SCOTTSDALE -- As Bob Melvin stood in the clubhouse at Scottsdale Stadium on Monday morning and watched Buster Posey address Giants players, coaches and staff members, he started to cross lines off his own presentation. Without planning it, the two had prepared to hit on many of the same themes before the first full squad workout of the season.
The speech was Posey's first in that building since 2021, when he returned from a year off and set the tone for what would become a stunning 107-win season. On Monday, he took center stage as the new president of baseball operations and laid out his expectations. Along with Melvin, he also tried to present an identity for this year's club.
"We talked about what our identity is. What kind of team are we?" Melvin said. "We've got to be able to protect the baseball, we've got to play clean, our situational stuff has got to be better. In our ballpark, typically the games are pretty close, and if we don't beat ourselves and we understand that the little things matter, develop instincts, run the bases better, all those type of things -- we need to be that clean, fundamentally sound baseball team that shows up every day and plays a good clean game. That's what we're looking to do."
The identity question is one the Giants have faced for several years, and it's one Posey was hit with after taking over for Farhan Zaidi. Who are the Giants? And more importantly, how are they going to find a brand of baseball that leads them away from 81-81 and back into the postseason race?
For the men in charge, it's relatively simple. They can't come anywhere close to matching the talent in Los Angeles. They don't have the star power of the San Diego Padres or the rotation of the Arizona Diamondbacks, at least not yet.
But they believe their lineup is underrated and their rotation can be a strength. If Camilo Doval returns to form, their bullpen might be the best in the division, at least at the back end. If they can win the one-run games -- they were .500 in them last year -- and do the little things, they believe they can surprise outsiders, most of whom have them pegged for fourth place.
Of course, it should be noted that Melvin hoped to do that last year, too. After some truly horrific defensive displays in 2022-23 while the front office chased offense, they hoped to play much cleaner baseball last year. Instead, they finished 80-82.
San Francisco Giants
Their defense ranked 20th in Outs Above Average, putting extra pressure on a rotation that didn't hold up. They ranked 24th in the league in batting average with runners in scoring position and weren't nearly as effective on the bases as they expected to be after upgrading in the athleticism department.
What will make this season different? For Melvin, it's about stability, particularly on defense. He noted that he has everyday starters at just about every position, with Gold Glove Award winners at catcher and third. Jung Hoo Lee is back in center field, and the trio of Lee, Mike Yastrzemski (right) and Heliot Ramos (left) should be strong defensively. Willy Adames was a plus defender in 2022 and 2023 and said Matt Chapman already has told him not to worry about anything hit to his right. Adames' arrival moves Tyler Fitzgerald, a natural shortstop, to second.
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"It feels like a much more fundamentally sound, defense-oriented team," Melvin said. "Now obviously you've got to hit, too, but we feel like there's some depth in our lineup. We need to clean up the situational stuff last year that was a real problem for us. It doesn't always take your 'A' swing to drive in a run.
"In a close game, if you've got a man on third and less than two outs, it's more important putting the ball in play than having to drive the ball somewhere. All those things are things we're going to work on in this camp."
That work has started already. About two hours after the meeting, hitting coach Pat Burrell stood behind the cage and yelled out situations to the hitters taking turns. He would ask them to pretend there was a runner on third with one out, or that the bases were loaded with nobody out and the Giants down by a pair. When non-roster catcher Logan Porter lined a would-be double down the line in the latter situation, Burrell lit up.
"That'll get them in!" he yelled.
Spring training is a time for smiles and optimism. Other than catcher Tom Murphy, who has an oblique strain, the Giants are as healthy as they could hope to be. Adames homered in his first at-bat facing live pitching and Justin Verlander has been hitting 95 mph in bullpen sessions and seems completely on board with being a mentor for all of the young starters in camp. When live BP started on Monday, Verlander and staff ace Logan Webb stood behind the mound, offering help to young right-hander Landen Roupp.
Adames was the big addition of the offseason but Verlander was the only other notable move. For the most part, this is the same group that left Oracle Park at the end of last season, just with new leadership in the front office.
Posey hasn't made any grand proclamations about what he expects the 2025 season to be about, but he really hasn't had to. His actions spoke clearly over the winter. He wants to take a long look at the young players already on the 40-man roster, which is a big part of why it was such a quiet winter.
That's part of the identity, too. The Giants are going to be very young this season, but they believe they have the right number of talented veterans to be relevant and stay in the postseason race. On Monday, Melvin gave perhaps the clearest explanation yet of what this season is about.
"A lot of the success in the past has been developed around homegrown players and sprinkled in (are) the right type of free agents, and I think that's what Buster is looking to do," Melvin said. "We didn't go out to look to sign everybody, but we signed the guys that we feel like are the right guys for here, and then we need to develop our younger players.
"Last year, if there were any silver linings in last year, it was (that) a lot of these younger players developed to where going into this year it's different for them."
