Nobody saw it coming. Seriously, nobody. If you look back at the preseason projections for the 2021 San Francisco Giants, the numbers were insulting. PECOTA had them winning 75 games. FanGraphs wasn't much kinder. They were an aging roster stuck in a division with a Los Angeles Dodgers team that looked like an All-Star squad and a San Diego Padres team that was supposed to be the "next big thing."
Then, the season started.
And they just kept winning. It wasn't flashy, usually. It was a brand of baseball that felt like a throwback, yet was powered by the most modern hitting philosophy in the league. By the time October rolled around, this "geriatric" roster had set a franchise record with 107 wins. They didn't just compete; they snatched the NL West crown away from a 106-win Dodgers team in one of the greatest divisional races ever tracked.
The "Old Man" Renaissance
The core of the 2021 San Francisco Giants featured names we all thought were past their prime. Buster Posey was coming off a voluntary opt-out year in 2020. Brandon Crawford looked like he was settling into the "defensive specialist" phase of his career. Brandon Belt was... well, Brandon Belt, constantly dealing with "unbrandish" injuries.
But something clicked.
Under manager Gabe Kapler and a massive hitting staff led by Donnie Ecker, Justin Viele, and Dustin Lind, the veterans didn't just bounce back. They evolved. Crawford, at 34, suddenly started pulling the ball with authority and finished fourth in NL MVP voting. Posey hit .304 with an .889 OPS, looking exactly like the Hall of Fame catcher he is before shocking everyone by retiring at the end of the year.
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It wasn't luck. It was a fundamental shift in how the team approached counts. They stopped swinging at "pitcher's pitches" early and started hunting mistakes with a clinical intensity that wore teams down. They led the National League in home runs with 241. Read that again. A team playing half their games at Oracle Park led the league in homers.
Depth That Defied Logic
If you want to understand the 2021 San Francisco Giants, you have to look at the "replacement" players. This wasn't a team carried by two superstars. It was a 26-man (and sometimes 40-man) machine.
LaMonte Wade Jr. earned the nickname "Late Night LaMonte" for a reason. He seemed to hit a game-tying or go-ahead home run in the ninth inning every single week. Then you had Logan Webb. Before 2021, Webb was a young arm with potential but inconsistent results. By the end of the season, he was an ace. His performance in the NLDS against the Dodgers—specifically Game 1 where he struck out ten and walked zero—announced his arrival as a frontline starter.
The bullpen was a similar story of "misfit toys."
Dominic Leone, José Álvarez, and Zack Littell were often pitching high-leverage innings. Tyler Rogers was throwing submarine pitches that moved like frisbees. Kenley Jansen or Liam Hendriks weren't in this pen, yet the Giants finished with the second-lowest bullpen ERA in the majors. They were basically a collection of guys other teams had given up on, all finding their best selves at the exact same time.
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The Numbers That Still Look Like Typos
- 107 wins: A franchise record that broke the 1904 New York Giants' mark of 106.
- 18 pinch-hit home runs: A Major League record. Gabe Kapler used his bench like a chess master, constantly hunting for platoon advantages.
- +210 Run Differential: They weren't just winning close games; they were punishing people.
- 106 wins for the Dodgers: This is the stat that hurts. San Francisco won 107, yet they still had to play a winner-take-all Game 5 in the NLDS against a team that won 106. It was the first time in history two 100-win teams from the same division met in the playoffs.
Why It Ended the Way It Did
The NLDS against the Dodgers was a heavyweight fight. It felt like the World Series. It was the World Series for most fans in Northern California.
The series ended on a controversial checked-swing call involving Wilmer Flores. It was a heartbreaking way to see a historic season go down. Max Scherzer on the mound, a 2-1 count, and a first-base umpire who saw a swing that... well, most cameras suggest didn't happen.
But honestly? If you're a Giants fan, that's not what stays with you. What stays is the 162-game sprint where they refused to blink. They went 10-9 against the Dodgers in the regular season. They never let up. Every time the Dodgers won, the Giants won. It was a psychological war of attrition.
How the 2021 Season Changed the Franchise
We have to talk about the fallout. This wasn't a sustainable "dynasty" build, and we've seen that in the years since. The 2021 San Francisco Giants were a lightning strike.
It proved that the Farhan Zaidi "depth-first" philosophy could work at the highest level, even if it hasn't quite replicated that success since. It gave Buster Posey the perfect exit. It validated Gabe Kapler (who won NL Manager of the Year) as a tactical mind, even if his tenure ended roughly a few years later.
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Mostly, it reminded baseball that projections are just guesses. You can't account for a clubhouse of veterans deciding they have one more run in them. You can't quantify the value of a pitching coach finding two inches of extra break on a slider for a 31-year-old journeyman.
Actionable Takeaways for the Baseball Observer
If you're looking back at this season to understand how to evaluate today's teams, keep these things in mind:
- Watch the "swing decisions": The Giants didn't just hit the ball hard; they hit the right balls. Teams that prioritize walk rate and "zone mastery" are always candidates to overperform their talent.
- Depth beats Stars in the regular season: The Dodgers had the bigger names, but the Giants had a deeper 40-man roster. Over 162 games, the ability to have a quality pinch-hitter or a reliable 6th starter matters more than having one $300 million player.
- The "Post-Peak" isn't always the end: Don't write off veterans in their mid-30s who are joining a team known for high-level data and coaching. Swing adjustments can happen at any age.
The 2021 San Francisco Giants didn't win the World Series, but they won the respect of everyone who thought they were finished. It was a season of defiance, powered by a group of guys who simply refused to play like the "old" team they were supposed to be. Whether you're a fan or just a student of the game, that season stands as a masterclass in roster optimization and competitive grit.
To really appreciate what happened, look at the roster of the 2022 team that followed. They largely returned the same group, but the magic was gone. They finished .500. That only highlights how special, how singular, and how genuinely weird that 107-win campaign truly was. It was a year where everything went right, everyone stayed healthy at the right moments, and a bunch of veterans found the fountain of youth all at once in a cold, foggy ballpark by the Bay.