday, president of baseball operations Buster Posey sat in the Giants dugout and took questions from the reporters. Before he started, he said the following:

“I understand that there’s strong feelings on this topic. There’s differing perspectives and out of respect to everybody involved, it’s not something I’m going to revisit. I understand some fans are upset and frustrated. I can promise you this is something that we’ve talked about a lot internally and will continue to do so. Our focus is on the team right now, the upcoming draft, the trade deadline and trying to win games. Anyone who has baseball questions, I’m happy to take baseball questions right now.”

And that was that. Repeated follow-ups were smacked down with a terse “I’m happy to take baseball questions.” When the reporters were not to be denied, a Giants press person threatened to shut down the colloquy.

So, reporters then turned to the second failure to communicate.

For those of you not following the day-to-day of Giants baseball, know that the team was trailing the Miami Marlins 2-1 in the top of the ninth on Sunday. Devers started the inning with a leadoff walk, and, as such, represented the tying run. Rookie manager Tony Vitello elected to replace Devers with Jonah Cox, who has 163 stolen bases in four minor league seasons. Devers’ sprint speed is in the 22^nd percentile among all major leaguers.

Devers tried to wave off the manager and then push back the pinch runner. However, Cox had already been announced and was now officially the runner at first base. Devers petulantly left the field, avoided handshakes and butt slaps in the dugout, and retreated to the clubhouse. As stated above, he did not speak with the press after the game.

Devers apologized to Vitello on the flight back home. But, as of Tuesday afternoon, Posey had not spoken to his most expensive and most volatile player. And he told reporters that when he met with them in the dugout. That is simply a failure of leadership and a failure of communication. And it is a failure of PR to allow your top representative to go in front of the press and admit that. Worst case, cancel the scrum so you don’t come off as out of touch and disconnected. Posey came off as both; and that is simply providing more grist for the mill that he is out of his depth in his current position.

It was an apparent coup to acquire Devers from the Red Sox in a blockbuster trade last season. But since then, Devers has been below his career numbers in nearly every offensive category, and the team is open to moving him. And the kicker is that Kyle Harrison, who was included in the deal, is in the Cy Young conversation with the Milwaukee Brewers.

One thing is for certain: the Giants are not communicating with their fans, their players, or the press, and it is reflecting extremely poorly on the organization as a whole. Will it make any difference in the final standings come October, no? But it sure may affect the team going forward and their hopes of being competitive in the not-so-distant future.