San Francisco Giants ‘Destined To Have Trouble Keeping Up’ in Loaded NL West

The San Francisco Giants have been one of the most pleasant surprises in baseball during the 2025 MLB regular season.

Executives around the league have been impressed by their hot start and ability to keep pace in the daunting National League West.

Part of the reason people were down on the Giants coming into the campaign was the competition in their own division.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the defending World Series champions and favorites to repeat in 2025. The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks are both playoff teams with legitimate aspirations to contend.

Painfully mediocre the last few years, winning 80, 79 and 81 games in each of the last three seasons, new president of baseball operations Buster Posey had his work cut out for him.

A three-time World Series champion as a player, San Francisco hasn’t sniffed the postseason since he announced his retirement. Now he is back with the organization in a prominent front office spot looking to bring the team back to prominence.

However, there are some people who believe their hot start is merely a mirage and that the Giants will fall back to Earth sooner rather than later.

“When you factor in that there are three other teams in this division capable of competing for the World Series, it just seems like the Giants are destined to have trouble keeping up with the pack,” wrote Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report.

With a 24-18 record, the Giants are currently 3.5 games behind the 27-14 Dodgers and two games behind the 25-15 Padres. The Diamondbacks are two games behind San Francisco at 22-20.

To remain within arm’s reach, the Giants need their offense to produce more consistently.

Can Giants Keep Pace in Competitive NL West?

Center fielder Jung Hoo Lee is performing like an All-Star and Wilmer Flores has been knocking in runs at an incredible pace.

But their major free agent addition, Willy Adames, has gotten off to a slow start at the plate. More concerning is his continued drop-off defensively, as he is among the worst defensive players in baseball.

It is unfair to place the expectations of a team on one player, but San Francisco signed him to the largest deal in franchise history and are expecting more out of him.

He is far from the only player underwhelming offensively, but he has the most attention on him. Finding his groove would take a lot of pressure off of the other players on the team.